This paper explains that, in his seminal work "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", Max Weber provided a new
perspective of the emergence of capitalism by asserting that what made Europe or the Occident develop into a capitalist economy was because the majority of its people observed the Protestant ethic as their way of life, rationalizing that people's everyday actions are a
pre-requisite for a society to develop into a capitalist economy. The author contends that the development of capitalism in early modern Europe was the result not only of Protestantism but also of Catholicism. The paper states that the generalization that religion had become the catalyst for capitalism to flourish in the continent is supported by the fact that religious institutions before and during the onset of capitalism have dominated the
socio-political realms of Western societies, leaving no doubt that they also control the economic activities and institutions present in the society.