In the last few decades, and especially since the excellent translations by Parsons and Gerth appeared, considerable discussion of Max Weber has taken place. Since only a few of his publications have been made accessible, the result has been an incomplete and oftentimes incorrect concept of the man. He is sometimes regarded as emphasizing almost exclusively the importance of the spiritual factor with regard to changes in the socio-economic sphere. More frequently he is regarded as one who deals with religous phenomena only in a rationalistic way. Both concepts of the man are equally wrong. Thus, it is my purpose to outline his basic religious, philosophical, and ethical convictions as well as the possible interrelationship between such ideas and his investigations.

In that fantastic decade from 1650 to 1660, English saints of every persuasion strove frantically to make the rule of the Lord on earth a political reality. Imbued with a lively apocalyptic hope and enjoying the driving enthusiasm of nascent religions, the left-wing Puritan sects sought to build in England a holy commonwealth that would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. With the failure of the Barebone Parliament, their most promising opportunity passed by unrealized, but throughout the remainder of the Interregnum, Independents, Baptists, Fifth-Monarchy Men, and various mystical sects continued without abatement their endeavors to transform England into Zion.

Christianity boldly asserted that the eternal Logos had been manifested in the personal history of Jesus called Christ. Once this claim began to receive wide acceptance, the older ways of philosophizing characteristic of the classical ages were shaken. On the one hand, Christians affirmed positively that God had drawn nigh, disclosing himself in history to those who believed. On the other hand, they held that, apart from reliance upon this divine disclosure, the efforts of scientific reason to apprehend God were pitifully inadequate and perverse.