Theological Revolution and the Idea of Equality

The transition in Europe from a predominantly agricultural society dominated by a landed aristocracy to an emerging commercial one with an expanding bourgeoisie gave birth to a reformulated expression of Christianity whose doctrines could better legitimate the new institutions and practices of commercial society. Whereas Catholicism provided an ideology that justified the landlords’ capture of economic surplus, Protestantism legitimated the emerging bourgeoisie’s ability to do the same. Protestantism’s privileging of work and asceticism afforded social respectability to the bourgeoisie and ideological support for its capturing a share of society’s surplus. It gave legitimacy to the harsh social treatment of a rising class of wage workers who had been separated from any ownership, control, or ready access to the means of production. Protestantism served as a transitional religion between a traditional agricultural world dominated by Catholic doctrine and a more modern commercial one dominated by secular thought.