Heroic love : the ethic of brotherliness in Max Weber's 'Vocation' lectures

This paper examines the concept of brotherly love as utilized by Max Weber in his sociology of religion and, especially, in his famous ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“vocationalââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ speeches. It argues that a central concern of Weber in this body of work was the fate of such brotherly love within the history of Western religious and societal rationalization. It also suggests that Weber implicitly advocates such an ethic in his vocation lectures as a means of living a life sensitive to human suffering in the face of the impersonal structures of Modernity.