The Calvinist doctrine of predestination paradoxically unleashed expansive individual initiative.

Evidence

The position of Calvinism, however, with its iron conception of predestination and grace, which produces a vast expansion of the spirit of initiative (or becomes the form of this movement) is even more revealing and significant. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1212

Categorization

• XREF: Direct bridge to Weber’s Protestant Ethic thesis, which Gramsci explicitly cites in the very next paragraph — a canonical scaffold for how a theology can reshape economic and political subjectivity.
• QUESTION: Gramsci’s parenthetical ‘or becomes the form of this movement’ is doing heavy work — is the doctrine cause or mere expression? Worth chasing how Gramsci resolves the Weber debate.