“Elective affinities” of economics and religion: the interpretation of Max Weber

This article discusses Max Weber's interpretation of the connection between economics and religion. Specific attention is drawn to the concept of “elective affinities”, which occupies a central place in explaining the delicate interaction between materialistic culture and religious experience. Goethe's novel by the same name and its various critiques help us better understand Weber's interpretation as well as offer an opportunity to demonstrate the formal similarities and the substantiative differences in the roles of Protestantism and the Old Rite in the economic modernization of the West and Russia, respectively.