Harrison's strictures against the pursuit of individual self-interest at the expense of the community, discussed in the previous chapter, clearly have some bearing on the long-established controversy about the relationship between Protestantism and the acceptance of a capitalist scale of economic values. Other aspects of his thought, however, are also very relevant to the currently more fashionable debate about the possible connections between the more uncompromising strands of Protestantism, the capitalist outlook, and the emergence of recognisably ‘modern’ approaches to scientific investigation. This chapter will not discuss those debates at greater length than is necessary to put William Harrison's thought into its historiographical context. Instead it will suggest that the general framework of Harrison's thought already discussed offers a better context in which to assess his views about economic endeavour and the investigation of nature, and that this individual context gives important insights into Protestant thinking about social and economic relationships, as well as Protestant attitudes towards scientific enquiry and its implications for the contemporary economy.

In both these areas Harrison's thought follows a pattern of reasoning familiar to us from previous chapters, recalling the strict limitations which he placed on the use of human reason in the interpretation of prophecy, history and chronology, in the organisation and direction of the Church, and in the determination of proper political and economic actions.