text:
For the purposes of this chapter, though by no means for
all purposes, we can treat ascetic Protestantism as a single whole. But
since that side of English Puritanism which was derived from Calvinism
gives the most consistent religious basis for the idea of the calling,
we shall, following our previous method, place one of its representatives
at the centre of the discussion. Richard Baxter stands out above many other
writers on Puritan ethics, both because of his eminently practical and
realistic attitude, and, at the same time, because of the universal recognition
accorded to his works, which have gone through many new editions and translations.
He was a Presbyterian and an apologist of the Westminster Synod, but at
the same time, like so many of the best spirits of his time, gradually
grew away from the dogmas of pure Calvinism. At heart he opposed Cromwell's
usurpation as he would any revolution. He was unfavourable to the sects
and the fanatical enthusiasm of the saints, but was very broadminded about
external peculiarities and objective towards his opponents. He sought his
field of labour most especially in the practical promo-tion of the moral
life through the Church. In the pursuit of this end, as one of the most
successful ministers known to history, he placed his services at the disposal
of the Parliamentary Government, of Cromwell, and of the Restoration,'
until he retired, from office under the last, before St. Bartholomew�s
day. His Christian Directory is the most compendium of Puritan ethics,
and is c adjusted to the practical experiences of his of his own ministerial
activity. In comparison we shall m
Now, in glancing at Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, or his Christian Directory, or similar works of others,' one is struck at first glance by the emphasis placed, in the discussion of wealth and its acquisition, on the ebionitic elements of the New testament. Wealth as such is a great danger; its temptations never end and its pursuit is not only senseless as compared with the dominating importance of the Kingdom of God, but it-is morally suspect. Here asceticism seems to have turned much more sharply against the acquisition of earthly goods than it did in Calvin, who saw no hindrance to the effectiveness of the clergy in their wealth, but rather a thoroughly desirable enhancement of their prestige. Hence he permitted them to employ their means profitably. Examples of the condemnation of the pursuit of money and goods may be gathered without end from Puritan writings, and may be contrasted with the late mediaeval ethical literature , which was much more open-minded on this point. Moreover, these doubts were meant with perfect seriousness; only it is necessary to examine them somewhat more closely in order to understand their true ethical significance and implications. The real. moral objection is to relaxation in the security of possession, the enjoyment of wealth with the consequence of idleness and the temptations of the flesh, above all of distraction from the pursuit of a righteous life. In fact, it is only because possession involves this danger of relaxation that it is objectionable at all. For the saints' everlasting rest is in the next world; on earth man must, to be certain of his state of grace, "do the works of him who sent him, as long as it is yet day". Not leisure and enjoyment, but only activity serves to increase the glory of God, according to the definite manifestations of His will.
Waste of time is thus the first and in principle the deadliest of sins. The span of human life is infinitely short and precious to make sure of one's own election. Loss of time through sociability, idle talk, luxury," even more sleep than is necessary for health, six to at most eight hours, is worthy of absolute moral condemnation. It does not yet hold, with Franklin, that time is money, but the proposition is true in a certain spiritual sense. It is infinitely valuable because every hour lost is lost to labour for the glory of God. Thus inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the expense of one's daily work. For it is less pleasing to God than the active performance of His will in a calling. Besides, Sunday is provided for that, and, according to Baxter, it is always those who are not diligent in their callings who have no time for God when the occasion demands it.
Accordingly, Baxter's principal work is dominated by the continually repeated, often almost passionate preaching of hard, continuous bodily or mental labour.It is due to a combination of two different motives. Labour is, on the one hand, an approved ascetic technique, as it always has been in the Western Church, in sharp contrast not only to the Orient but to almost all monastic rules the world over. It is in particular the specific defence against all those temptations which Puritanism united under the name of the unclean life, whose role for it was by no means small. The sexual asceticism of Puritanism differs only in degree, not in fundamental principle, from that of monasticism; and on account of the Puritan conception of marriage, its practical influence is more farreaching than that of the latter. For sexual intercourse is permitted, even within marriage, only as the means willed by God for the increase of His glory according to the commandment, "Be fruitful and Multiply." Along with a moderate vegetable diet and cold baths, the same prescription is given for all sexual temptations as is used against religious doubts and a sense of moral unworthiness: "Work hard in your calling." But the most important thing was that even beyond that labour came to he considered in itself the end of life, ordained as such by God. St. Paul's "He who will not work shall not eat" holds unconditionally for every-one. Unwillingness to work is symptomatic of the lack of grace.
Here the difference from the medieval view-point becomes quite evident. Thomas Aquinas also gave an interpretation of that statement of St. Paul. But for him labour is only necessary naturali ratione for the maintenance of individual and community. Where this end is achieved, the precept ceases to have any meaning. Moreover, it holds only for the race, not for every individual. It does not apply to anyone who can live without 'labour on his possessions, and of course contemplation, as a spiritual form of action in the Kingdom of God, takes precedence over the commandment in its literal sense. Moreover, for the popular theology of the time, the highest form of monastic productivity lay in the increase of the Thesaurus ecclesie through prayer and chant.
Now only do these exceptions to the duty to labour naturally no longer hold for Baxter, but he holds most emphatically that wealth does not exempt anyone from the unconditional command. Even the wealthy shall not cat without working, for even though they do not need to labour to support their own needs, there is God's commandment which they, like the poor, must obey. For everyone without exception God's Providence has prepared a calling, which he should profess and in which he should labour. And this calling is not, as it was for the Lutheran, a fate to which he must submit and which he must make the best of, but God's commandment to the individual to work for the divine glory. This seemingly subtle difference had far-reaching psychological consequences, and became connected with a further development of the providential interpretation of the economic order which had begun in scholasticism.
The phenomenon of the division of labour and occupations in society had, among others, been interpreted by Thomas Aquinas, to whom we may most conveniently refer, as a direct consequence of the divine scheme of things. But the places assigned to each man in this cosmos follow ex causis naturalibus and are fortuitous (contingent in the Scholastic terminology). The differentiation of men into the classes and occupations established through historical development became for Luther, as we have seen, a direct result of the divine will. The perseverance of the individual in the place and within the limits which God had assigned to him was a religious duty. This was the more certainly the consequence since the relations of Lutheranism to the world were in general uncertain from the beginning and remained so. Ethical principles for the reform of the world could not be found in Luther's realm of ideas; in fact it never quite freed itself from Pauline indifference. Hence the world had to be accepted as it was, and this alone could be made a religious duty - But in the Puritan view, the providential character of the play of private economic interests takes on a somewhat different emphasis. True to the Puritan tendency to pragmatic interpretations, the providential purpose of the division of labour is to be known by its fruits. On this point Baxter expresses himself in terms which more than once directly recall Adam Smith's well-known apotheosis of the division of labour. The specialization of occupations leads, since it makes the development of skill possible, to a quantitative and qualitative improvement in production, and thus serves the common good, which is identical with the good of the greatest possible number. So far, the motivation is purely utilitarian, and is closely related to the customary view-point of much of the secular literature of the time.
But the characteristic Puritan element appears when Baxter sets at the head of his discussion the statement that "outside of a well-marked calling the accomplishments of a man are only casual and irregular, and he spends more time in idleness than at work", and when he concludes it as follows: "and he [the specialized worker) will carry out his work in order while another remains in constant confusion, and his business knows neither time nor place . . . therefore is a certain calling the best for everyone". Irregular work, which the ordinary labourer is often forced to accept, is often unavoidable, but always an unwelcome state of transition. A man without a calling thus lacks the systematic, methodical character which is, as we have seen, demanded by worldly asceticism.
The Quaker ethic also holds that a man's life in his calling is an exercise in ascetic virtue, a proof of his state of grace through his conscientiousness, which is expressed in the care and method with which he pursues his calling. What God demands is not labour in itself, but rational labour in a calling. In the Puritan concept of the calling the emphasis is always placed on this methodical character of worldly asceticism, not, as with Luther, on the acceptance of the lot which God has irretrievably assigned to man.
Hence the question whether anyone may combine several
callings is answered in the affirmative, if it is useful for the common
good or one's own, and not injurious to anyone, and if it does not lead
to unfaithfulness in one of the callings. Even a change of calling is
by no means regarded as objectionable, if it is not thoughtless and is
made for the purpose of pursuing a calling more pleasing to God,which means,
on general principles, one more useful.
Wealth is thus bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinful enjoyment of life, and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of later living merrily and without care. But as a performance of duty in a calling it is not only morally permissible, but actually enjoined .The parable of the servant who was rejected because he did not increase the talent which was entrusted to him seemed to say so directly. To wish to be poor was, it was often argued, the same as wishing to be unhealthy ; it is objectionable as a glorification of works and derogatory to the glory of God. Especially begging, on the part of one able to work, is not only the sin of slothfulness, but a violation of the duty of brotherly love according to the Apostle's own word. The emphasis on the ascetic importance of a fixed calling provided an ethical justification of the modern specialized division of labour. In a similar way the providential interpretation of profitmaking justified the activities of the business man. The superior indulgence of the seigneur and the parvenu ostentation of the nouveau riche are equally detestable to asceticism.
But, on the other hand, it has the highest ethical appreciation of the sober, middle-class, self-made Man. "God blesseth His trade" is a stock remark about those good men who had successfully followed the divine hints. The whole power of the God of the Old Testament, who rewards His people for their obedience in this life, necessarily exercised a similar influence on the Puritan who, following Baxter's advice, compared his own state of grace with that of the heroes of the Bible, and in the process interpreted the statements of the Scriptures as the articles of a book of statutes.
Of course, the words of the Old Testament were not entirely without ambiguity. We have seen that Luther first used the concept of the calling in the secular sense in translating a passage from Jesus Sirach. But the book of Jesus Sirach belongs, with the whole atmosphere expressed in it, to those parts of the broadened Old Testament with distinctly traditionalistic tendency, in spite of Hellenistic influences. It is characteristic that down to the present day this book seems to enjoy a special favour among Lutheran German peasants just as the Lutheran influence in large sections of German Pietism has been expressed by a preference for Jesus Sirach.
The Puritans repudiated the Apocrypha as not inspired, consistently with their sharp distinction between things divine and things of the flesh. But among the canonical books that of Job had all the more influence. On the one hand it contained a grand conception of the absolute sovereign majesty, of God, beyond all human comprehension, which was closely related to that of Calvinism. With that, on the other hand, it combined the certainty which, though incidental for Calvin, came to be of great importance for Puritanism, that God would bless His own in this life -in the book of Job only-and also in the material sense .The Oriental quietism, which appears in several of the finest verses of the Psalms and in the Proverbs, was interpreted away, just as Baxter did with the traditionalistic tinge of the passage in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, so important for the idea of the calling.
But all the more emphasis was placed on those parts of the Old Testament which praise formal legality as a sign of conduct pleasing to God. They held the theory that the Mosaic Law had only lost its validity through Christ in so far as it contained ceremonial or purely historical precepts applying only to the Jewish people, but that otherwise it had always been valid as an expression of the natural law, and must hence be retained . This made it possible, on the one hand, to eliminate elements which could not be reconciled with modern life. But still, through its numerous related features, Old Testament morality was able to give a powerful impetus to that spirit of self-righteous and sober legality which was so characteristic of the worldly asceticism of this form of Protestantism."
Thus when authors, as was the case with several contemporaries as well as later writers, characterize the basic ethical tendency of Puritanism, especially in England, as English Hebrews they are, correctly understood, not wrong. It is necessary, however, not to think of Palestinian Judaism at the time of the writing of the Scriptures, but of Judaism as it became under the influence of many centuries of formalistic, legalistic, and Talmudic education. Even then one must be very careful in drawing parallels. The general tendency of the older Judaism toward a naive acceptance of life as such was far removed from the special characteristics of Puritanism. It was, however, just as far-and this ought not to be overlooked-from the economic ethics of mediaeval and modern Judaism, in the traits which determined the positions of both in the development of the capitalistic ethos. The Jews stood on the side of the politically and speculatively oriented adventurous capitalism; their ethos was, in a word, that of pariah-capitalism. But Puritanism carried the ethos of the rational organization of capital and labour. It took over from the Jewish ethic only what was adapted to this purpose.
To analyse the effects on the character of peoples of the penetration of life with Old Testament norms-a tempting task which, however, has not yet satisfactorily been done even for Judaism-would be impossible within the limits of this sketch. In addition to the relationships already pointed out, it is important for the general inner attitude of the Puritans, above all, that the belief that they were God's chosen people saw in them a great renaissance. Even the kindly Baxter thanked God that he was born in England, and thus in the true Church, and nowhere else. This thankfulness for one's own perfection by the grace of God penetrated the attitude toward life of the Puritan middle class, and played its part in developing that formalistic, hard, correct character which was peculiar to the men of that heroic age of capitalism.
Let us now try to clarify the points in which the Puritan idea of the calling and the premium it placed upon ascetic conduct was bound directly to influence the development of a capitalistic way of life. As we have seen, this asceticism turned with all its force against one thing: the spontaneous enjoyment of life and all it had to offer. This is perhaps most characteristically brought out in the struggle over the Book of Sports " which James I and Charles I made into law expressly as a means of counteracting Puritanism, and which the latter ordered to be read from all the pulpits. The fanatical opposition of the Puritans to the ordinances of the King, permitting certain popular amusements on Sunday outside of Church hours by law, was not only explained by the disturbance of the Sabbath rest, but also by resentment against the intentional diversion from the ordered life of the saint, which it caused. And, on his side, the King's threats of severe punishment for every attack on the legality of those sports were motivated by his purpose of breaking the anti-authoritarian ascetic tendency of Puritanism, which was so dangerous to the State. The feudal and monarchical forces protected the pleasure seekers against the rising middle-class morality and the anti-authoritarian ascetic conventicles, just as today capitalistic society tends to protect those willing to work against the class morality of the proletariat and the anti-authoritarian trade union.
As against this the Puritans upheld their decisive characteristic, the principle of ascetic conduct. For otherwise the Puritan aversion to sport, even for the Quakers, was by no means simply one of principle. Sport was accepted if it served a rational purpose, that of recreation necessary for physical efficiency. But as a means for the spontaneous expression of undisciplined impulses, it was under suspicion; and in so far as it became purely a means of enjoyment, or awakened pride, raw instincts or the irrational gambling instinct, it was of course strictly condemned. Impulsive enjoyment of life, which leads away both from work in a calling and from religion, was as such the enemy of rational asceticism, whether in the form of seigneurial sports, or the enjoyment of the dance-hall or the public--house of the common man.
Its attitude was thus suspicious and often hostile to the aspects of culture without any immediate religious value. It is not, however, true that the ideals of Puritanism implied a solemn, narrow-minded contempt of culture. Quite the contrary is the case at least for science, with the exception of the hatred of Scholasticism. Moreover, the great men of the Puritan movement were thoroughly steeped in the culture of the Renaissance. The sermons of the Presbyterian divines abound with classical allusions and even the Radicals, although they objected to it, were not ashamed to display that kind of learning in theological polemics. Perhaps no country, was ever so full of graduates as New England in the first generation of its existence. The satire of their opponents, such as, for instance, Butler's Hudibras, also attacks primarily the pedantry and highly trained dialectics of the Puritans. This is partially due to the religious valuation of knowledge which followed from their attitude to the Catholic fides implicita.
But the situation is quite different when one looks at non-scientific literature and especially the fine arts. Here asceticism descended like a frost on the life of "Merrie old England." And not only worldly merriment felt its effect. The Puritan's ferocious hatred of everything which smacked of superstition, of all survivals of magical or sacramental salvation, applied to the Christmas festivities and the May Pole and all spontaneous religious art. That there was room in Holland for a great, often uncouthly realistic art proves only how far from completely the authoritarian moral discipline of that country was able to counteract the influence of the court and the regents (a class of rentiers), and also the joy in life of the parvenu bourgeoisie, after the short supremacy of the Calvinistic theocracy had been transformed into a moderate national Church, and with it Calvinism had perceptibly lost in its power of ascetic influence.
The theatre was obnoxious to the Puritans, and with the strict exclusion of the erotic and of nudity from the realm of toleration, a radical view of either literature or art could not exist. The conceptions of idle talk, of superfluities, and of vain ostentation, all designations of an irrational attitude without objective purpose, thus not ascetic, and especially not serving the glory of God, but of man, were always at hand to serve in deciding in favour of sober utility as against any artistic tendencies. This was especially true in the case of decoration of the person, for instance clothing. That powerful tendency toward uniformity of life, which today so immensely aids the capitalistic interest in the standardization of production," had its ideal foundations in the repudiation of all idolatry of the flesh .
Of course we must not forget that Puritanism included a world of contradictions, and that the instinctive sense of eternal greatness in art was certainly stronger among its leaders than in the atmosphere of the Cavaliers. Moreover, a unique genius like Rembrandt, however little his conduct may have been acceptable to God in the eyes of the Puritans, was very strongly influenced in the character of his work by his religious environment. But that does not alter the picture as a whole. In so far as the development of the Puritan tradition could, and in part did, lead to a powerful spiritualization of personality, it was a decided benefit to literature. But for the most part that benefit only accrued to later generations.
Although we cannot here enter upon a discussion of the influence of Puritanism in all these directions, we should call attention to the fact that the toleration of pleasure in cultural goods, which contributed to purely aesthetic or athletic enjoyment, certainly always ran up against one characteristic limitation: they must not cost anything. Man is only a trustee of the goods which "have come to him through God's grace. He must, like the servant in the parable, give an account of every penny entrusted to him, and it is at least hazardous to spend any of it for a purpose which does not serve the glory of God but only one's own enjoyment. What person, who keeps his eyes open, has not met representatives of this view-point even in the present?
The idea of a man's duty to his possessions, to which he subordinates himself as an obedient steward, or even as an acquisitive machine, bears with chilling weight J. on his life. The greater the possessions the heavier, if the ascetic attitude toward life stands the test, the feeling of responsibility for them, for holding them undiminished for the glory of God and increasing them by restless effort. The origin of this type of life also extends in certain roots, like so many aspects of the spirit of capitalism, back into the Middle Ages. But it was in the ethic of ascetic Protestantism that it first r found a consistent ethical foundation. Its significance for the development of capitalism is obvious. This worldly Protestant asceticism, as we may recapitulate up to this point, acted powerfully against the spontaneous enjoyment of possessions; it restricted consumption, especially of luxuries. On the other hand, it had the psychological effect of freeing the acquisition of goods from the inhibitions of traditionalistic ethics. It broke the bonds of the impulse of acquisition in that it not only legalized it, but (in the sense discussed) looked upon it as directly willed by God. The campaign against the temptations of the flesh, and the dependence on external things, was, as besides the Puritans the great Quaker apologist Barclay expressly says, not a struggle against the rational acquisition, but against the irrational use of wealth.
But this irrational use was exemplified in the outward forms of luxury which their code condemned as idolatry of the flesh, however natural they had appeared to the feudal mind. On the other hand, they approved the rational and utilitarian uses of wealth which were willed by God for the needs of the individual and the community. They did not wish to impose mortification on the man of wealth, but the use of his means for necessary and practical things. The idea of comfort characteristically limits the extent of ethically permissible expenditures. It is naturally no accident that the development of a manner of living consistent with that idea may be observed earliest and most clearly among the most consistent representatives of this whole attitude toward life. Over against the glitter and ostentation of feudal magnificence which, resting on an unsound economic basis, prefers a sordid elegance to a sober simplicity, they set the clean and solid comfort of the middle-class home as an ideal."
On the side of the production of private wealth, asceticism condemned both dishonesty and impulsive avarice. What was condemned as covetousness, Mammonism, etc., was the pursuit of riches for their own sake. For wealth in itself was a temptation. But here asceticism was the power "which ever seeks the good but ever creates evil" what was evil in its sense was possession and its temptations. For, in conformity with the Old Testament and in analogy to the ethical valuation of good works, asceticism looked upon the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself as highly reprehensible; but the attainment of it as a fruit of labour in a calling was a sign of God's blessing. And even more important: the religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, a the highest means to asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude toward life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism.
When the limitation of consumption is combined with this release of acquisitive activity, the inevitable practical result is obvious: accumulation of capital through ascetic compulsion to save. The restraints which were imposed upon the consumption of wealth naturally served to increase it by making possible the productive investment of capital. How strong this influence was is not, unfortunately, susceptible o exact statistical demonstration. In New England the connection is so evident that it did not escape the eye of so discerning a historian as Doyle. But also in Holland, which was really only dominated by strict Calvinism for seven years, the greater simplicity of life in the more seriously religious circles, in combination with great wealth, led to an excessive propensity to accumulation.
That, furthermore, the tendency which has existed everywhere and at all times, being quite strong in Germany today, for middle-class fortunes to be absorbed into the nobility, was necessarily checked by the Puritan antipathy to the feudal way of life, is evident. English Mercantilist writers of the seventeenth century attributed the superiority of Dutch capital to English to the circumstance that newly acquired wealth there did not regularly seek investment in land. Also, since it is not simply a question of the purchase of land, it did not there seek to transfer itself to feudal habits of life, and thereby to remove itself from the possibility of capitalistic investment." The high esteem for agriculture as a peculiarly important branch of activity, also especially consistent with piety, which the Puritans shared, applied (for instance in Baxter) not to the landlord, but to the yeoman and farmer, in the eighteenth century not to the squire, but the rational cultivator. Through the whole of English society in the time since the seventeenth century goes the conflict between the squirearchy, the representatives of "merrie old England", and the Puritan circles of widely varying social influence. Both elements, that of an unspoiled naive joy of life, and of a strictly regulated, reserved self-control, and conventional ethical conduct are even today combined to form the English national character. Similarly, the early history of the North American Colonies is dominated by the sharp contrast of the adventurers, who wanted to set up plantations with the labour of indentured servants, and live as feudal lords, and the specifically middle-class outlook of thePuritans.
As far as the influence of the Puritan outlook extended, under all circumstances-and this is, of course, much more important than the mere encouragement of capital accumulation-it favoured the development of a rational bourgeois economic life; it was the most important, and above all the only consistent influence in the development of that life. It stood at the cradle of the modern economic man.
To be sure, these Puritanical ideals tended to give way under excessive pressure from the temptations of wealth, as the Puritans themselves knew very well. With great regularity we find the most genuine adherents of Puritanism among the classes which were rising from a lowly status, the small bourgeois and farmers, while the beati possidentes, even among Quakers, are often found tending to repudiate the old ideals. It was the same fate which again and again befell the predecessor of this worldly asceticism, the monastic asceticism of the Middle Ages. In the latter case, when rational economic activity had worked out its full effects by strict regulation of conduct and limitation of consumption, the wealth accumulated either succumbed directly to the nobility, as in the time before the Reformation, or monastic discipline threatened to break down, and one of the numerous reformations became necessary.
In fact the whole history of monasticism is in a certain sense the history of a continual struggle with the problem of the secularizing influence of wealth. The same is true on a grand scale of the worldly asceticism of Puritanism. The great revival of Methodism, which preceded the expansion of English industry toward the end of the eighteenth century, may well be compared with such a monastic reform. We may hence quote here a passage from John Wesley himself which might well serve as a motto for everything which has been said above. For it shows that the leaders of these ascetic movements understood the seemingly paradoxical relationships which we have here analysed perfectly well, and in the same sense that we have given them. He wrote:
"I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. How then is it possible that Methodism, that is, a religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay tree, should continue in this state? For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods. Hence they proportionately increase in pride, in anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away. Is there no way to prevent this-this continual decay of pure religion? We ought not to prevent people from being diligent and frugal; we must exhort all Christians to gain all they can, and to save all they can; that is, in effect, to grow rich."
There follows the advice that those who gain all they can and save all they can should also give all they can, so that they will grow in grace and lay up a treasure in heaven. It is clear that Wesley here expresses, even in detail, just what we have been trying to point out. As Wesley here says, the full economic effect of those great religious movements, whose significance for economic development lay above all in their ascetic educative influence, generally came only after the peak of the purely religious enthusiasm was past. Then the intensity of the search for the Kingdom of God commenced gradually to pass over into sober economic virtue; the religious roots died out slowly, giving way to utilitarian worldliness. Then, as Dowden puts it, as in Robinson Crusoe, the isolated economic man who carries on missionary activities on the side takes the place of the lonely spiritual search for the Kingdom of Heaven of Bunyan's pilgrim, hurrying through the market-place of Vanity. When later the principle "to make the most of both worlds" became dominant in the end, as Dowden has remarked, a good conscience simply became one of the means of enjoying a comfortable bourgeois life, as is well expressed in the German proverb about the soft pillow. What the great religious epoch of the seventeenth century bequeathed to its utilitarian successor was, however, above all an amazingly good, we may even say a pharisaically good, conscience in the acquisition of money, so long as it took place legally. Every trace of the deplacere vix potest has disappeared."'
A specifically bourgeois economic ethic had grown up. With the consciousness of standing in the fullness of God's grace and being visibly blessed by Him, the bourgeois business man, as long as he remained within the bounds of formal correctness, as long as his moral conduct was spotless and the use to which he put his wealth was not objectionable, could follow his pecuniary interests as he would and feel that he was fulfilling a duty in doing so. The power of religious asceticism provided him in addition with sober, conscientious, and unusually industrious workmen, who clung to their work as to a life purpose willed by God.
Finally, it gave him the comforting assurance that the
unequal distribution of the goods of this world was a special dispensation
of Divine Providence, which in these differences, as in particular grace,
pursued secret ends unknown to men.Calvin himself had made the much-quoted
statement that only when the people, i.e. the mass of labourers and craftsmen,
were poor did they remain obedient to God. In the Netherlands (Pieter de
la Court and others), that had been secularized to the effect that the
mass of men only labour when necessity forces them to do so. This formulation
of a leading idea of capitalistic economy later entered into the current
theories of the productivity of low wages. Here also, with the dying out
of the religious root, the utilitarian interpretation crept in unnoticed,
in the line of development which we have again and again observed. Mediaeval
ethics not only
On the other hand, seen from the side of the workers, the Zinzendorf branch of Pietism, for instance, glorified the loyal worker who did not seek acquisition, but lived according to the apostolic model, and was thus endowed with the charisma of the disciples.Similar ideas had originally been prevalent among the Baptists
Now naturally the whole ascetic literature of almost all denominations is saturated with the idea that faithful labour, even at low wages, on the part of those whom , life offers no other opportunities, is highly pleasing to God. In this respect Protestant Asceticism added in itself nothing new. But it not only deepened this idea most powerfully, it also created the force which was alone decisive for its effectiveness: the psychological sanction of it through the conception of this labour as a calling, as the best, often in the last analysis the only means of attaining certainty of grace. And on the other hand it legalized the exploitation of this specific willingness to work, in that it also interpreted the employer's business activity as a calling. It is obvious how powerfully the exclusive search for the Kingdom of God only through the fulfilment of duty in the calling, and the strict asceticism which Church discipline naturally imposed, especially on the propertyless classes, was bound to affect the productivity of labour in the capitalistic sense of the word. The treatment of labour as a calling became as characteristic of the modern worker as the corresponding attitude toward acquisition of the business man. It was a perception of this situation, new at his time, which caused so able an observer as Sir William Petty to attribute the economic power of Holland in the seventeenth century to the fact that the very numerous dissenters in that country (Calvinists and Baptists) "are for the most part thinking, sober men, and such as believe that Labour and Industry is their duty towards God".
Calvinism opposed organic social organization in the fiscal-monopolistic form which it assumed in Anglicanism under the Stuarts, especially in the conceptions of Laud, this alliance of Church and State with the monopolists on the basis of a Christian , social ethical foundation. Its leaders were universally among the most passionate opponents of this type of politically privileged commercial, putting-out, and colonial capitalism. Over against it they placed the individualistic motives of rational legal acquisition by virtue of one's own ability and initiative. And, while the politically privileged monopoly industries in England all disappeared in short order, this attitude played a large and decisive part in the development of the industries which grew up in spite of and against the authority of the State. The Puritans (Prynne, Parker) repudiated all connection with the large-scale capitalistic courtiers and projectors as an ethically suspicious class. On the other hand, they took pride in their own superior middle-class business morality, which formed the true reason for the persecutions to which they were subjected on the part of those circles. Defoe proposed to win the battle against dissent by boycotting bank credit and withdrawing deposits. The difference of the two types of capitalistic attitude went to a very large extent hand in hand with religious differences. The opponents of the Nonconformists, even in the eighteenth century, again and again ridiculed them for personifying the spirit of shopkeepers, and for having, ruined the ideals of old England. Here also lay the difference of the Puritan economic ethic from the Jewish; and contemporaries (Prynne) knew well that the former and not the latter was the bourgeois capitalistic ethic.
One of the fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and not only of that but of all modern culture: rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling, was born--that is what this discussion has sought to demonstrate-from the spirit of Christian asceticism. One has only to reread the passage from Franklin, quoted at the beginning of this essay, in order to see that the essential elements of the attitude which was there called the spirit of capitalism are the same as what we have just shown to be the content of the Puritan worldly asceticism, only without the religious basis, which by Franklin's time bad died away. The idea that modern labour has an : ascetic character is of course not new. Limitation to specialized work, with a renunciation of the Faustian universality of man which it involves, is a condition of any valuable work in the modern world; hence deeds and renunciation inevitably condition each other today. This fundamentally ascetic trait of middle-class life, if it attempts to be a way of life at all, and not simply the absence of any, was what Goethe wanted to teach, at the height of his wisdom, in the Wander-jahren, and in the end which he gave to the life of his Faust . For him the realization meant a renunciation, a departure from an age of full and beautiful humanity, which can no more be repeated in the course of our cultural development than can the flower of the Athenian culture of antiquity.
The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into evervday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. This order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt. In Baxter's view tile care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the "saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment". But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage.
Since asceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world, material goods have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history. Today the spirit of religious asceticism-whether finally, who knows?-has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer. The rosy blush of its laughing heir, the Enlightenment, seems also to be irretrievably fading, and the idea of duty in one's calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs. Where the fulfilment of the calling cannot directly be related to the highest spiritual and cultural values, or when, on the other hand, it need not be felt simply as economic compulsion, the individual generally abandons the attempt to justify it at all. In the field of its highest development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth, stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with purely mundane passions, which often actually give it the character of sport.
No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development, entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For of the fast stage of this cultural development, it might well be truly said:' "Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved."
But this brings us to the world of judgments o value and of faith, with which this purely historical discussion need not be burdened. The next task would be rather to show the significance of ascetic rationalism which has only been touched in the foregoing sketch for the content of practical social ethics, thus for the types of organization and the functions of social groups from the conventicle to the State. Then its relations to humanistic rationalism, its ideals of life and cultural influence; further to the development of philosophical and scientific empiricism, to technical development and to spiritual ideals would have to be analysed. Then its historical development from the mediaeval beginnings of worldly asceticism to its dissolution into pure utilitarianism would have to be traced out through all the areas of ascetic religion. Only then could the quantitative cultural significance of ascetic Protestantism in its relation to the other plastic elements of modern culture be estimated.
Here we have only attempted to trace the fact and the
direction of its influence to their motives in one, though a very important
point. But it would also further be necessary to investigate how Protestant
Asceticism was in turn influenced in its development and its character
by the totality of social conditions, especially economic. The modern
man is in general, even with the best will, unable to give religious ideas
a significance for culture and national character which they deserve. But
it is, of course, not my aim to substitute for a one-sided materialistic
an equally one sided spiritualistic causal interpretation of culture and
of history. Each is equally possible, but each, if it does not serve as
the preparation, but as the conclusion of an investigation, accomplish
equally little in the interest of historical truth.


text:
Review & Download OneCause – Charity & Non-Profit Joomla Theme
On this post, we are discovring one of the best Joomla Templates in 2018, OneCause – Charity & Non-Profit Joomla Theme from webunderdog having more than 259 purchases on Enevato Market !
1. Review
Title : OneCause – Charity & Non-Profit Joomla Theme
Type : cms-themes/joomla/nonprofit
Designer : webunderdog
Publishing date : 2013-10-08T19:44:11+11:00 and updated at 2013-10-08T19:44:11+11:00
Price : 48 $
Sales : 259
Review & Rating : 4.89
Download this template
2. Description
OneCause is a premium charity & non-profit template built on Joomla 3 CMS. This theme is great for any business, photography, portfolio or corporate company looking for a clean and minimal design. It includes over 15 pre-installed extensions in the quickstart package and boasts over 54 module positions. This three column layout is built on a responsive framework, and will dynamically scale many of the module positions equally depending on the number of modules published. There are 12 color styles available with this template.
This template comes with two quickstart installation packages for your convenience. These include the standard Joomla installation and an Akeeba Backup version as well. It has been tested on all major browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer 8-10. OneCause includes all PSDs, files and a comprehensive help documentation. Color styles available are: blue, navy, teal, green, dark green, peach, orange, red, maroon, purple, pink, gold.
Demo images are not included in the purchase bundle and have been replaced with placeholder images. Support is available. Please PM with your questions.
- Responsive layout built with Bootsrap
- Standard quickstart installation
- Akeeba Backup quickstart installation (option)
- 54 module positions
- 15 extensions installed
- 12 color styles
- Responsiv images & video slider
- @font-face replacement
- Custom typography codes
- Contact form module
- Google maps plugin
- Latest tweets module
- Social icons included
- Gallery images plugin
- Video plugin extension
- AddThis custom code module
- Content tabs module
- Extensive documentation & how-to's
- All PSDs included
- Open Sans Semi-bold – Ascender Fonts
- Open Sans Light – Ascender Fonts
- Arial
– system default font
- Typography icon styles by Brankic1979
Demo Images:
- See help documentation

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Trey Wafer, McAfee senior product manager, talks about the mobile malware threat.
By Tim Kridel
If the term "Cabir" rings a bell, it means you've been in mobile app development since at least 2004. That's when Cabir, considered the first known mobile virus, showed up as a proof-of-concept effort.
Since then, mobile devices have become more sophisticated in terms of processing power and connectivity -- which in turn creates more opportunities for malware writers. Just as important, the plethora of real-time operating systems (RTOS) has given way to a handful of smartphone OSs, which make it easier to write once, hack many.
We recently spoke with Trey Wafer, McAfee senior product manager, about how mobile operators, enterprises and security companies are responding to the mobile malware threat. [Disclosure: Intel, which owns McAfee, is the sponsor of this content.]
A lot of carriers, such as Sprint, offer free anti-malware software to their customers. Do you know the percentage of smartphone owners who either take advantage of that or buy anti-malware software on their own?
Trey Wafer: In May 2012, O+K Research estimated that 40 percent of devices are devoid of any anti-virus on their smartphones. Additionally, [about] half of smartphone owners use passwords, the most basic form of mobile security.
There have been a few examples of malware jumping from a smartphone to a PC. Do you expect that to become more common as the lines blur between mobile and PC OSs, such as with Windows 8?
T.W.: McAfee sees the opposite, with certain types of malware jumping from PCs to smartphones. The most popular of these is SMiShing, which tricks users into revealing personal information and passwords. Cybercriminals are business people and they will go where the money goes; as smartphones increase in numbers, we anticipate more to follow. Even the FBI has advised that Android is prone to malware.
How can security vendors ensure that their anti-malware solutions provide constant, adequate protection but without putting a drag on device performance?
T.W.: The anti-malware solution should be architected in a way that scans of mobile devices can be triggered on a regularly scheduled basis (e.g., every Friday at 3 p.m.), on an event-driven basis (e.g., every time an app is downloaded) and an ad-hoc basis (e.g., user or administrator wants to check). More importantly, the anti-malware solution needs ties to real-time intelligence that will keep it up to date. McAfee's Virus Scan Mobile solution delivers that kind of architecture, plus ties to our Global Threat Infrastructure built in a way that battery impact and scan times are minimized.
McAfee is very sensitive to the performance impact of providing anti-malware screening services. It's one of the reasons we've been developing technologies that optimize protection while minimizing impact on system performance.
This new protection technology suite uses a combination of signature, behavioral, context, reputation and adaptive scanning techniques to provide users with the best protection while minimizing system impact. This new suite, known as "Anti-Malware Core" or AM Core, will ship in the upcoming release of our consumer endpoint protection product, with subsequent availability in McAfee's enterprise products.
The mobile industry has spent more than a decade trying to facilitate cashless payments, and between those efforts and the arrival of NFC in mainstream devices, this brass ring finally appears within reach. Is the industry doing enough to ensure that the reality or even perception of malware in enabling identity theft won't kill that opportunity?
T.W.: Ensuring the reality of a solution is ultimately driven by the companies who own the operating systems. Until mobile OSs are considered to be secure, mobile security vendors are limited in their ability to deliver a full solution.
In the meantime, it's imperative to recognize the difference between those who are making products that contribute to that reality versus those who claim to be doing so. McAfee Labs is constantly testing applications and researching emerging threats. Those efforts automatically feed the anti-malware products that contribute to secure mobile transactions.
What should developers do to minimize the chance that their app will facilitate malware?
T.W.: The biggest thing developers can do to minimize the chance that their app will facilitate malware is to adopt a "security mindset." They don't need to become security experts nor should they let security drag down their ability to create effective, productive applications.
They do, however, need to think about security in the initial design of their application rather than as an afterthought. That mindset with a few best practices -- using encryption in the transaction or exchange of information, limiting permissions, being judicious about what kind of data can be accessed, isolating their applications from access by other applications except where absolutely necessary -- will go a long way in minimizing the chance that their app will facilitate malware.
How aware are businesses of mobile malware, as opposed to malware on other platforms? And how does that awareness affect the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) challenge for enterprise?
T.W.: Businesses understand the idea of malware in an endpoint (PC and laptop) environment because they have had to deal with it for many years. They understand basic premises in the mobile world -- iOS is more secure than Android, for example -- but they are often unaware of the specifics types and levels of threat.
What this generally translates into for the BYOD challenge are the implementation of broad policies and programs. For example, BYOD is not allowed, but the company will standardize on and issue a specific model/OS product for relevant users.
Approximately how many businesses are proactively addressing mobile malware?
T.W.: This is difficult to estimate. General trends indicate that many businesses who are trying to address the rise of mobile products are standardizing on iOS because it is inherently more safe. They understand that encryption is built in at the chip level and that data at rest on the device is encrypted as well.
They also know that there have been a lot less headlines about iOS threats, thefts and vulnerabilities. In other words, "proactive" in the mobile world means piggybacking on the "best available" security (not to be confused with "best" or "adequate").
Tim Kridel has been covering all things tech and telecom since 1998 for a variety of publications and analyst firms. Based in Columbia, Mo., he still enjoys the childhood hobby that led to a career writing about technology: ham radio. He is a frequent contributor to Digital Innovation Gazette.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
What Are Your iOS Copyrights?Previous Post
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text:
Welcome to EV Cables
Non hai articoli nel carrello.
The latest release 2018 Gen2 Custom premium cables with better ergonomics and design. These are engineered to last and are even longer than our previous generation cable. We back that up with a 12 month warranty!
**** Please note that this can not be used as an extension cable to an existing tethered cable charge point. We have specially designed extension cables here: https://evcables.co.uk/index.php/for-type-2-cars/other-type-2-charging-cables/type-2-extension-all-colours.html
Audi A3 e-Tron
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Aston Martin Rapid E
Audi E-Tron 55 Quattro
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Jaguar XJ Electric
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Mercedes EQ C SUV Charging Cable
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Mini E
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Peugeot e-Traveler
Polestar 2
Porsche Mission E
Renault Zoe 2013
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Skoda Vision E
Smart ED 3 Phase 2013
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Vauxhall Mokka e
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Volkswagen ID.3
Volvo Polestar 2
Volvo XC40 Electric
Why Buy from EV Cables?
EV Cables offers the largest range of cables available in the world and have been trading sine 2014!
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We offer 1/2/5 Year warrantees on all our products
*5 Year Domestic Warranty / 2 Year Commercial Warranty for all Generation 3.x cables
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More info on Warranty can be found here
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We offer a FREE cable Carry Bag with almost all cable orders
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We dispatch 'In stock' items the same day when ordered before 11.30am
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Stock levels indicated on our website are LIVE.
What does this mean? Simply, if it shows in stock, its ready to be dispatched
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We know about Electric Vehicle Charging Cables, and understand that it can sometimes be confusing ordering the right cable. Our knowledgeable customer service department is based in the UK, so they can quickly and meaningfully answer any questions about ordering the right cable
Our stock is located in the a UK warehouse and it can be dispatched throughout the EU and globally quickly and efficiently. If we're not in stock of an item, then our system allows us to dispatch within 5 days of the order being placed
Have a question about our products? Get in touch here
EV Cables offer Express UK delivery for £6 within the UK. 95% of orders are processed within 24 hours, and sent via tracked courier service for delivery within 1 and 3 days.
ADDITIONAL DELIVERY INFO: For Express delivery with same day dispatch, orders must be placed before 11:30am. Orders placed after 11:30 on a Friday will be dispatched the following Monday.
Please note: Some longer cables may not be in stock and this will take an additional 5 working days. Customers will be notified if there are any delays.
Please select Jersey or Guernsey under countries (include a valid postcode) for ex VAT sales.
EV Cables offer discount Express delivery on all orders to desintnations outside of the UK and EU. 95% of orders are processed within 24 hours, and sent via tracked courier service for delivery within 2 and 5 days.
ADDITIONAL DELIVERY INFO: For delivery with same day dispatch, orders must be placed before 12pm. Orders placed after 12pm on a Friday will be dispatched the following Monday.
* Local taxes and duties of destination country are the buyer's responsibility.
Please note: Some longer cables may not be in stock and this will take an additional 5 working days. Customers will be notified if there are any delays.
|2-5 days
|Africa – Eastern Africa:
|Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
|2-4 days
|Africa – Middle Africa:
|Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe
|2-4 days
|Africa – Northern Africa:
|Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara
|2-4 days
|Africa – Southern Africa:
|Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland
|2-4 days
|Africa – Western Africa:
|Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo
|2-4 days
|Americas – Central America:
|Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
|2-4 days
|Americas – Latin America and the Caribbean:
|Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, CuraÇao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin (Dutch part), Saint Martin (French part), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands
|2-4 days
|Americas – Northern America:
|Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, United States
|2-4 days
|Americas – South America:
|Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela
|2-4 days
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|Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
|2-4 days
|Asia – Eastern Asia:
|China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao S.A.R., China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan
|2-4 days
|Asia – South-Eastern Asia:
|Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam
|2-4 days
|Asia – Southern Asia:
|Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
|2-4 days
|Asia – Western Asia:
|Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
|2-3 days
|European Union:
|Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK)
|2-3 days
|European Union + Monaco and Isle of Man (EU VAT):
|Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK)
|2-3 days
|Europe – Eastern Europe:
|Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine
|2-3 days
|Europe – Northern Europe:
|Åland Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK)
|2-3 days
|Europe – Southern Europe:
|Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Vatican
|2-3 days
|Europe – Western Europe:
|Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland
|3-4 days
|Oceania – Australia and New Zealand:
|Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, New Zealand, Norfolk Island
|3-4 days
|Oceania – Melanesia:
|Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
|3-4 days
|Oceania – Micronesia:
|Belau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru
|3-4 days
|Oceania – Polynesia:
|Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, Pitcairn, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa


text:
If you're looking for the best suspension trainer of 2020, then you've come to the right place.
In previous years, there were only a few brands of suspension trainers to choose from. However, in 2018, it's safe to say that the market has exploded!
There are now countless new brands and models to choose from within this category of home exercise equipment. If you're short on time and just looking for the best suspension training set on the market today, then the TRX or Lifeline Jungle Gym XT straps are the premium products you can trust. However, thanks to the emergence of new brands like WOSS, Flymei, Kylin Sport, and GymStuff to name just a few, with a bit of research you can now pick up a quality set of suspension straps for a fraction of the price you would've paid last year. This guide to the best straps and trainers will help you choose the right product for your needs in 2017.
The Best Home Suspension Training Equipment 2017
If you've been keeping up with the latest fitness trends then you can't have helped but noticed the emergence of suspension trainers. If this type of training is new to you then check out our suspension training guide to get an idea of why this type of training is taking off big time.
However, if you are ready to add this form of exercise to your home workout, this is our guide to the best suspension trainers you can buy today.
As the popularity of this type of fitness equipment increases more and more gyms are installing them but if you are not lucky enough to have access to a set of suspension straps don't worry, they can be purchased relatively cheaply and are perfect for use at home, office or even the garden. All you really need is a door or tree to attach them to and a bit of space and you can be working muscles you never knew you had in no time at all.
If you are already aware of the awesomeness of suspension training then click here to view the best selling item on amazon.com now.
Compare Suspension Trainers:
Use the trainer comparison table to quickly compare the features of the best selling options:
The Best Suspension Trainers Reviewed
Here is the Home Workout Ideas lowdown on the best-selling and most popular suspension straps on the market at the moment. The good news is we will only be featuring the best suspension trainers here to save you sifting through the trash to find the gold. Let's begin…
Lifeline Jungle Gym XT
This product is more focused on just the suspension straps, although it does come with a handy instructional DVD to show you how to do the moves and exercises. There is also a nice wall chart included.
The straps are really high quality with carbon fibre buckles which are really easy to use allowing you to adjust the length of the straps at the touch of a button. Being made from carbon fibre ensures they will last a very long time.
The handles have two sides which are designed to either accommodate your feet or your hands. Due to their soft texture you can put your feet in the handles without the need for shoes or trainers making this ideal for home or work workout where you might not have a pair of sports shoes handy: just slip off your work shoes and get a quick lunchtime workout in the office.
The anchor points which can be hung over the top of a closed door have been designed not to damage paintwork or door frames so you can use the Lifeline Jungle Gym XT with peace of mind knowing you won't be doing any damage while performing the various bodyweight exercises.
If you only plan to use this gear in one place or add it to a home or commercial gym then a purpose built wall Jungle Gym XT wall mount kit can be purchased separately to allow you to set the straps up without having to hang them over a door or other anchor point.
Jungle Gym XT Customer Reviews
Most of the people who have bought these suspension trainers and left a customer review on amazon.com claim it is the best suspension trainer out there and when you read their reviews it is hard not to agree. If you want to find out what people who have purchased the Jungle Gym XT have been saying click here now. When it comes to the question of the Rip 60 vs Jungle Gym XT, a lot of people seem to favour the latter.
Overall this is a great set of suspension straps that are high quality and versatile allowing you to workout on the road or at home. They don't come with all the extras of the Rip 60 kit but if you don't want to follow a particular program and want a high quality set of straps then we recommend the Lifeline Jungle Gym XT suspension strap.Buy the Jungle Gym XT now
TRX Suspension Trainer Basic Kit
TRX are probably the biggest name in the suspension training equipment sector and this is their flagship product. When you get your hands on the TRX Pro suspension trainer you know you have a high quality product in your hands.
The yellow and black color scheme gives it a mean looking appearance and the build quality of the buckles, straps and cradles are very high. This is a professional piece of weight training equipment that would be not look out of place in a commercial gym.
The TRX trainer comes with a small bag that the entire kit fits into that you can take out and about with you. Having the freedom to do you workouts outdoors cannot be overstated and if you can find anything to hook your trainer onto then you are good to go. We tried it with a tree and a mesh fence and both worked perfectly. Due to its small size when folded up this suspension trainer is perfect for taking on holidays with you and using in your hotel room.
What's in the Box?
TRX have been kind enough to include a DVD which contains a 25 workout program on. This isn't as comprehensive as the Rip 60 set of DVDs but is enough for you to get a good workout from. There is also a chart showing the top bodyweight leverage exercises you can perform with these straps. There is also the aforementioned bag which allows you to discretely and easily carry the TRX trainer with you outdoors.
TRX Suspension Trainer Customer Reviews
Lots of happy customers have left positive reviews on amazon.com with it having a 4 star rating from over 120 reviews. Most people gave it 5 out of 5 although there are a few 1 star reviews you should probably have a look at before handing over your hard earned cash. However, to this day, the TRX remains one of the best suspension trainers money can buy.Read Customer Reviews
This is a great product that oozes high quality but for that extra level of detail you to pay a lot more than the other suspension straps on the market. If you want a set of straps for your commercial gym then we'd recommend these and if you want the best no matter what the cost then look no further than the TRX but if you are on a budget then the Jungle Gym XT offers much better value.
Many people still ask which is the better set: Jungle Gym vs TRX but at the end of the day it comes down to budget, how you plan to use the straps and what your goals are. However, the TRX straps seem to be the most popular trainer around.Buy the TRX Suspension Trainer Basic Kit now
Rip 60 Fitness DVD & Suspension Trainer Set
This is much more than just a set of suspension trainers. This pack comes with a set of eight workout DVDs and four bonus DVDs that deliver a workout programme that will get you ripped in 60 days using just the included suspension straps and body weight exercises.
If you just want to work out from home and don't want to buy any additional weight training equipment then this pack has everything you need to get started. The fitness program increases in intensity each week and has titles like: 'Wake Up Your Body', 'Hyper Burn', 'Built It Up' and 'Power and Strength'.
The bonus DVDs offer extra programs from guest instructor like Georges St. Pierre who delivers an MMA cage fighter's workout while Jillian Michaels delivers a fat loss program to get you ripped and in shape in no time.
But if you are not interested in the videos and just want to add some bodyweight leverage exercises to your bodybuilding routine then this is still a good value options and the suspension straps are high quality and come with a travel bag for easy use on the road.
Rip 60 Customer Reviews
Due to the great value of this product it has been pretty popular and there have been a number of customer reviews left for this it on amazon.com and the majority of them have been very positive.Overall the product has a customer rating of 4.2 out of 5 which is pretty darn good with most people giving it 5 out of 5 claiming it is the best suspension trainer on the market.
To find out what people who have purchased the Rip 60 Suspension trainer set have been saying click here to read the customer reviews on amazon.com. Many people are asking which is the best product out there: RIP 60 vs TRX and the answer really comes down to which one you prefer and what your budget is. The TRX is certainly more popular and used in more gyms than the 60.Read Customer Reviews
If you want a fully fledged weight loss and muscle building program to follow at home along with a set of suspension trainers then the Rip 60 is probably your best bet. The straps might not be as excellent as some of the others on the market but they will do and when you consider all the other stuff that comes in this pack then they offer great value. If you don't want to follow a prescribed program though we suggest you carry on reading.Buy the Rip 60 now
Gold's Gym Suspended Body Weight Trainer
This body weight trainer from the Gold's Gym fitness equipment division was a big hit with home trainers, as well as those tasked with stocking commercial gyms with suspension training gear. However, the product has now been discontinued and is not available for purchase online. You might still be lucky enough to find it for sale in some stores, but for the most past, getting hold of a brand new Gold's Gym Suspended Body Weight Trainer isn't a realistic goal.
Thankfully, there are plenty of other pieces of home workout equipment out there that allow you to train in the same way. You can find great alternatives to this one on this very webpage or by heading over to best-selling suspension straps page on amazon.com where you will find something to suit all budgets and personal requirements.
It's a shame this trainer from the legendary Gold's Gym isn't widely available anymore, as it was a great piece of kit in its day. If you are lucky enough to find a store selling them, with some back stock left, then please get in touch and let us know where they are located and we will share that info with our readers. However, if you don't manage to track one down, you can console yourself, safe in the knowledge that doing a comparison of the LifelineUSA XT Jungle Gym vs. the TRX Basic Package will result in a more than adequate replacement.View the Best Selling Bodyweight Trainers
The Best Suspension Trainer: Our Verdict
When it comes to picking the best suspension trainer it comes down to the Lifeline Jungle Gym XT vs the TRX Suspension Trainer Professional. There are lots of other products on the market but none as widely regarded as these two.
The Rip 60 offers a good alternative if you want a full on exercise regime to follow but if are just interested in the straps then it's a face-off between the Jungle Gym and the TRX. Both have received suspension trainer reviews from happy customers showing that people who have handed over their hard-earned cash are eager to recommend their purchase.
Main Differences
The main difference between these two products is that the TRX straps are attached to each other while the Jungle Gym's can be separated. This isn't such an important point, but it does mean two people can use the Jungle Gym at the same time while performing one-armed movements. Whether this is important to you we don't know but we feel it should be mentioned.
If money is no object then we'd say go with the TRX as they are tried and tested and used all around the world but if you don't want to pay more than $100 the Jungle Gym XT is perfectly adequate and more than up to the task. It's definitely the best suspension trainer under $100. We hope you have found our suspension equipment reviews helpful.Read our guide to suspension training
- The Best Suspension Trainers 2020 - November 5, 2020
- LifelineUSA Jungle Gym XT Suspension Trainer Review - November 6, 2016
- How Often Should You Do a Kettlebell Workout - March 6, 2016


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Rescue Mission for Trapped Yazidis Less Likely After Reconnaissance Mission
A U.S. mission to evacuate Iraqi civilians trapped on a mountain by Sunni militant fighters is far less likely after a U.S. assessment team sent there on Wednesday found the humanitarian situation not as grave as expected, the Pentagon said.
A team of U.S. military and humanitarian aid personnel sent to Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq to assess the situation of thousand of members of the Yazidi religious minority found far fewer people than previously feared and in better condition than expected, the Pentagon said in a statement.
"Based on this assessment," the Pentagon said, "an evacuation mission is far less likely."
The Pentagon credited the better-than-expected situation on air drops of food and water, U.S. airstrikes on Sunni militant targets, efforts of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate the mountain in recent nights.
The White House said earlier the United States had not ruled out using American ground forces in an operation to extract the trapped civilians, but added the troops would not engage in combat.
The team of fewer than 20 U.S. personnel flew in darkness early in the morning to Mount Sinjar, where thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority fled to escape an advance by Islamic State fighters, a U.S. official said. The team returned safely to the Kurdistan capital of Arbil by military air.
The United States has 130 U.S. military personnel in Arbil, drawing up options ranging from creating a safe corridor to an airlift to rescue those besieged on Mount Sinjar for over a week, most of them Yazidis.
"These 130 personnel are not going to be in a combat role in Iraq," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama, who is on vacation on Martha's Vineyard island in Massachusetts.
Rhodes noted that Obama had repeatedly ruled out "reintroducing U.S. forces into combat on the ground in Iraq". But he added: "There are a variety of ways in which we can support the safe removal of those people from the mountain."
Rhodes said the intention was to work with Kurdish forces already operating in the region and with the Iraqi military.
Kurdish fighters had been guarding Yazidi towns when armed Islamic State convoys swept in, and have already helped many thousands escape to safe areas to the north.
Obama has been deeply reluctant to revive any military role in Iraq after withdrawing the last combat troops in 2011 to end eight years of costly war that eroded the United States' reputation around the world.
The president agreed last Thursday to send back more than 700 troops to help advise and guide Iraqi and Kurdish forces after a devastating sweep across northwestern Iraq by the Sunni Islamic State radicals, who have declared a caliphate covering much of the country.
U.S. warplanes have since carried out a series of attacks on Islamic State forces, including on some approaching Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and on roadblocks and artillery around Mount Sinjar to the west.
Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday that the air attacks, combined with operations by Kurdistan's Peshmerga armed forces, had "slowed, if not stopped" attacks on the terrified families who had fled to the mountain.
U.S. and British military forces have been dropping supplies of food and water to those on Mount Sinjar in the last week and Rhodes said other countries were also offering to help, including Australia, Canada and France.
U.N. agencies have rushed emergency supplies to the Dohuk region by the Syrian and Turkish borders, where the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says about 400,000 refugees have fled, including Yazidis, Christians and other minorities.
The Pentagon said the team of 130 in Arbil, assembled there on Tuesday from different places in the region, had at their disposal four V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which can land and take off vertically.
It was unclear whether there was consideration being given to using the Ospreys for airlifting any of the Yazidis out, but each one would only be able to carry a couple of dozen people.


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Jan 2012 | 224pp
Price: £69.95
CILIP members price: £55.95
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The "consensus" for consumer confidence was 68.5 with a range of 67.2 to 70.0. It came in at 63.2 for August. Congratulations on being 100% wrong! And once again, those who listen to the government and mainstream are led astray.
Here's Econoday's release of Consumer Sentiment:
Mixed is the description of the current run of economic data, some good and some bad. Today's Reuters/University of Michigan survey falls under bad. The index fell back nearly 3 points at mid-month to 63.2. Despite improvement in jobs and improvement in manufacturing and improvement in housing, weakness is centered in the current conditions component (64.9 vs. 70.5). Expectations, the leading component, also sank (62.1 vs. 63.2). More and more, the consumer sector looks to be a heavy drag on the recovery -- just look back at yesterday's retail sales report. Stocks and commodities weakened in immediate reaction to today's data.
Mixed data? Sorry, there has been NO, as in ZERO good data. What there has been is manipulated data, but nothing good. Manipulation always disconnects from reality and eventually the people know it.
Oh yeah, and if you listened to the "expert's" consensus, here's what it got you:


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$7.00 $10.00
This pink polkadot journal has a multi color pattern. The inside cover has a white and pink graphed pattern. This book is bound with pink thread (no staples here!). This book can be made with ether blank white pages to make it versatile for both writing and drawing or with lined paper for easy writing.
Size: 6 X 8.5 inches (cover size)
Number of Pages: 48 (including front and back of pages)
Page Weight: 20lbs
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Epstein: Cubs moving in the right direction
President of baseball operations touts talent in system, progress being made
MESA, Ariz. -- When Theo Epstein first agreed to talk to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts in the fall of 2011, he knew he would be facing a huge challenge if he left the Red Sox to join the Cubs. But he had a plan to build an organization from the ground floor up, and as he heads toward his third season in Chicago, he remains a believer in the plan and swears that there is light at the end of the tunnel, not the familiar freight train.
Yet the Cubs' president of baseball operations knows only the team's most optimistic fans join him in celebrating the Daytona Cubs' 2013 Florida State League championship. Epstein's personal honeymoon period with fans might be over after 101- and 96-loss seasons at Wrigley Field, but he is convinced they'll view things differently once Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and other prospects start laying the organization's long-term foundation.
Epstein says there is "a tremendous amount of talent'' in the Cubs' system.
"We believe the Cubs are a special organization, that we're all going to be part of building something special,'' he said. "We're all here because we think we're part of something special.''
MLB.com: Where do you see the organization now as opposed to this time two years ago?
Epstein: I think we've made tremendous progress. … The prospects we have have gotten a lot of attention, and they're moving up the ladder. They're exciting, potential impact players. But just the general talent level, the organizational depth, is improving. We just went over all the (bullpen) arms we have in camp. There's no comparison between the quality of the arms now (and in 2012), the candidates to make the team and the depth behind them in Iowa. The people we have in place in this organization -- coaches, scouts -- I believe are impact people. I believe in the processes we have in place. It takes time to turn an organization around. It takes time to build impact talent and the requisite depth, but it's happening.
People in the organization really believe we're on the verge of something special. We understand that we're perceived otherwise, and that's our fault. We've been a last-place club the last couple of years. We're not protesting (the perception), but we have to earn our way into a point where we're championship contenders on an annual basis, and we think we're certainly moving in that direction.
MLB.com: What role will new manager Rick Renteria play?
Epstein: Ultimately to win, be the steward of a winning club, championship clubs. Obviously it's a process. We really trust Ricky to connect with players as human beings, to be on their side, to be consistent, to hold them to high standards and ultimately to get the most out of them. He's a great baseball guy, a great communicator. He's fully invested in what we're doing here. He believes in young players, that you can win with young players. I think he's the right guy to create the environment we need at the big league level, to establish a winning culture.
MLB.com: How significant is it to have a new Spring Training complex and a new academy in the Dominican Republic?
Epstein: The Dominican academy was a nice investment that has paid dividends for us with the edge it has given us signing some young Latin players over the last couple of years. The city of Mesa certainly stepped up for us, allowed us to continue this partnership and gave us a state-of-the-art facility that will also be a competitive advantage for us over the long run. Our players feel they have the best (Spring Training) facility in the business, and it can't help but raise your level of engagement, your work ethic. Walking around, everyone agrees that if you can't get better here, you can't get better anywhere. To have two out of our three facilities to be world class, certainly means a lot. We hope in coming years to finish it off and get the most important one done (in completing the renovation of Wrigley Field).
MLB.com: Most of your top prospects are position players. How do you view the pitching?
Epstein: Our arms are probably a little bit underrated. That said, we need probably twice as many as we have now. I think we've done a nice job through the last couple of Drafts, especially through some trades, of adding to that reserve, but we need to do a lot more. We're going to continue to draft primarily arms going forward; maybe not with the first pick (fourth overall). We'll see how that shakes out, but we're going to keep hitting that (pitching priority).
(But) look at our high-A rotation last year. It started out with a lot of organization guys, not a ton of prospects, and by the end of the year, you had Pierce Johnson, a sandwich pick in the 2012 Draft; C.J. Edwards, (who) we acquired in the (Matt) Garza trade; Ivan Pineyro, (who) we acquired in the (Scott) Hairston trade; and Corey Black, (who) we acquired in the (Alfonso) Soriano trade. That rotation didn't allow an earned run in the postseason and carried Daytona to a Florida State League championship. Pretty much that whole rotation will be at Double-A (Tennessee) this year. That shows the difference in pitching talent from last year to now, which bodes well, but the job clearly has not been finished with respect to our pitching talent and depth.
MLB.com: Is it hard to stay patient?
Epstein: We're all competitive. So you show up for the first day of Spring Training wanting to win. You don't ever plan on anything but grinding your way into contention, into a postseason opportunity. That's what's on your mind day in and day out when you come to the park. But in the front office, you have to also remove yourself from that and look at the big picture, how things evolve over course of several years, five years -- what the payroll and roster is going to look like long term. Being patient isn't hard, but it's not fun.


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What is HIV?
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. HIV may live in the human body for years and can be spread to other people even before any symptoms appear. HIV weakens the body making it incapable of fighting diseases and infections. As these conditions get worse, a person is diagnosed as having AIDS.
Currently, there is no known cure for AIDS.
How is HIV Spread?
These are the most common ways in which HIV spread:
- Having unsafe sex—whether vaginal, anal or oral—with someone who is infected with HIV. Unsafe sex means letting someone else's blood, semen or vaginal fluid get into your body
- Sharing drug needles or syringes with an infected person
- From an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy or childbirth, and, rarely, through breast feeding
How You Won't Catch HIV
You can't just"catch"HIV like a cold or flu, because the virus is a different type. You won't get HIV:
- Through the air or sitting next to someone at work, school, etc.
- From saliva, sweat, tears, urine or excrement
- Being bitten by mosquitoes or any other insect
- Donating blood
What Behavior Puts You At Risk?
The following behaviors are risky when performed with an infected person. You can't tell by looking if a person is infected.
- Sharing drug needles and syringes
- Anal sex, with or without a condom
- Vaginal or oral sex with someone who uses drugs or engages in anal sex
- Sex with someone you don't know well (a "pickup" or prostitute) or with someone you know who has had several sex partners
- Unprotected sex (without a condom) with an infected person
Safe Behavior
- Not having sex
- Sex with one mutually faithful, uninfected partner
- Abstain from intravenous drug use
Why Get Tested for HIV?
- You think you may be infected and you want to know for sure so that you can go on to consider getting medical help.
- Knowing your antibody status will keep you from infecting others through having unsafe sex and/or sharing needles.
- You are thinking about having a baby or breastfeeding your baby.
- You would feel less stress if you knew for certain whether you are infected.
HIV counseling and testing are available at many public health clinics at little or no cost. You do not have to use your real name, and all information is confidential. For HIV counseling and testing site locations, consult a counselor in the Counseling Center or call:
- Houston AIDS Hotline: 713-524-AIDS
- Texas AIDSLINE: 1-800-299-AIDS
For Hearing Impaired: 1-800-252-8012
- National AIDS Hotline: 1-800-CDC-INFO
- National Drug and Alcohol Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP
- National AIDS Clearinghouse: 1-800-458-5231


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