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The Conception of a Calling in the German Literature of the Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

A. E. Sokol
A. E. Sokol*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Extract

It is not a matter of mere chance that the conception of a “calling” or “profession” is meeting with special interest in Germany. Several books have been written on the subject, some with the intention of showing that a better understanding of the idea of a “calling” would contribute considerably toward the building up of a new and improved social order. While thus practical and political interests are debating the problem, an attempt to reach the root of the question has been made by the German sociologist, Max Weber, who in his work Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism,1 undertook to answer the question, Why does Protestantism seem to be particularly congenial to the capitalistic type of civilization? According to him, it is the conception of a “calling” as a God-given task, developed by Luther and incorporated into Calvin's religious system, which is responsible for this fact. The word Beruf, English “calling,” itself in its present meaning, originated, he asserts, in Luther's translation of the Bible, and from that source it spread throughout the Germanic world.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 1935 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1935

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References

1 Max Weber, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by T. Parsons (New York, 1930); German edition: “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus,” Gesammelte Aufsäze zur Religionssoziologie (Tübingen, 1922).

2 Karl Dunkmann, Die Lehre vom Beruf (Berlin, 1922), p. 17 ff.

3 Work in general was scorned as fit only for slaves and as unworthy of a free citizen, who could occupy himself solely with affairs of government, war, or the arts. The slave naturally could not feel himself “called” into his forced labor. Neither was a strong community spirit possible on that basis, and thus another element of the definition as stated above was missing. Cf. Cicero, De officiis, i, 42, 110.

4 Cf. Wilhelm Dilthey, Weltanschauung und Analyse des Menschen seit der Renaissance und Reformation, Leipzig und Berlin, 1914.—Karl Dunkmann, Die Lehre vom Beruf, Berlin, 1922.—W. Endemann, Die nationalökonomischen Grundsätze der canonistischen Lehre, Jena, 1863.—Max Maurenbrecher, Thomas von Aquino's Stellung zum Wirtschaftsleben seiner Zeit, Leipzig, 1898.—Otto Gierke, Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht, 3. Bd. (Berlin, 1881), part of which in English translation: Political Theories of the Middle Ages, translated by F. W. Maitland, Cambridge, 1900.—Ernst Troeltsch,“Die Bedeutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der modernen Welt,” Historische Zeitschrift, Bd. 97 (München und Berlin, 1906); Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen, Gesammelte Schriften, 3. Aufl., Tübingen, 1923, English translation: The Social teachings of the Christian Churches, translated by Olive Wyon, 2 vols., London and New York, 1931.

5 Cf. especially Maurenbrecher, Thomas von Aquino's Stellung, pp. 38 ff.

6 This point of view is well illustrated in the following passage by the preacher David of Ausburg: “Wir sin uf dem wege des himelriches unde warten alle zit, wenne des weges ein ende si. Swer sich aber uf kurzen wec mit vil getreides ladet, der wirt e müede, e er den wec vol ge, unde muoz vil lihte under wegen beliben. Also wil du, daz din volgaere rincvertig sin uf dem wege und mit irdischen dingen niht überladen sin. Habent sie iht ze tragen, daz teilen mit ir geverten, die niht haben; so ist ir bürde ringer und sint sie selbe sneller unde koment deste vroelicher ze abende an die himelische herberge. …” Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, edited by Franz Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1845), i, 344, 25.

7 Berthold von Regensburg, Vollständige Ausgabe seiner Predigten, 2 vols., edited by Franz Pfeiffer and Josef Strobl, Wien, 1862; Die Predigten des Franziskaners Berthold von Regensburg, 4th ed., edited by Franz Göbel, Regensburg, 1906. It may be noted here that Berthold was a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas, and died two years before the latter. The correspondence in the views of both men shows how generally and widely the views discussed here were held during the middle ages.

8 Pfeiffer, Predigten, ii, 13, 36 ff.

9 Ibid., xxiv, 374, 2 ff.

10 Ibid., ii, 13, 11 ff.

11 Ibid., xiii, 478, 28 ff.

12 Ibid., xvii, 255, 18 ff.

13 Des Teufels Netz, edited by K. A. Barack (Bibl. des Litt. Vereins in Stuttgart, lxx, Stuttgart, 1863), p. 364.

14 Ibid., p. 363.

15 F. Pfeiffer, Predigten, xxiii, 361 ff.

16 Der Renner, von Hugo von Trimberg, edited by Gustav Ehrismann (Bibl. des Litt. Vereins in Stuttgart, ccxlvii, Tübingen, 1908), p. 92.

17 Des Teufels Netz, p. 46.

18 Meister Eckhart, edited by Franz Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1857), p. 12.

19 Ibid., p. 546.

20 Ibid., p. 381.

21 Ibid., p. 477.

22 Die Predigten Taulers, edited by Ferdinand Vetter (Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters, hsgb. von der Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. XI, Berlin, 1910), p. 189.

23 Ibid., p. 211.

24 Theologia deutsch, edited by Franz Pfeiffer, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1855), p. 232.

25 Die Predigten Taulers, p. 240 ff.

26 Cf. Karl Eger, Die Anschauungen Luthers vom Beruf. Ein Beitrag zur Ethik Luthers, Giessen, 1900.—K. Dunkmann, Die Lehre vom Beruf.—Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik.—Ernst Troeltsch, Die Bedeutung des Protestantismus; Soziallehren der chr-Kirchen.