Max Weber_The Sociology of Religion

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Zoroastrianism, particularly in the oldest Gathas by the founder himself, which depict the judge of all
the dead balancing the guilt and merit of individual actions in a very precise bookkeeping and
determining the religious destiny of the individual person according to the outcome of this accounting.
This notion appears among the Hindus in an even more heightened form, as a consequence of the
doctrine of karma. It is held that within the ethical mechanism of the world not a single good or evil
action can ever be lost. Each action, being ineradicable, must necessarily produce, by an almost
automatic process, inevitable consequences in this life or in some future rebirth. This principle of life-
accounting also remained the basic standpoint of popular Judaism regarding the individual's relationship
to God. Finally, Roman Catholicism and the oriental Christian churches held views very close to this, at
least in practice. The intention (intentio), according to the ethical evaluation of behavior in Catholicism,
is not really a quality of unified personality, in which action is an expression. Rather, it is the concrete
intent (somewhat in the sense of the good faith (bona fides), bad faith (mala fides), intentional damage
(culpa), and unintentional damage (dolus) of the Roman law) of a particular action. This view, when
consistently maintained, avoids the yearning for "rebirth" in the strict sense of an ethic of heart. A result
is that the conduct of life remains an immethodical and miscellaneous succession of discrete actions.
(G.4.b) Total Personality
The second type of systematization of an ethic of good works treats individual actions as symptoms and
expressions of an underlying ethical total personality. It is instructive to recall the attitude of the more
rigorous Spartans toward a comrade who had fallen in battle in order to atone for an earlier
manifestation of cowardice, a kind of "redeeming duel" as practiced by German fraternities. They did
not regard him as having rehabilitated his ethical status, since he had acted bravely for a specific reason
and not "out of the totality of his personality," as we would term it. In the religious sphere too, formal
sanctification by the good works shown in external actions is supplanted by the value of the total
habituation of personality, which in the Spartan example would be an habituated attitude of heroism. A
similar principle applies to social achievements of all sorts. If they demonstrate "love for one's
neighbors," then ethical systematization of this kind requires that the actor possess the charisma of
"goodness." In any cases, an individual action is a mere "symptom" of the total character and that no
significance be attached to it when it is a result of "accident." Thus, this ethic of heart, in its most highly
systematized character, may make increased demands at the standard of the total personality and yet be
more tolerant in regard to single transgressions. But this is not always the case, and the ethic of heart is
generally the most distinctive type of ethical rigorism. Thereby the total habituation of positive religious
qualifications may be regarded as a divine gift, the presence of which will manifest itself in a general
orientation to whatever is demanded by religion, namely a methodically unified conduct of life. Or, on
the contrary, the total habituation may be, in principle, acquired by "training" in goodness. Of course this
training itself will consist of a rationalized, methodical direction of the total conduct of life, and not an
accumulation of single, unrelated actions.
In both types of systematization, practical result is very similar. Yet, in the methodical habituation of
total personality, the social and ethical quality of actions falls into secondary importance, while the
religious effort upon oneself becomes of primary importance. Consequently, religiously qualified and
socially oriented good works become mere instruments of self-perfection: a "methodology of
sanctification."
(G.5) Salvation By Self-perfection
(G.5.a) Animistic Methodology
The "methodology" of sanctification, at first, knows no ethical religiosity. On the contrary, it frequently
played significant roles in the awakening of charismatic rebirth which promised the acquisition of
magical powers. This animistic use of the methodology entailed belief in the incarnation of a new soul
within one's own body, the possession of one's soul by a powerful demon, or the removal of one's soul to
a realm of spirits. In all cases the possibility of attaining superhuman actions and powers was involved.
"Other-worldly" goals were of course completely lacking in all this. What is more, this capacity for
ecstasy might be used for the most diverse purposes. Thus, only by acquiring a new soul through rebirth
can the warrior achieve superhuman deeds of heroism. The original sense of "rebirth" as producing
either a hero or a magician remains present in all initiation ceremonies, for example, the reception of
youth into the religious brotherhood of the phratry and their ornaments with the equipment of war, or the
decoration of youth with the insignia of manhood in China and India (where the members of the higher
castes are termed the "twice-born"). All these ceremonies were originally associated with activities
which produced or symbolized ecstasy, and the purpose of the associated training is the testing or
awakening of the capacity for ecstasy.
(G.5.b) Induction of Ecstasy [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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