The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2687 page)

see T’AI-PING TAO.

 
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(Arab.,
wazara
, ‘he carried a burden’). Minister in Muslim governments, anglicized as vizier. Under the Caliphs (
khal
fa
), waz
rs were advisers who on occasion ran the entire government—e.g. the Barmecides, until they were eradicated by Har
n al-Rash
d; or Ni
am al-Mulk under the Saljuqs.

 
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(1864–1920)
. Major scholar and sociologist, who is regarded, alongside E.
Durkheim
, as a founder of the
sociology
of religion.
Weber's essay
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
(1904–5) encapsulates the central tenets of Weber's sociological approach to religion. Popular accounts notwithstanding, Weber did not claim that
Protestantism
caused capitalism. Rather, by postulating an
‘elective affinity’
between the ethic of Protestantism and the spirit of modern rational capitalism he articulated one specific link in a complex causal chain of socio-cultural elements. Rejecting the determinism of both Hegelian idealism and Marxian materialism, Weber saw religion as a potential independent variable in a multivariate formula: a proactive as well as a reactive element in social life.
For Weber, the study of religion is not an end in itself but simply an indispensable means of understanding human society. From this perspective, religion represents humanity's continuous effort to impose intellectual and moral order on the chaos of existence and, in the process, to discover the ultimate meaning of the cosmos for both individuals and collectivities. Contributing their own distinctive solutions to the problem of meaning (for example, in
theodicies
which explain the existence of suffering and evil), the great world religions provide the main focus of Weber's vast comparative-historical analysis of civilizations and constitute the essential background to his penetrating account of the emergence of the modern world.
The transformation of a collective desire for salvation from a diffuse sentiment to a new religious dispensation is, according to Weber, the achievement of the
prophet
. By claiming a special gift of divine grace (charisma), this type of religious leader (whether in exemplary or ethical guise) challenges the legitimacy of the established religious and social order and attempts a breakthrough into a realm of new values. In decisively breaking with tradition, the prophet initiates a more systematized cultural order and is thus a prime mover in the process of rationalization which dominates Weber's broad vision of social dynamics and underlies his dark ruminations on the fate of the world.
(See further
IDEAL TYPE
).

 
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