Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Sociology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Willis, E. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The invention of purgatory

Contributions to abstract time in capitalism

Eileen M. Willis

Flinders University, Eileen.willis{at}flinders.edu.au

The contribution of Max Weber's Protestant Ethic to debate on the cultural forces that precipitated the shift from feudal to capitalist modes of production is without precedent. While this debate is presumed to have run its course, contemporary preoccupations with extensive and intensive working hours suggest a revisit may be timely. This article proposes an affinity between the shift to abstract modes of time in capitalism and the ideas underpinning the medieval invention of purgatory. This `invention' was seen to overcome the problem of time scarcity, but similar to the Protestant Ethic, illustrates the conundrum that the cure can become the disease. In the case of purgatory, the disease is a purgatorial complex, a profound anxiety-driven relationship to time.

Key Words: abstract time • Protestant ethic • purgatory • working time

Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 3, 249-264 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1440783308092883
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?