Max Weber’s (1864–1920) social action theory argues that human action is directed by meanings and motives. From this perspective, action can only be understood by appreciating the world view, the image or picture of the world held by its members Weber is most famous for arguing that Protestanism produced modern capitalism; later in his comparative studies he attempted to demonstrate that each of the great world religions laid down the tracks along which Europe, the Islamic world, India, and China moved in their distinctive directions. Weber is also the systematic sociologist of stratification, bureaucracy and other non-religious social institutions; but he worked out his entire sociology in the process of tracing the patterns of historical change connected to religion.

According to Weber-in his classic book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism-religion responds to the basic human need to understand the purpose of life. In doing so, religion must give meaning to the social world within which life occurs. This means creating a worldview that can have social, political, and economic consequences. For instance, consider the issue of whether salvation can be achieved through active mastery (hard work, for example) or through passive contemplation (meditation). Calvinism expresses the first approach, and the second is evident in several of the Eastern religions. Using these ideas, Weber theorized that Calvinism fostered the Protestant ethic of hard work and asceticism and that Protestantism was an important influence on the development of capitalism. Calvinism is rooted in the concept of predestination, which means that before people are born, some of them are selected for heaven and others for hell. Nothing anyone does in this world, Calvinists believe, can change this.

Max Weber posited that, in Europe in his time, Protestants were more likely than Catholics to value capitalist ideology, and believed in hard work and savings. He showed that Protestant values directly influenced the rise of capitalism and helped create the modern world order.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is D. The statement in the option V is about Durkheim, not Weber.

When comparing Weber and Durkheim, one might start simply by noting that whereas Durkheim was interested in the generic notion of religion (specifically the classification of the sacred and profane), Weber was concerned with the historical and comparative importance of religions. Durkheim famously observed it to consist of a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. Weber, by contrast, declared in The Sociology of Religion that defining religion is not possible at the start of a presentation such as this.