Translation of and Analysis on Some Chapters of Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion

Sociology of religion is considered a part of the vast field of sociology. Prominent pioneer sociologists such as Carl Marx, Emil Durkheim and particularly Max Weber regard sociology of religion as having a specific importance and presented novel ideas in the field. Max Weber, the German sociologist of the nineteenth century, is of the most influential scientists of sociology. In spite of the current sociology, Weber’s is that of religions, not focusing on the mere religion, but rather attempting to concentrate on the sociology of some specific religions though. Sociology of religion of Weber has thus played an intermediary role between the sociology of religion and the theology of religions. According to Weber, a sociologist’s work is not to study the very essence of the phenomenon of religion, but the religious behaviour. Weber’s methodology in sociology of religion is comprehensive. In his view, it is possible to comprehend religious behaviour only through understanding the experiences in religion, beliefs and aims of individuals, and the important point here is to understand the effect the religious behaviour exerts on other behaviours: moral, economic, political or artistic. Thus, the sociological researches of Weber on religion are simultaneously those on economical, moral or political as well. He has done numerous studies on various religions including Judaism and Christianity, the religions of the subcontinent and the Far East as well as Islam. Weber’s The Sociology of Religion is of the most important works in the sociology of religion. Studying different cultures and religion, the theme of the book is to set the limits of the influence of religion upon the economical and social life. Weber’s aim of his sociological studies around religion was to provide an answer to the question as to what the role of religion has been in changing the social system. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he examines this role in Protestantism and comes to the conclusion that the mind of a religious active man has managed to produce such a change and in Sociology of Religion is trying to find the answer to the question within other religions. Ultimately, he concludes that many of the manifestations of capitalism do not exist in non-Western civilizations and Western capitalism has developed nowhere out of Western civilization, for which, by repetitive references, he benefits from the teachings of western and eastern religions.