Protestantism

===Thought and work ethic===
{{See also|Protestant work ethic}}
The Protestant concept of God and man allows believers to use all their God-given faculties, including the power of reason. That means that they are allowed to explore God's creation and, according to Genesis 2:15, make use of it in a responsible and sustainable way. Thus a cultural climate was created that greatly enhanced the development of the [[humanities]] and the [[sciences]].<ref>[[Gerhard Lenski]] (1963), ''The Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics, and Family Life'', Revised Edition, A Doubleday Anchor Book, Garden City, New York, pp. 348–351</ref> Another consequence of the Protestant understanding of man is that the believers, in gratitude for their election and redemption in Christ, are to follow God's commandments. Industry, frugality, calling, discipline, and a strong sense of responsibility are at the heart of their moral code.<ref>Cf. [[Robert Middlekauff]] (2005), ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-516247-9}}, p. 52</ref><ref>Jan Weerda, ''{{lang|de|Soziallehre des Calvinismus}}'', in ''{{lang|de|Evangelisches Soziallexikon}}'', 3. Auflage (1958), Stuttgart (Germany), col. 934</ref> In particular, Calvin rejected luxury. Therefore, craftsmen, industrialists, and other businessmen were able to reinvest the greater part of their profits in the most efficient machinery and the most modern production methods that were based on progress in the sciences and technology. As a result, productivity grew, which led to increased profits and enabled employers to pay higher wages. In this way, the economy, the sciences, and technology reinforced each other. The chance to participate in the economic success of technological inventions was a strong incentive to both inventors and investors.<ref>[[Eduard Heimann]], ''Kapitalismus'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band III (1959), Tübingen (Germany), col. 1136–1141</ref><ref>Hans Fritz Schwenkhagen, ''Technik'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage, col. 1029–1033</ref><ref>Georg Süßmann, ''{{lang|de|Naturwissenschaft und Christentum}}'', in ''{{lang|de|Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart}}'', 3. Auflage, Band IV, col. 1377–1382</ref><ref>C. Graf von Klinckowstroem, ''{{lang|de|Technik. Geschichtlich}}'', in ''{{lang|de|Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart}}'', 3. Auflage, Band VI, col. 664–667</ref> The [[Protestant work ethic]] was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated [[mass action (sociology)|mass action]] that influenced the development of [[capitalism]] and the [[Industrial Revolution]]. This idea is also known as the "Protestant ethic thesis".<ref name="SEP">{{cite web | url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/ | title=Max Weber | publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University | website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=Fall 2008 | access-date=21 August 2011 | author=Kim, Sung Ho | archive-date=27 May 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527021109/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

However, eminent historian [[Fernand Braudel]] (d. 1985), a leader of the important [[Annales School]] wrote, "all historians have opposed this tenuous theory [the Protestant Ethic], although they have not managed to be rid of it once and for all. Yet it is clearly false. The northern countries took over the place that earlier had been so long and brilliantly been occupied by the old capitalist centers of the Mediterranean. They invented nothing, either in technology or business management."<ref>Braudel, Fernand. 1977. Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopskins University Press.</ref> Social scientist [[Rodney Stark]] moreover comments that "during their critical period of economic development, these northern centers of capitalism were Catholic, not Protestant—the Reformation still lay well into the future",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/protestant-objections/protestant-modernity.html|title=Protestant Modernity|last=Manager|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=20 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120113716/https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/protestant-objections/protestant-modernity.html|url-status=live}}</ref> while British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (d. 2003) said, "The idea that large-scale industrial capitalism was ideologically impossible before the Reformation is exploded by the simple fact that it existed."<ref>Trevor-Roper. 2001. The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. Liberty Fund</ref>

In a [[factor analysis]] of the latest wave of [[World Values Survey]] data, [[Arno Tausch]] ([[Corvinus University of Budapest]]) found that Protestantism emerges to be very close to combining religion and the traditions of [[liberalism]]. The Global Value Development Index, calculated by Tausch, relies on the World Values Survey dimensions such as trust in the state of law, no support for shadow economy, postmaterial activism, support for democracy, a non-acceptance of violence, xenophobia and racism, trust in transnational capital and Universities, confidence in the market economy, supporting gender justice, and engaging in environmental activism, etc.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/63349.html|title=Towards new maps of global human values, based on World Values Survey (6) data|first=Arno|last=Tausch|date=31 March 2015|via=ideas.repec.org|journal=Mpra Paper|access-date=27 May 2015|archive-date=14 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214174710/https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/63349.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]] and [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)|Presbyterians]], as well as other [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASPs]], tend to be considerably wealthier<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS">{{cite news |author=B. Drummond Ayers Jr. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/us/the-episcopalians-an-american-elite-with-roots-going-back-to-jamestown.html |title=The Episcopalians: An American Elite with Roots Going Back To Jamestown |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=19 December 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612230306/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/us/the-episcopalians-an-american-elite-with-roots-going-back-to-jamestown.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and better educated (having [[Academic degree|graduate]] and [[post-graduate]] degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in [[United States]],<ref>Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP – From Sociological Concept to Epithet", ''Ethnicity'', 1975 154+</ref> and are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American [[business]],<ref>{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Hacker |title=Liberal Democracy and Social Control |journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |year=1957 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=1009–1026 [p. 1011] |doi=10.2307/1952449 |jstor=1952449|s2cid=146933599 }}</ref> [[law]] and [[politics]], especially the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Baltzell |title=The Protestant Establishment |url=https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich |year=1964 |page=[https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich/page/9 9]|publisher=New York, Random House }}</ref> Numbers of the most [[Old money|wealthy and affluent American families]] as the [[Vanderbilts]], the [[Astor family|Astors]], [[Rockefeller family|Rockefellers]], [[Du Pont family|Du Ponts]], [[Roosevelt family|Roosevelts]], [[Forbes family|Forbes]], [[Ford family|Fords]], [[Whitney family|Whitneys]], [[Mellon family|Mellons]], the [[Morgan family|Morgans]] and Harrimans are [[Mainline Protestant]] families.<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression|first=Peter|last= W. Williams|year= 2016| isbn= 978-1469626987| page =176|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|quote=The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.}}</ref>