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Labor and Industry
United Communities of Spirit
An important practical function of religion is to encourage the
virtues that make for economic success, such as: industry, frugality,
concern for home and family, delay of gratification for a future goal,
honesty in one's dealings, and perseverance in an undertaking. In addition,
religion should give positive value to worldly success and the
labor required to become prosperous. Max Weber's well-known thesis on the
rise of capitalism credits the Calvinist Protestant ethic with the rise of
capitalism in the West by encouraging believers to interpret their success
as a sign of God's favor. He doubted that modern industrial societies
could arise in people of other religions. Today, however, it is imperative
that the wealth of Western capitalism be shared by all peoples, and
this requires that every society develop its own industrial base. And
indeed, as the economic rise of the Confucian-based societies of East Asia
proves, other religions also possess--or potentially can develop--the
foundations necessary to support the development of a modern industrial
society.
We give a few texts from scriptures which support industry and
value the accumulation of wealth. They approve of honest work as its own
reward, condemning sloth, laziness, and profligacy. But labor is even
more sanctified if its wealth, once accumulated and enjoyed, is then
devoted to charitable and public ends. Philanthropy is the logical end of
capitalist accumulation, and one of its most important religious justifications.
Interfaith passages at: origin.org/ucs/ws/theme147.cfm
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