The implications of Catholic and Protestant cultures in societies

Pol Serrano

We had discussed in the previous class the implications between the protestant morale and the efficiency of the administration and economic growth. We saw the protestant culture as a different worldview. Mainly, a worldview differentiated to the Catholic one. Catholic countries popularly labeled as the lazy countries with its popular laid-back atmosphere and highly corrupt societies. On the other hand, the stereotype of protestant states are hard working societies, having a high civic virtue like low levels of corruption and high quality democracies. Nowadays, the catholic countries are labeled as PIGS, nevertheless, on the other hand there is successful countries like Denmark, Germany, and in some way the UK.

However, we have to wonder if those assumptions are true, and if there is any correlation between religion roots and culture. First, from a theological perspective, Catholicism tends to be more tolerant on the sins of their believers. The Roman Catholic Church assured salvation to individuals who accepted the church's sacraments and submitted to the clerical. Henceforth, salvation came easily from the fidelity to the hierarchy than following the bible mandates. Maybe this system paved the road to double standards and the classical picaresque. And from the double standards the discipline was lost. 

Notwithstanding, the Reformation had effectively removed such assurances. According to the new Protestant branches, an individual was religiously compelled to follow a secular vocation with as much zeal as possible. A person living according to this worldview was more likely to accumulate money. The new Christian branches, (in particular, Calvinism and other more austere Protestant sects) effectively forbade wastefully using hard-earned money, and identified the purchase of luxuries as a sin. Donations to an individual's church or congregation were limited due to the rejection by certain Protestant sects of icons. Finally, donation of money to the poor or to charity was generally frowned upon as it was seen as fostering beggary. This social condition was perceived as laziness, burdening their fellow man, and an affront to God; by not working, one failed to glorify God.

The reformation though implied that religion was not anymore in the power of the state, or at list, the lack of an organized hierarchy allowed states to develop policy apart from religious morale; namely, going from affectivity to effectiveness. For Tocqueville, “the best means of doing so was the separation of Church and State, as practiced in America. A government-sponsored religion risked the discredit of religion once the government became unpopular, as all governments must in time.” That implied that no citizen had to have any sort of worship, but also that religion were not conditioning any more governments and policy. Like E.H. Carr quotes in his book The Twenty Years’ Crises, the view of the nineteenth-century liberal German pastor who argued that ‘We do not consult Jesus when we are concerned with things which belong to the domain of the construction of the state and political economy’. Therefore, when the protestant reform broke, religion was held in the private sphere and the will of the people was the responsible. Notwithstanding this Christian relegation, the Calvinist culture of hard work was transmitted to the culture and remained as a heritage in the European secularized society.

When the separation of morals and politics (and economics, law and so forth) comes, there is no dogma attached to a determined idea. Hence, it is less common in those countries to have an emotional approach to determined policies. 

My main conclusion is that there is a tendency toward economic growth and demoralization toward politics in “reformed” societies. However, the United States is founded based on the secularized state and Protestantism, politics are highly ideological. Henceforth, the correlation between hard work and Protestantism is quite strong, but the correlation among morals and politics is not as strong.