Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Author(s): Ferdinand Toennies, Georg Simmel, Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber
Source: Sociological Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Summer, 1973), pp. 140-149
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3709720 .
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Introduction
The followingdiscussionby Max Weberon church,sect, and mysticismoffersan
exceptional example of the differentways which four of the greatest German
sociologistsrelated to key issues in the domains of the sociology of religionand the
forms of religiosityin the course of a colloquy held at the first meetingof the
German Sociological Society (Deutsche GesellschaftfurSoziologie) at Frankfurtin
1910. The chief themesat issue in their colloquy, though not always so plainly
stated, were the varied patterns of relations of churches, sects, mysticisms,
rationalisms,rationalizations,and secularizationson the roads to modernity.
The main participantsin the colloquium wereErnst Troeltsch,who initiatedthe
discussionby offeringan historicpaper on Stoic-Christian
naturallaw;2 Ferdinand
Toennies, Georg Simmel, and Weber himself. (A fifth man who figured in the
backgroundof these discussionsbut was not named by any of the discussantswas
Weber'sclose friend,GeorgJellinek,about whose seminalresearchwe shall speak in
an essay on this colloquy now in preparation.3) Weshall therewish to focus on the
outcomes of Weber's interactionsand exchanges with the others in the hope of
identifyingdistinctivecontributionshe and the others, especially Troeltsch (and
Jellinek), made to a wider processual and comparative-historical
sociology of
religious orientations and movements than is usually ascribed to these men
nowadays by specialistsin thesociology of religion.(BN)
140
141
I
Honored guests!I wish to say somethingabout the points raised by
ProfessorToennies in his remarks.*With respect to the subject we are
discussing,Toennies has-to a considerabledegree-avowedhimselfto be a
of history(an expressionwe prefer
supporterof theeconomicinterpretation
of history").One can probablysuminplace ofthe"materialist
interpretation
marizehis conceptionas a whole by meansof a modernexpressionwhichis
frequently
used but not withentireclarity,namely:thatthereligiouscontradictionswhichwerediscussedin thelecturewere"exponentialfunctions"of
therecannotbe the
or other.Now gentlemen,
some economiccontradictions
enterdeeplyhere,as everywhere.
slightestdoubt thateconomicrelationships
And my colleague and friendTroeltschhas, in his well known works,
directed our attention in the most forcefulmanner to the economic
relationshipsand conditionsof specificreligiousdevelopments.But one
ought not to think of this developmentquite so simply.I believe that
perhaps,ultimately,I agreewithToennieson manythings.But withrespect
to what he has said,at leastin some of his remarks,thereis an attemptat an
all too rigidlystraight
construction.
ProfessorToennies:For the timebeing!
ProfessorMax Weber:If I have understoodhim (Toennies) correctly,
he
has emphasized the relationshipof the religioussects to the city in
particular.Now, gentlemen,the firstspecificsect, the model sect so to
speak, the Donatist sect in antiquity4
-originated on purely agricultural
The characteristic
territory.
featureof thissect,like everysect,was manifest
in the factthatit could not remainsatisfiedwiththe Christianchurchas a
kind of entailed endowmentof grace, a church indifferent
as to which
personbestowedthisgracein sacraments,
and thusindifferent
to whetheror
not the priestwas worthy.The churchadministered
magicaland marvelous
forceswhich it dispensedas an institution,
completelyindependentof the
indwellingworthinessof the individual.Donatism turnsagainst this. It
demandsthatif the priestis to be recognizedas a priestby his congregation,
he should fullyembody his religiousqualificationsin his personalityand
mode of life.If one wishesto make a conceptualdistinction
betweena sect
and a church,a sect is not an institution(Anstadt) like a church,but a
communityof the religiouslyqualified. All the membersof the sect are
called to salvation;only a communitycomprisedin this way-which also
existed as an invisible church in the thought of Luther, Calvin, and
Augustine-passesoverintothevisiblechurch.
*Toennies,as a commentatoron the Troeltsch lecture,was the firstspeaker precedingWeberat the
GermanSociological meeting.(Tr.'s note.)
4Research since Weber's day has confirmedhis emphasis on the ruralbackgroundsof the Donatist
opposition to the so-calledOrthodox.On thisextremelyimportantsect,see W.H. Frend,The Donatist
Church:A Movementof Protestin Roman NorthAfrica(Oxford: ClarendonPress,1952).
142
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Everything
whicharose laterfromsects is linkedin thedecisivepointsto
the demand for purity,the ecclesia pura-a communityconsistingonly of
those memberswhose mode of conduct and life styledo not carrypublic
signsof heavenlydisfavour,but proclaimthegloryof God. The churches,in
contrast,permit their light to shine on the just and the unjust alike,
accordingto the Calvinistand theCatholic,as well as the Lutherandoctrine.
forexample,it is the
Accordingto the Calvinistdoctrineof predestination,
church's task to coerce even those who are irredeemablydamned to all
eternity,into externalconformityto the church.The formationof the
"isect"typeof communityoccursfirst,as was said,outsidethecity.
Now, what was the situationoutside antiquity?ProfessorToennies has
ascribed responsibilityfor the kind of developmenttypical of medieval
Christianityto the simplicityof circumstancesin the agriculturalmiddle
ages. He has stressedthattheconceptionof churchwas fractured
in thecity,
partlyin favorof a purelyworldly,or at least, the pure worldlinessof a
self-developing
rationalism,partlyin favorof the sect principle(I simplify
what he said withoutfalsification,
perhapswithhis agreement).Againstthis
view it can be ascertainedthat the power of thepapacyresteddirectly(and
by no meansmerelypolitically)upon the cities.The Italiancitiessupported
the pope in oppositionto thefeudalforces.The Italianguildsweregenerally
the most Catholic ones anywhereduringthe period of the greatconflicts.
Saint Thomas and the mendicantorderswere not possibleon any territory
otherthan that of thecity,simplybecause the orderslivedby begging.They
could not liveamongfarmers
who turnedbeggarsaway fromtheirdoor.
ProfessorToennies:They revoltedagainsttheBenedictineorder.
ProfessorMax Weber:Certainly,but fromthe territory
of the city.The
most intenselychargedthoughtsof the church,as well as thoseof thesects
(both, the highestformsof piety) are firstupon cityterritory
in themiddle
ages. . .
ProfessorToennies(interrupting
the speaker): The Franciscanshave very
to the sects!
importantrelationships
ProfessorMax Weber:Undoubtedly,thereis no questionof that.But not
the Dominicans,and I merelystate here that the Christianization
of the
middleages by the churcheswas firstcompletedaftertherewerecities.The
church form and its natural law, as well as the sect form and their
were firstdiscoveredon the territory
flourishing,
of the city.Thus I would
not concede that thereis a fundamentaldistinctionto be made here.The
idea that Protestantismwas really the form in which Christianpiety
accommodateditselfto the modernmoney economy has been advocated
endlessly.In quite the same way it has been supposed thatRoman law was
only accepted as a consequenceof the relationships
of the modernmoney
economy.But in strongcontrastto thesepositionsis the factthat-without
exception-all specificformsof capitalistlaw in moderntimesoriginatein
medieval law (directlyGermanic,for the most part),and are completely
143
144
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
145
unforgettable belief that brotherly love and charity, those special human
relationshipswhich the great salvation religionshave transfigured(and which
seem so pallid among us), that these relationships form a way not only to
some social effects that are entirely incidental, but to a knowledge of the
meaning of the world, to a mystical relationship to God. It is known how
Tolstoy came to termswith this mysticalbelief.
Generally speaking, if you wish to understandRussian literaturein its full
greatness,then you must regard the mystical as the substratumupon which
everything is built. When one reads Russian novels like The Brothers
Karamazov by Dostoevsky, for example, or Tolstoy's Warand Peace, one has
the impression,above all, of the total meaninglessnessof events, a senseless
promiscuity of passions. This effectis absolutely not accidental. It does not
merely rest upon the fact that all these novels were writtenfor newspapers,
and when they were begun the author had no suspicion of how they would
end (as was the case with Dumas). Rather the cause lies in the secret
conviction that the political, social, ethical, literary,artistic,and familially
shaped life is really meaninglessin contrastto the substratumwhich extends
beneath it, and which is shown and embodied in the specific forms of
Russian literature.This, however, is extraordinarilydifficultfor us to grasp
because it rests upon the simple classical Christian idea which Baudelaire
calls the "holy prostitutionof the soul," the love of our fellow creature,i.e.,
anyone at all no matter who he may be, even the second-best. That it is this
amorphous unshaped life-relationshipthat grants access to the gates of the
eternal, timeless, and divine.' The artistic unity of these productions of
Russian literature,which we customarilyfail to see, the formingprincipleof
their greatest works lies on the reverse side of what is obtained through
reading. It lies in the gravitationof the person, in his behavior, toward the
spiritualextremes,the antipodes, this man whose acts appear to occur on the
world's stage. And that is the result of Russian religiosity.From this acosmic
quality, characteristicof all Russian religiosity,is derived a specific kind of
natural rightwhich is stamped upon the Russian sects and also on Tolstoy.
In addition it is supported by that agrarian communism which still servesas
divine law directing the peasant in the regulation of his social interests.I
cannot detail the matter thoroughly now. But all fundamental ideals of
people like W. L. Solovjev go back to that basis. Solovjev's specific concept
of the church, in particular,rests on it. The concept rests on "community"
(in Toennies sense), not on "society."
I wish to point out one thing in the short time remaining.In his lecture
our colleague Troeltsch treated the contrasts between church, sect, mysti-
146
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
147
experience shows that America was the most pious country (measured not
only quantitativelybut qualitatively) until the threshholdof this century.It
did not know a state church for the longest time and Christianitygenerally
took on the form of the sects. If I am not mistaken, in the middle of the
1890's only 5% of the American population did not officiallybelong to a
religious community. And membership in a religious society costs unbelievably more in America than with us. It costs something even for those
who lack the means. It costs the worker who emigrated from Germany to
America (and with whom by chance I became acquainted in the region of
Buffalo) 1,800 marks, yearly revenue payments to the church of 100 marks,
quite apart from the collections and so forth.Try to find a German worker
who would pay as much for any church community, any at all. Precisely
because there (in America) the religious type is the sect type, the religionis a
national (Volk) affair. Because the sect type is not universal but exclusive,
and because its exclusiveness offers definite privileges inwardly and
externally to its supporters, the real place of Christian universalism is,
therefore,in effectivemembership in a religious community there and not,
as in Germany, among the Christians in name only, where a part of the
well-to-do pay all the taxes for the church-"to preserve religion for the
people"-and, otherwise are happy if they don't have to have anythingmore
to do with the matter. The only reason they don't leave the church is
because the consequences for advancement and for all other possible social
prospects would be disagreeable.
III
I wish to say only a few words about Simmel's remarks.* The question
concerning the genuine meaning of Christian religiosity is not up for
discussion today. Nevertheless,we have certainlybeen happy to receive these
arguments.Since they have been partlydirected against me, I shall therefore
permitmyselfto reply briefly.
Having entirely conceded the thesis that in accordance with the
metaphysical meaning of Christianity,nothing might be placed between the
soul and its god, these matters,the empirical relationshipswhich sociology is
concerned with, stand as follows. Every devoutly pious soul, even the
majority of the religious among the highly resolved souls in primitive
Christianityand in all times of religious excitement, these souls must feel
that they really had been standing face to face with their god, and not
somethingelse, to be able in any fashion to enjoy assurance (in faith) in their
everyday lives, that is, to have the "certitude salutis." This certitude can be
148
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
149
from
it has been raisedby all sides,even the most extreme,and therefore,
namely:
the religiousstandpoint,perhapsthe highest,formsof mysticism,
How, throughwhat medium,does the individualbecome certain of his
relationship
to theeternal?
ProfessorSimmel:Reason!
withoutdoubt,it
ProfessorMax Weber:That is entirelycorrect.Certainly,
not a real ground(Realis merelya cognitiveground(Erkenntnisgrund),
grund)forbliss.