section_path: Religion, science, philosophy, and education/Protestant Reformation
section_name: Protestant Reformation
paragraph_text: Protestant Reformation
  
  The early modern period was initiated by the Reformation and the collapse of the unity of the medieval Western Church. The theology of Calvinism in particular has been argued as instrumental to the rise of capitalism. Max Weber has written a highly influential book on this called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.