ANTHRO 41A Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: John Calvin, Protestantism, Meritocracy

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHRO 41A
• Professor: Tom Douglas

Document Summary

John calvin describes the poor as sinners; they are poor because they are too lazy to work hard and earn money. People should make money, invest it, and make more money. John calvin believed in predestination of the elect"". Argued that one of the signs you were one of god"s elect was if you worked hard and made money, you were definitely chosen to go to heaven. Calvin"s teachings caused many members of the rising middle classes of europe to follow him; the poor did not because he mostly condemned them. The noble also did not generally ascribe to his teachings. Capitalism could not emerge in europe until views about money and authority changed. Empire charles i & v was facing growing challenges from protestants in his empire. Some of his nobility had become protestant (mostly lutheran) Emperor charles went to war with the king of france over territorial disputes in.