Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy. 1994
Chapter 9 Connections between formal rationality and charismatic domination over and through free
men: the continuing role of magic in the construction of impersonal patriarchal fraternities; from
Ständestaat to revolution
166
The religious virtuoso can choose to withdraw from this world; Weber calls this choice
'weltablehnende Askese', 'world-rejecting asceticism'. Yet he also defines a different way of
dealing with the world and its temptations: the 'innerweltliche Askese', 'inner-worldly
asceticism', which strives for salvation by 'participation within the world (or more precisely:
within the institutions of the world but in opposition to them)'. The 'religious virtuoso' in this
case can become a 'rational reformer or revolutionary on the basis of a theory of natural
rights.'
43
According to Weber this kind of virtuoso, however, sooner or later experiences the
consequences of 'differences in religious endowment'
44
. In this case he can still prove his
charisma within the world by means of rational ethical and economic conduct. To change the
order of the world 'becomes for him a "vocation"'.
45
Forbidden as 'worldly' is all enjoyment of
wealth, every surfeit of emotional feeling for human beings, all eroticism, all violence of the
individual against human beings based on personal motives, all 'personal worldly lust for
power'. Sacred, on the other hand, are 'rationally ethically ordered, in strict legality conducted
economic activity', the production of children within marriage, rational repression by the
purposely ordered state and 'the domination of the rational order of the law'.
46
concentration on active achievements leading to salvation.' ES p. 542, WG p. 328/9.
43
'In this case the world is presented to the religious virtuoso as his responsibility. He may have the obligation to
transform the world in accordance with his ascetic ideals, in which case the ascetic will become a rational
reformer or revolutionary on the basis of a theory of natural rights.' ES p. 542, WG p. 329.
44
ES p. 543, WG p. 529; see also ES p. 539, WG p. 327: 'That people differ widely in their religious capacities
was found to be true in every religion based on a systematic procedure of sanctification
(-)'; Weber thus presents this kind of 'charisma' as a kind of separate personality characteristic.
45
'Hence, as the field provided for this active certification, the order of the world in which the ascetic is situated
becomes for him a "vocation" which he must "fulfill" rationally.' ES p. 543, WG p. 329.
46
'*Forbidden thus is the enjoyment of wealth - "vocation" though [is] the r a t i o n a l l y ethically ordered, in strict
legality conducted economic activity, the results of which, thus: gain, manifests god's blessing upon the labor of
the pious man and of god's pleasure with his economic pattern of life.'''*Forbidden is every surfeit of emotional
feeling for human beings, as being an expression of a deification of the creaturely, which denies the unique value
of the divine gift of grace - "vocation" though [is] the rational sober participation in the labor at the objective
(sachliche) goals of the
rational purposive orderings (Zweckverbände) of the world, which are set by god's creation. Forbidden is
eroticism which deifies the creaturely, - vocation divinely enjoined to "soberly produce children" (as the Puritans
expressed it) within marriage. Forbidden is violence of the individual against human beings, for reasons of
passions or revenge, from any personal motives - divinely enjoined the rational suppression and chastising in the
purposely ordered state. Forbidden is personal worldly lust for power al deification of the creaturely - divinely
enjoined the domination of the rational order of the law. The "inner-worldly ascetic" is a rationalist as well in the
sense of rational systematization of his only personal way of life, as well in the sense of the rejection of
everything that is ethically irrational, be it of the artistic, be it of the personally emotional, within the world and its
orderings. Always though the specific purpose remains above all: the "alert" methodical domination of the own
way of life. In the first place, but varying in its consequences in its different branches, ascetic Protestantism,
which knew the proving of religious merit within the orderings of the world as the only proof of the religious
qualification, belonged to this type of "inner-worldly asceticism.'' ES p. 543/544, WG p. 329/330. The translators,
who in the Introduction conceded that their team lacked a 'third man', 'a stylist in the language of translation'( ES
p. CIX), here have seriously impaired the prophetic rhythm of Weber's sentences, which all begin with the word
'verpönt', 'forbidden under penalty of punishment'. I have therefore translated these difficult sentences in a more
literal way.
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