In this book, Weber discusses two important issues: the emergence and essence of modern western capitalism; The relationship between social ethics and economic behavior. On the premise of affirming that spiritual and cultural factors have a great impetus to economic and social development, this book expounds some relations between Protestant ethics and some psychological driving force (that is, capitalist spirit) hidden behind the development of capitalism.
In this book, Weber defines the state as an entity with a monopoly position in the legal use of violence, which has a great influence on the development of modern western political science.
The first chapter: religious sects and social stratification, the author discusses this phenomenon found from demographic statistics or social surveys: "Business leaders, capital possessors and senior skilled workers in modern enterprises, especially managers who have received advanced technical training and business training, are mostly Protestants.
Chapter II: The spirit of capitalism lies in the fact that the author "briefly discussed the uniqueness of those phenomena that we tried to explain historically" before "trying to explore the respective characteristics and differences of those religious thoughts in different branches of Christianity".
Chapter three: Luther's view of duty-research task. The fourth chapter is the religious basis of secular asceticism, and the fifth chapter is asceticism and capitalism.