Protestant ethic

noun

1. work ethic.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Protestant ethic¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Ever since German sociologist Max Weber penned his classic 1905 book "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," the Western World has accepted that Calvinist-influenced societies tend to associate hard work with both virtue and material success.

From Salon

American capitalism has come a long way since Max Weber, roughly 120 years ago, argued that it epitomized a “Protestant ethic,” which sanctified savings, investment and other productivity-enhancing deferrals of gratification.

From Washington Post

In his study “Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting,” the literary scholar James R. Kincaid writes: “Alger may have felt he was inculcating a Protestant ethic, but he seems to have exploited instead a pedophilic fairy tale, a narrative that runs at least as deep in America as Puritanism. It’s not hard work that brings success but being cute, cute in the presence of susceptible adults.”

From New York Times

Then, summoning the underdog spirit of Rocky Balboa and the Protestant ethic of Max Weber, he says: “I don’t forget those steps that it took for me to get here. So even though I got a family and I got all these commercials and these endorsements, I don’t forget the thing that makes all of those things possible. Which is the work, the discipline.”

From New York Times

Max Weber, in his quintessential treatise on Calvinist theology and capitalism, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” explains that the Puritans’ religious doctrine and social code were shaped by their core belief in predestination.

From Washington Post