Max Weber, a German sociologist, sees religion as an agent of social change. While Emile Durkeim argued that religion served to maintain social stability and harmony through the act of collective worship, Weber thought that religion emerged to satisfy a general social need. For him, a religion is the shared values ​​of any society, which shapes thoughts and gives people a sense of hope and something to believe in. Therefore, it brings about changes in social relations and produces real material effects by empowering and mobilizing them in reality.Weber was particularly interested in salvation religions because of their enormous social consequences. He thought that the need for salvation arises when people are faced with discrepancies between the reality they face and the ideal they pursue. (p 288) Salvation religions seek to bridge the gap between the real and the ideal, both by fleeing from the imperfections of life and by gaining dominion over the world to make it conform to the ideal. He called it asceticism, by which he referred to all religious attempts to combat the evils of life and transform the world. Religions that fall into this category include Shinto in Japan and Rastafarianism in Jamaica. Despite the geographical divide between the two, both religions have something in common. In the Weberian perspective, the two had charismatic and traditional authorities behind them, supported by the elements of charisma and symbolism. However, the German political economist's hypothesis that capitalism was a product of the Western mind did not prove correct in Japan due to the hard work and strong entrepreneurship inherent in Japan. Shinto is the defining element of Japanese religion and culture. It's been around for a thousand years... half the paper... Hill Co., 2001) p 511-515 Jacobs, AJ Max Weber Was Right About Preconditions, He Was Simply Wrong About Japan: Japanese Ethics and Its Spirit of Capitalism (The Open Area Studies Journal, 2010) p 1-18Kessler, Gary E. Studying Religion: An Introduction through Cases (Third Edition, Columbus, McGraw-Hill Co., 2007) p132, 136, 162, 257-260 , 268-275, 288, 289 Max Weber's Charismatic Authority http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_authority Max Weber's Transformational Leadership Authority, New Mexico State University http://cbae.nmsu.edu/ ~dboje/teaching/503/weber_links. htmlOno, Sokyo. Shinto: the Kami Way (Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co., Inc. 1962) p 54, 95, 104, 122 Rasfatari Movement http://www.jah.com/rastafari-movement Roth, Guenther. Witch, Clause. Economy and society: notes on interpretative sociology (volume 2) p 448-250