In 1920 Max Weber began to publish his "Collected Essays on the Sociology of Religion" . In his "Preliminary Remarks" he declared as the collection's aim to identify the distinctiveness of Western - especially modern Western - rationalism and to explain its rise. These "Preliminary Remarks" were followed by reworked essays on ascetic Protestantism, which had originally appeared between 1904 and 1906. While he practically rewrote the essay on the sects of 1906, he stayed close to the original of his famous 1904/05 study "The Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism", although he made many amendments for its renewed publication. In this edition, these amendments are easily identified by their different typeface. Together with essays taken over from MWG I/9, for the first time this book provides all the essays on the cultural significance of ascetic Protestantism written by Max Weber in the period from 1904 to 1920.