“The capacity for the accomplishment of religious virtuosos — the “intellectual sacrifice”— is the decisive characteristic of the positively religious man. That this is so is shown by the fact that in spite of (or rather in consequence) of theology (which unveils it) the tension between the value-spheres of “science” and the sphere of “the holy” is unbridgeable.”

Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946), p. 154; Essay: "The prestige and power of the “Great Powers."

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Max Weber41

German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist 1864–1920

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