Title: Capitalism as Religion: Walter Benjamin and Max Weber
Abstract: The fragment 'Capitalism as Religion'? written by Walter Benjamin in 1921 (and first published posthumously in the mid-1980s in his complete works) is one of his most intriguing - and 'hermetic'? - texts. Inspired by the works of Max Weber, which he cites, on the elective affinity between the Protestant Work Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism, Benjamin goes much further than Weber: not only does capitalism have religious origins, it's a religion in and of itself, a constant cult that is leading the world, sans merci, to the House of Despair. 'Capitalism as Religion'? is an anti-capitalist reading of Weber, of a piece with some of the writings of Georges Lukacs, Ernst Block and Erich Fromm.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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