Saving the Protestant Ethic

Saving the Protestant Ethic by Andrew Lynn

Protestant orientations to work and economics have shaped wider American culture for several centuries. But not all strands of American Protestantism have elevated secular work to the highest echelons of spiritual significance. This book surveys the efforts of a religious movement within white Protestant fundamentalism and its neo-evangelical successors to "make work matter to God." Today, bearing the name the "faith and work movement," this effort puts on display the creative capacities of religious and lay leaders to adapt a faith system to the changing social-economic conditions of advanced capitalism. Building from the insights and theory of Max Weber, Andrew Lynn draws on archival research and interviews with movement leaders to survey and assess the surging number of new organizations, books, conferences, worship songs, seminary classes, vocational programming, and study groups promoting classically Protestant and Calvinist ideas of work and vocation. He traces these efforts back to early-twentieth-century business leaders and theologically trained leaders who saw a desperate need to foster a new "work ethic" among religious laity entering into professional, managerial, and creative class work. Leaders interviewed for the study recount the challenges of rerouting energies that were previously steered toward inward spirituality, cultural separatism, and proselytization. Through these interviews, Saving the Protestant Ethic captures ongoing in-group tensions and creative adaptation among American evangelicals as they navigate changing class and political dynamics that shape American society.

In these days when almost everything about American evangelicalism is controversial, this well-researched, fair-minded book about the evangelical 'faith and work' movement is a welcome contributionAndrew Lynn has provided a great deal for supporters of the movement, its critics, and all who worry about the moral malaise present in the marketplace to ponder. * Robert Wuthnow, author of Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy *
The faith at work movement is an ongoing and evolving social movement, not a flash in the pan or a passing fad. Andrew Lynn brings us a strong contribution to the growing number of scholarly studies of the surprisingly diverse nature of the faith at work movement. Lynn's provocatively titled Saving the Protestant Ethic focuses on and brings us fresh insights into the conservative evangelical Protestant wing of the movement, whose search for meaning and purpose drives their economic activity. * David W. Miller, Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative *
This brief summary surely fails to capture the depth and breadth of Lynn's extraordinary descriptive project. He does a masterful job of separating the different theological threads that are woven together by the faith and work movement and contextualizing them in socioeconomic terms. Adherents of re-integrating theology will find the portrait of themselves and their views recognizable...What Lynn's book demonstrates above all is that the faith and work movement has not fallen far from the creative class tree...No one wants to go back to the fundamentalist work ethic. Everyone wants their Monday to matter to God. * Charlie Clark, FareForward *
This book represents an impressive achievement, drawing on a multidisciplinary array of deft ethnographic interviews, attentive participant observations, profound understanding of emic group discourse, impressive historical primary sources, nimbly enhanced and refined sociological theory, and quantitative analysis. * Religious Studies Review *
Saving the Protestant Ethic explores the faith and work movement within contemporary American Evangelicalism...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *

Andrew Lynn is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His work spans organizational theory, religious studies, and the history of ideas surrounding ethics and economics. He received a PhD in Sociology from the University of Virginia.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780190066680
ISBN 10	0190066687
Titel	Saving the Protestant Ethic
Autor	Andrew Lynn
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Oxford University Press Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2023-07-06
Seitenanzahl	360
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar