tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14300599.post113470009909477448..comments2023-10-09T07:56:32.564-05:00Comments on Sacramentum Vitae: Holy capitalism, Batman!Mike Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09060404905348849140noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14300599.post-1134878833475158932005-12-17T23:07:00.000-05:002005-12-17T23:07:00.000-05:00Here's an article adapted from Stark's book:http:/...Here's an article adapted from Stark's book:<BR/><BR/>http://catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0109.htmlMike Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18100363229707213441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14300599.post-1134771718706104722005-12-16T17:21:00.000-05:002005-12-16T17:21:00.000-05:00One thing I've sometimes noticed among writers of ...One thing I've sometimes noticed among writers of intellectual or cultural history is a tendency to talk about the growth and development of conceptual issues in a way that is completely disconnected from reality. There seems to be this urge to reify things like "capitalism", "protestantism" and the like when, in fact, mostly what's at work are just people. One person does this or that because it seems like a good idea to him, and if this or that catches on and it turns out that that first person was a protestant and this or that mostly caught on among protestants, then voila, we've got a protestant phenomenon.<BR/><BR/>But I doubt very much that that's a realistic way to look at history. One no longer sees many professional historians referring to things like "the Germans" any more for precisely the same reason: there is no such "thing" as "the Germans", there are only individual people who happen to be German.<BR/><BR/>Not that I'm a professional historian myself, mind you, I'm just an opinionated amateur.Vitae Scrutatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12808120163472036743noreply@blogger.com