Abstract
The essays collected in Theology of Work, edited by Gregorio Guitián, provide a far-reaching theological analysis of work, bringing together Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox perspectives, and developing a range of topics related to biblical theology, Thomism, and the Social Magisterium. The collection is distinct in that it is organized around the three broad themes of context, integration, and challenge. It will be of interest, firstly, to moral theologians and Christian ethicists in their efforts to better appreciate the implications of work for the Christian tradition and vice versa, but also to business ethicists and organizational scholars seeking to better understand the motivations and concerns that may shape many organization members. As such, this is a timely volume full of rich insights that promise to spur many new potential lines of inquiry.
In his helpful introduction, Guitián explains context by noting that ‘it is vital to understand work not in isolation but in the broader context of the good of human life as a whole’ (p. 6). He explains this claim by recounting a story of a corporate executive, who having achieved success and recognition through her work, lamented the fact that she had not had a larger family. Guitián's point is not just to highlight the women's retrospective judgment that she devoted too much time to work and too little to family, but to emphasize the fact that this judgment changed the meaning and value of her work itself, making it apparent that work cannot be properly understood in isolation from the larger context in which it is embedded. Part I focuses on the broader theological context of work. These essays present different contexts that give work its meaning: worship, or the ‘Divine Liturgy’ (p. 45); the life of Christ; the artisan's participation in creation; and, ultimately, the perspective of ‘eternal rest in God, a rest whose foretaste is offered within history unto all those who humbly and meekly bring their labors to Christ, the giver of rest’. Together, the essays in Part I admirably orient readers beyond the quotidian context of work to consider the larger narrative of salvation history that promises to transform and even transfigure its meaning. An important question broached in this section concerns the eschatological significance of work. Sanz Sanchez, for example, says that work ‘contributes to the Kingdom of God, while it cannot be identified with it’ (p. 28), leaving one to wonder how exactly the relationships between the good work we do now and the coming Kingdom is to be understood.
Part II addresses the theme of integration, which Guitián says, centers upon ‘the tensions experienced in everyday work’, tensions between ‘the objective and the subjective dimensions of work; work and worship; work and faith; work and family; work and rest, to till and to keep (Gen 2:15); work and contemplation; personal project and the common good, and so on’ (p. 8). Two interesting essays in this section highlight Old Testament perspectives on work, drawing upon Ecclesiastes and Leviticus, respectively. Whereas the former, by Diego Pérez Gondar, highlights the contrast between work in God's original plan for creation and the effects of sin, suggesting that we can bridge the divide insofar as we ‘enjoy the goodness of life as long as it is granted by God’ (p. 141), the latter, as read by Francisco Varo, offers a comprehensive set of insights that focuses on aligning work with the order of creation as instituted by God, including respect for nature and communal relations, and an appreciation of the importance of rest. Félix María Arocena's essay addresses another crucial contrast, namely the division between homo faber and homo liturgicus, ‘affirm[ing] that, for Christians, every work, every honest culture aimed at transforming creation, is called to express in a limited way the universal scope of Christ's oblation on the Cross and to unfold the inexhaustible salvific potential of His Passover’ (p. 181), thus uniting work and worship through one's sacrificial attitude.
The theme of Part III is challenge, which Guitián says refers to the need to address and challenge the ‘structural context’ (p. 11) within which work occurs. Accordingly, the four essays in this section challenge key dogmas of our contemporary market society. Duane Stephen Long challenges the Protestant work ethic, defending, instead, a form of Christian socialism. Mary Hirschfield questions the reliance of mainstream economics on rational choice theory and its resulting tendency to ignore work done in the home. David Cloutier takes on the ‘anti-work position’ in contemporary theology, which, in his view, mistakenly aims for less work rather than good work. This position, according to Cloutier, inevitably relies upon a ‘bureaucratized state economy’ that is ‘unlikely to present us with good work’ because of its focus on regulation and a basic income. And in doing this, it fails to focus on direct economic activity in the market to ‘its real end: persons, and their giving of themselves to one another’ (p. 281). In her interesting concluding essay, Ana Marta González challenges the threat of the loss of meaning, including the meaning of work, posed by the secularity characteristic of modernity. According to González, work is increasingly becoming ‘individualized, privatized, [and] aestheticized’ (p. 286). Yet, if this very mundane view of work represents the substance of our modern secular world, ‘the fact that the human reality of work has been assumed by Christ changes the way we should think about the relationship between the secular and the sacred’, suggesting that the meaning of such work can only be grasped in the light of a ‘transcendent source’ (p. 288). This horizon is not merely the fact that all work ‘objectively represents a service’ (p. 292), but also the fact that it can come to be appreciated ‘as a way of cooperating with God in the work of creation, and as a vehicle of his redeeming grace’ (p. 297). Doing this, she argues, is a way not of negating but rather of affirming the secular while properly situating it in its transcendent horizon.
Together, the essays collected in this volume provide the outlines of a much-needed contemporary statement of a theology of work grounded in insightful biblical reflection, enriched by engagement with major figures in the history of Christian theology, and deepened through dialogue with different theological traditions. As such, it not only promises to prove fruitful for future work in moral theology and Christian ethics, but also furthers efforts in business ethics to move beyond a narrowly applied approach focused on ethical quandaries by offering a theological horizon by which to frame inquiries into specific problems. One important limitation concerns the relative lack of integration with contemporary research in business ethics and organization studies. Work is structured in varying ways in different industries and even between firms in the same industry. Accordingly, questions about the meaning and value of work from a theological perspective could gain more depth from engaging with research that is focused on these topics. Similarly, business ethicists, some of whom are very welcoming to theological issues, have addressed many of the same themes broached throughout this volume, suggesting that an explicit engagement with research in business ethics may offer the possibility of a fruitful dialogue. Yet, an engagement between theology and business ethics on the topic of work can only occur once the core themes of a theology of work are articulated and explored, something that this volume has admirably accomplished.