# The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity (part 1) | The Regrettable Century tags : [[capitalism]] [[religion]] [[capitalism as religion]] [[modernity]] source : [The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity (…](https://www.buzzsprout.com/220523/4450613-the-enchantments-of-mammon-how-capitalism-became-the-religion-of-modernity-part-i-with-red-library) The book they are discussing can be found [here](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984615). ## Notes - Prior to capitalism there was an understood enchantment of the world, somewhat popularized by the [[Catholic Church]]. After [[Protestantism]] entered the scene, this enchantment was replaced with rationality - Protestantism sees the rituals of Catholicism paganistic - [[Weber]] said that protestantism was a mistrust of ritual and sacraments in religion - Protestantism is the spirit that drives America and capitalism - Weber said that protestants saw success in business as religious success - He said that attempts to re enchant the world will only be a kind of self therapy, consolation, to make - Sacraments pervaded every aspect of life in the [[medieval period]] - [[The commons]] were granted collective ownership of a certain portion of land. This idea flies in the face of modern capitalism - Land was constantly equitably divided in [[the commons]], frequently redistributed according to common need - Although the commons sound great, the past shouldn’t be romanticized. Medieval Christendom was as hypocritical as modern [[capitalist ideology]] - Catholicism (notably Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi) considered communism the ideal, [[private property]] a necessary concession - Catholic monastic orders were essentially communist: believed in common ownership, common work, etc. - Peasants revolts in this period occurred because nobles didn’t adequately protect peasantry. A sort of social contract was violated - Protestants re-invented their own rituals. May speak to a desire of belonging and purpose - Much of the [[Inquisition]] wasn’t as bad as people thought; their aim was to combat [[heresy]], to kill someone would have been seen as a failure. - The [[Spanish Inquisition]] _was_ as bad as people thought; it was a [[colonialist]] project to reclaim land and integrate population - Accumulation of wealth was seen as a Protestant duty to God ([[prosperity theology]]) - [[John Locke]] said that land had to be improved, nature has no value, and otherwise you don’t have a right to it - [[Milton]] suggested that having to labor was the punishment imposed by God, self-reliance is satanic - The [[Diggers]] were an anti-capitalist movement of sorts, who aimed to undo [[enclosure]] - [[Gerrard Winstanley]] wrote something like “Why is knowledge only ever used for misery and not for the enrichment of all?” - [[Marx]] says the antidote to religion is [[revolution]]. The essence of Christianity (i.e. communistic living) is the essence of humanity - Religion is a necessary medicine for a world of pain, [[“opiate of the masses”]] - Marxists should be against mechanized reason, not reason itself