纵观20世纪,对马克斯·韦伯关于资本主义起源学说的争论始终是一大热点。在那个德美成为两大新兴经济超级大国的时代,韦伯认为,新教作为在这两个国家中占据主导地位的宗教,一定多少能提供关于这种经济成就的部分解释。韦伯的观点是,新教必然促进了一种节俭的伦理(与消费和负债的伦理相反)以及衍生的职业的伦理,这种最初只是精英阶层的特权的伦理逐渐在社会诸多其他部分中蔓延开来, Throughout the 20th century, the debate about Max Weber’s theory of the origin of capitalism has always been a hot issue. In the era when Germany and the United States became the two emerging economic superpowers, Weber argued that Protestantism, as the dominant religion in both countries, must provide some explanation of this economic success. Weber’s point of view is that Protestantism necessarily promotes a thrifty ethic (as opposed to the ethics of consumption and debt) and the ethics of derived professions that initially only spread the ethics of elitist elites into many other parts of society ,