Max Weber The Sociology of Religion, Socjologia
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Max Weber
The Sociology of Religion
(A) ORIGINS OF RELIGION
(A.1) Primordial Notions Of Religion
(A.1.a) Viewpoint
It is not possible to define religion, to say what it "is," at the start of a presentation such as this.
Definition can be attempted, if at all, only at the conclusion of the study. The "essence" of religion is not
even our concern, as we make it our task to study the conditions and effects of a particular type of social
action. The external courses of religious behavior are so diverse that an understanding of this behavior
can only be achieved from the viewpoint of the subjective experiences, notion, and purposes of the
individuals concerned--in short, from the viewpoint of the religious behavior's "meaning."
(A.1.b) This-worldly Orientation
The most elementary forms of religiously or magically motivated action are oriented to this world. "That
it may go well with you . . . And that you may prolong your days upon the earth" [1] shows the
motivation of religiously or magically commanded actions. Even human sacrifices, although uncommon
among urban peoples, were performed in the Phoenician maritime cities without any other-worldly
expectations whatsoever. Furthermore, religiously or magically motivated action is relatively rational
action, especially in its earliest forms. It follows rules of experience, though it is not necessarily action
in accordance with means-end rationality. Rubbing will elicit sparks from pieces of wood, and in like
fashion the mimetic actions of a "magician" will evoke rain from the heavens. The sparks resulting from
twirling the wooden sticks are as much a "magical" effect as the rain evoked by the manipulations of the
rainmaker. Thus, religious or magical action or thinking must not be set apart from the range of
everyday purposive action, particularly since the elementary ends of the religious and magical actions
are predominantly economic.
(A.1.c) Magic
Only we, judging from the standpoint of our modem views of nature, can distinguish objectively in such
behavior those attributions of causality which are "correct" from those which are "incorrect," and then
designate the incorrect attributions of causality as irrational, and the corresponding acts as "magic."
Quite a different distinction will be made by the person performing the magical act, who will instead
distinguish between the greater or lesser ordinariness of the phenomena in question. For example, not
every stone can serve as a fetish, a source of magical power. Nor does every person have the capacity to
achieve the ecstatic states which are viewed, accordance to rules of experience, as the pre-conditions for
producing certain effects in meteorology, healing, divination, and telepathy. It is primarily, though not
exclusively, these extraordinary powers that have been designated by such special terms as "Mana,"
"Orenda," and the Iranian "Maga" (the term from which our word "magic" is derived). We shall
henceforth employ the term "charisma" for such extraordinary powers.
(A.1.d) Charisma
Charisma may be either of two types. Where this term is fully served, charisma is a gift that inheres in
an object or person simply by natural endowment. Such primary charisma cannot be acquired by any
means. But charisma of the other type may be produced artificially in an object or person through some
extraordinary means. Even then, it is assumed that charismatic capability can be developed only in
which the germ already existed but would have remained dormant unless "awakened" by some ascetic or
other means. Thus, even at the earliest stage of religious development there were already present all
forms of the doctrine of religious grace, from that of absolute grace to grace by good works. The
strongly naturalistic notion (lately termed "pre-animistic") of charisma is still a feature of folk religion.
To this day, no decision of church councils, differentiating the "worship" of God from the "adoration" of
the icons of saints, and defining the icons as merely a devotional means, has succeeded in deterring a
south European from spitting in front of the statue of a saint when s/he holds it responsible for
withholding an anticipated result even though the customary procedures were performed.
(A.1.e) Belief in Spirits
A process of abstraction, which only appears to be simple, has usually already been carried out in the
most primitive instances of religious behavior. Already crystallized is the notion that certain beings are
concealed "behind" and responsible for the activity of the charismatically endowed natural objects,
artifacts, animals, or persons. This is the belief in spirits. At the outset, "spirit" is neither soul, demon,
nor god, but something indeterminate, material yet invisible, impersonal and yet somehow endowed
with will. By entering into a concrete object, spirit endows the latter with its distinctive power. The spirit
may depart from its host or vessel, leaving the latter inoperative and causing the magician's charisma to
fail. In other cases, the spirit may diminish into nothingness, or it may enter into another person or
object. That any particular economic conditions are prerequisites for the emergence of a belief in spirits
does not appear to be demonstrable. But belief in spirits, like all abstraction, is most prevailed in those
societies within which certain persons possess charismatic "magical" powers that were held only by
those with special qualifications. Indeed it is this circumstance that lays the foundation for the oldest of
all "vocations," that of the professional magician.
(A.1.f) Ecstasy and Orgy
In contrast to the ordinary person, the "layperson" in the magical sense, the magician is endowed with
enduring charisma. In particular, the magician undertake, as the object of an "enterprise," to evoke
ecstasy: the psychic state that represents or meditates charisma. For the layperson, in contrast to rational
action of the magician, ecstasy is accessible only in occasional actions and occurs in the from of orgy:
the primitive form of communal action. But the orgy is an occasional activity, whereas the enterprise of
the magician is continuous and he is indispensable for its operation. Because of the demands of everyday
life, the layperson can experience ecstasy only occasionally, as intoxication. To induce ecstasy, one may
employ any type of alcoholic beverage, tobacco, or similar narcotics and especially music--all of which
originally served orgiastic purposes. Besides the rational manipulation of spirits for economic interests,
ecstasy became the another important object of the "enterprise" of the magician, though historically
secondary, which, naturally developed almost everywhere into the art of secret lore.
(A.1.g) Soul and Supernatural Power
On the basis of the experience with the conditions of orgies, and in all likelihood under the influence of
his professional practice, there evolved the concept of "soul" as a separate entity present in, behind or
near natural objects, even as the human body contains something that leaves it in dream, loss of
consciousness, ecstasy, or death. This is not the place to treat extensively the diversity of possible
relationships between spiritual beings and the objects behind which they lurk and with which they are
somehow connected. These spirits or souls may "dwell" more or less continuously and exclusively near
or within a concrete object or process. Or, they may somehow "possess" events, things, or categories
thereof, the behavior and efficacy of which they will decisively determine. These and similar views are
specific notion of "animism." The spirits may temporarily "embody" themselves into things, plants,
animals, or humans; this is a further stage of abstraction, achieved only gradually. At the highest stage of
abstraction which is scarcely ever maintained consistently, spirits may be regarded as invisible essences
that follow their own laws, and are merely "symbolized" by concrete objects. In between these extremes
of animism and abstraction there are many transitions and combinations.
Yet even at the first stage of the simpler forms of abstraction, there is present in principle the notion of
"supernatural powers" that may intervene in the destiny of people in the same way that a person may
influence one's course of life. At these earlier stages, not even the "gods" or "demons" are yet personal
or enduring, and sometimes they do not even have names of their own. A supernatural power may be
thought of as a power controlling the course of one particular event, to whom no one gives a second
thought until the event in question is repeated. [2] On the other hand, a supernatural power may be the
power which somehow emanates from a great hero after his death. Either personification or
depersonalization may be a later development. Then, too, we find supernatural powers without any
personal name, who are designated only by the process they control. At a later time, when the semantics
of this designation is no longer understood, the designation of this process may take on the character of a
proper name for the god. Conversely, the proper names of powerful chieftains or prophets have become
the designations of divine powers, a procedure employed in reverse by myth to derive the right to
transform purely divine appellations into personal names of deified heroes. Whether a given conception
of a "deity" becomes enduring and therefore is always approached by magical or symbolic means,
depends upon many different circumstances. The most important of these is whether and in what manner
the magician or the secular chieftain accept the god in question on the basis of their own personal
experiences.
Here we may simply note that the result of this process is the rise on one hand of the idea of the "soul,"
and on the other of ideas of "gods," "demons," hence of "supernatural" powers, the ordering of whose
relations to humans constitutes the realm of religious action. At the outset, the "soul" is neither a
personal nor an impersonal entity. It is frequently identified, in a naturalistic manner, with something
that disappears after death with the breath or with the beat of the heart in which it resides and by the
eating of which one may acquire the courage of the dead adversary. Far more important is the fact that
the soul is frequently viewed as a heterogeneous entity. Thus, the soul that leaves person during dreams
is distinguished from the soul that leaves him in "ecstasy" --when his heart beats in his throat and his
breath fails, and from the soul that inhabits his shadow. Different yet is the soul that, after death, clings
to the corpse or stays near it as long as something is left of it, and the soul that continues to exert
influence at the site of the person's former residence, observing with envy and anger how the heirs are
relishing what had belonged to it in its life. Still another soul is that which appears to the descendants in
dreams or visions, threatening or counseling, or that which enters into some animal or into another
person, especially a newborn baby, bringing blessing or curse, as the case may be. The conception of the
"soul" as an independent entity set over against the "body" is by no means universally accepted, even in
the religions of salvation. Indeed, some of these religions, such as Buddhism, specifically reject this
notion.
(A.2) Symbolism
What is primarily distinctive in this whole development is not the personality, impersonality or super-
personality of these supernatural powers, but the fact that new experiences now play a role in life. The
notion of supernatural powers or processes not only existed but also played a role in life because it
"signified" something. Thus magic is transformed from a direct manipulation of forces into a symbolic
activity.
(A.2.a) Fear of Soul
At first, a notion that the soul of the dead must be rendered harmless emerged besides the direct fear of
the corpse (a fear manifested even by animals), which direct fear often determined burial forms, for
example, the squatting posture, cremation, etc. After the development of notions of the soul, the body
had to be removed or restrained in the grave to provide with a tolerable existence, and prevent from
becoming envious of the possessions enjoyed by the living; or its good will had to be secured in other
ways, if the survivors were to live in peace. Of the various magical practices relating to the disposal of
the dead, the most far-reaching economic consequences was the notion that the corpse must be
accompanied to the grave by all its personal belongings. This notion was gradually attenuated to the
requirement that the goods of the deceased must not be touched for at least a brief period after his death,
and frequently the requirement that the survivors must not even enjoy their own possessions lest they
arouse the envy of the dead. The funereal prescriptions of the Chinese still fully retain this view, with
consequences that are equally irrational in both the economic and the political spheres. (One of the
taboos during the mourning period related to the occupancy of an office; since the right of office thereof
constituted a possession, it had to be avoided.)
(A.2.b) Displacement of Naturalism
However, once the realms of souls, demons, and gods are conceived, it in turn affected the meaning of
the magical arts. For these beings cannot be grasped or perceived in any everyday existence but possess
a kind of supernatural existence which is normally accessible only through the mediation of symbols and
meanings, and which consequently appears to be shadowy and sometimes altogether unreal. Since if
there is something else distinctive and spiritual behind actual things and events, which are only the
symptoms or indeed the symbols, an effort must be made to influence not to the actual but to the
spiritual power that expresses itself in symptoms. This is done through medium that address themselves
to a spirit or soul, hence by symbols that "signify" something. Thereafter, a flood of symbolic actions
may sweep away naturalism. The occurrence of this displacement of naturalism depends upon the
pressure which the professional masters of such symbolism can put on their believers through its
meaning-constructs, hence, on the power position which they gained within the community. In other
words, the displacement of naturalism depends upon the importance of magic for the economy and upon
the power of the organization the magicians succeed in creating.
The proliferation of symbolic acts and their displacement of the original naturalism had far-reaching
consequences. Thus, if the dead person is accessible only through symbolic actions, and indeed if the
god expresses himself only through symbols, then the corpse may be satisfied with symbols instead of
actual things. As a result, actual sacrifices may be replaced by show-breads and puppet-like
representations of the surviving wives and servants of the deceased. It is of interest that the oldest paper
money was used to pay, not the living, but the dead. A similar substitution occurred in the relationships
of humans to gods and demons. More and more, things and events are interpreted by their meanings that
actually or presumably inhered in them, and efforts were made to achieve real effects by means of
symbolically significant action.
(A.2.c) Spread of Symbolism
Every purely magical act that had proved successful in a naturalistic sense was, of course, repeated in
the form once established as effective. Subsequently, this principle extended to the entire domain of
symbolic significance, since the slightest deviation from the proved method might render the procedure
inefficacious. Thus, all areas of human activity were drawn into this circle of magical symbolism. For
this reason the greatest contradiction of purely dogmatic views, even within rationalized religions, may
be tolerated more easily than innovations in symbolism, which threaten the magical efficacy of action or
even --and this is the new concept succeeding upon symbolism-- arouse the anger of a god or an
ancestral spirit. Thus, the question whether the sign of the cross should be made with two or three
fingers was a basic reason for the schism of the Russian church as late as the seventeenth century.
Again, the fear of giving serious indignation to two dozen saints by omitting the days sacred to them
from the calendar year has hindered the reception of the Gregorian calendar in Russia until today (1914).
Among the magicians of the American Indians, faulty singing during ritual dances was immediately
punished by the death of the guilty singer, to remove the evil magic or to avert the anger of the god.
(A.2.d) Stereotyping Effect
The religious stereotyping of the products of pictorial art, the oldest form of stylization, was directly
determined by magical conceptions and indirectly determined by the fact that these artifacts came to be
produced professionally for their magical significance; professional production tended automatically to
favor the creation of art objects based upon design rather than upon representation of the natural object.
The full extent of the influence exerted by the religious symbolism is exemplified in Egypt, where the
devaluation of the traditional religion by the monotheistic campaign of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton)
(1353-63 BC) immediately stimulated naturalism. Other examples of the religious stylization may be
found in the magical uses of alphabetical symbols; the development of mimicry and dance as
homeopathic, apotropaic, exorcistic, or magically coercive symbolism; and the stereotyping of
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