Weber’s Protestant Ethic Thesis in Five Steps

Abstract

As a result of many years of reading about and teaching Max Weber’s famous Protestant Ethic thesis, I have developed an approach to covering this material in both my undergraduate and graduate theory courses which has been beneficial to students and has helped them make sense of the rather complex argument developed by Weber. I provide a working model of all such scholarly inquires geared off the Science Triad, culminating in a five-step approach to organizing and explaining the Weber thesis. In addition, I provide an annotated bibliography of selected scholarly ruminations on Weber’s work in general and the Protestant Ethic thesis in particular.