March 13, 2006
NOBODY EXPECTS THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION:
Turkish toil brings new form of faith (Aasiya Lodhi, 3/12/06, BBC Radio 3)
Kayseri is one of a handful of cities industrialising at an astonishing rate in Anatolia, Turkey's central province and the country's Islamic heartland.Unlike the big urban centres of Ankara and Istanbul, the population is made up of devout, conservative Muslims.
Restaurants rarely serve alcohol, unmarried men and women don't mix on the streets, and there is little in the way of nightlife.
Yet the new entrepreneurialism sweeping across the province is providing an unlikely catalyst for a remarkable religious transformation.
A new form of Turkish Islam is emerging here, one which is pro-business and pro-free market, and it's being called Islamic Calvinism.
One of the first to use this description was the former mayor of Kayseri, Sukru Karatepe.
A softly-spoken man who taught sociology before entering politics, Karatape noticed striking similarities between the changes in Kayseri and the famous thesis of the German economist Max Weber, who argued that the strong work ethic of the Protestant movement gave birth to modern capitalism.
"I had read Weber, who'd written about how Calvinists work hard, save money and then reinvest it into business," he says.
"To me, it seemed very similar to what was happening in Kayseri.
"People in Kayseri also don't spend money unnecessarily. They work hard, they pride themselves on saving money. Then they invest it and make more money.
"In fact, in Kayseri, working hard is a form of worship. For them, religion is all about the here and now, not the next life. Making money is a sign of God's approval, and this is also similar to what Weber said about the Calvinists."
It is a view echoed by Gerald Knaus, director of the think-tank European Stability Initiative, which recently published a report on the Islamic Calvinist phenomenon in Anatolia.
"Those doing business in Kayseri themselves argue that Islam encourages them to be entrepreneurial," he says.
"They quote passages from the Quran and from the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad which read like a business manual. They tell me, it's important to create factories, to create jobs - it's what our religion tells us to do."
The label of Islamic Calvinism, however, has caused a furore in the Turkish press.
Critics say it's a Western conspiracy to Christianise Islam, but others have passionately argued in its favour, holding it up as a model for how Islam and modernity can co-exist.
One of its most prominent defenders has been Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Abdullah Gul, himself a native of Kayseri and the son of an entrepreneur.
As Brother Cohen often says, the Caliph lives in Washington. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2006 8:40 AM
I'm glad the Turks are developing a strong work ethic. It is one important step towards the modern world. But, there are others, including a free press, the liberation of women, etc.
Of course, Max Weber was wrong about the link between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism. Capitalism had already been born and fully developed centuries before Martin Luther and John Calvin -- It was born on the great monastic estates and fully developed in the Italian city-states before it moved north to Holland, etc. Scholars knew Weber was wrong at the time he wrote his monograph, but his conclusions fit popular prejudices, so his critics were ignored. For a nice summary of all this, see Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason."
Posted by: L. Rogers at March 13, 2006 9:55 AML:
Yes, Catholicism was important to the rise of capitalism, but Protestantism undergirds its victory and that of democracy.
Posted by: oj at March 13, 2006 10:10 AMIt won't be so easy to keep them down on the farm after they've seen teevee. Capitalism needs free people as well as free markets to flourish. Modern-day Moslems like this will bring Islam into the modern world.
Posted by: erp at March 13, 2006 10:36 AMoj:
How is that?
Ireland is pretty Catholic, and yet now that they are no longer under British rule, they earn more per capita than the British do and they have the most highly educated populace in Europe.
Poland is pretty Catholic and they are the most dynamic nation in the former Eastern Europe.
Stark points out that the important thing is Christianity, not Protestantism or Catholicism. But neither can do well under tyranny and statism. He cites a sociologist named Anthony Gill who has studied Latin America. Mr. Gill found that both Catholic and Protestant Latin Americans developed a great work ethic, once the political situation improved.
Posted by: L. Rogers at March 13, 2006 3:44 PML:
When they were Catholic they were impoverished, we've Reformed them and they're doing well.
Posted by: oj at March 13, 2006 3:50 PMoj:
Huh?
Medieval Italians (Catholics) in Milan, Venice, etc. were able to establish self-government in their city-states and then develop international banking and capitalism in general then grow immensely wealthy. Capitalism moved north to Holland, a place that also had a measure of popular government and freedom. Catholic Holland also did very well indeed until conquered by the Spanish. All this creativity and prosperity were accomplished without the benefit of Luther.
Ireland and Poland seem pretty Catholic to me today. Their improved lives have more to do with the lack of oppression by Protestant Britain and atheistic Communism than an injection of Protestantism.
Sorry, I don't buy it.
Posted by: L. Rogers at March 14, 2006 9:29 AML. You're right. The people may be Catholic, but their government is secular. Clerics aren't calling the shots anymore. Makes all the difference.
Posted by: erp at March 14, 2006 9:52 AML:
Yes, we Reformed Catholicism. Pope John Paul's encyclical Centssimus Annus represents the incorporation of Anglo-Americanism into the Church.
Posted by: oj at March 14, 2006 9:57 AMoj:
History is what it is.
But sorry, I still don't buy it for the reasons given above.
Popular government somehow managed to arise before the Reformation. Capitalism came in to full flower before the Reformation. Catholic Britain producedimprovements. etc., etc.
Posted by: L. Rogers at March 15, 2006 10:42 AMYes, Judeo-Christianity naturally leads to protestantism, capitalism and democracy. The Church resisted for obvious reasons and retarded the development of Catholic nations. It got over it.
Posted by: oj at March 15, 2006 10:46 AMOJ:
Oh, now I get it. How could I have failed to see it? It's so simple:
Protestantism - Good
Catholicism - Bad
Cute.
Posted by: L. Rogers at March 15, 2006 9:13 PML:
No. Catholicism good. Catholicism after Reformation by Anglo-American protestantism better.
Posted by: oj at March 15, 2006 10:39 PM