Religious concepts of significance for understanding work

1. Religious concepts of significance for understanding work Thom Donlin-Smith Professor of Religious Studies

2. Religious concepts of significance for understanding work • Ways of finding transcendent meaning in work

3. Compassion or love • In Buddhism known as “karuna” • In Christianity, “agapé” • A motive to work at all, a reason to choose a particular type of work, and a guide to the manner in which one is to work.

4. Stewardship, Providence • Stewardship (caliph) – humans as God’s representatives on earth to rule over & care for it. • Providence – the goodness, blessings, of God. • In Western religions, work is participating in God's goodness & care for the world • E.g., Gen 2 • Work has inherent value, is not simply valued for its products.

5. Co-Creators • Humans are participants with God in the on-going task of creating the world. • Emphasizes human responsibility & creativity and a world of hopeful possibilities.

6. Work as perfection or repair of the world • Perfecting the world is the faithful Muslim’s task. • Repair (tikkun) of the broken world is an important theme in modern Jewish mysticism and ethics. • Emphasizes work as justice. • Motivates an activist engagement with the world.

7. Life as struggle, work as a divine curse. • Jihad (struggle) of Islam – life (and work) as struggle to be faithful to God. • Gen 3 - difficult labor is a curse from God. Bible is not naive about the burdens of work. • Leads to dualistic, de-motivating escapism?

8. Covenant • Work is a natural & self-fulfilling relationship with God. Work is participation with God who has made the world, who makes the earth produce.

9. Covenant contrasted with contract • A cov is a person-to-person, emotional commitment; a contract is commitment to performance of the terms. • A cov is a broad commitment, open-ended in demands & duration. A contract is a narrow commitment to specified terms & specified duration.

10. Covenant vs Contract (cont.) • A cov assumes shared values, basic trust. A contract has no assumption of shared values, and its specified terms protect in a context of distrust. • A cov is concerned with the good of all parties, assumes shared interests so that all will & can benefit.

11. Covenant vs Contract (cont.) • A cov is durable & flexible; can forgive. A contract is demanding, rigid, brittle. • Because of its religious heritage, cov suggests something sacred, suggests that God is a party. Contract is a legal arrangement where the law is that other party. • Covenant is based on gratitude (grace). Contract is based on reciprocity between self-interested parties.

12. Vocation • Work done on God’s behalf. • Traditional Catholic meaning of that term as speciality work done in service of the Church. • Luther’s Protestant democratization of the term: any faithful work in the world can be a vocation. • Working faithfully in the “meantime,” anticipating fulfillment of the eschaton.

13. Calling • Implies a caller (God or the community) • Is motivational. Gives one a sense of “mission.” • Personalizes & communalizes work at the same time; links one's personal & public identities.

14. Service • Imitation of Christ, the “suffering servant.” • See God in the other and work to serve that center of value. • How to reconcile with the self-interested “career” dimension of work? • See Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership: http://www.greenleaf.org/

15. Eucharist • Work as mediation of God’s presence in the world. • Transformation of the world by reconciling it to God through one’s work.

16. New Heavens / New Earth • Eschatological hopeful confidence in promised future.

17. “Protestant work ethic” • Protestantism’s genius for, & influence on, work • Luther and “vocations” for lay people • Calvin's “intra-worldly asceticism” • RC Jansenism had similar spirit • Puritans' version of wealth as sign of God's favor • Historical link between rise of Protestantism and the rise of capitalism

18. Karma-yoga • Hindu spiritual path of the way of action. • Background assumptions: • life stages include long period as “householder” doing the work of one’s family; • life goals permit the pursuit of “artha” (wealth) in one’s work and obligate one to meet one’s social duties (“dharma”);

19. Karma-yoga (cont.) • Background assumptions (cont.): • caste determines what one’s work will be; • other spiritual paths celebrate the ways of meditation (raja-yoga), devotional love of a god (bhakti-yoga), or scholarly study of spiritual teachings (jnana-yoga). Karma-yoga is the path of action in the world, action with a spirit of detachment from results.

20. Wu wei • “Actionless action” of Daoism. • Does not mean do nothing, but is a style of action in which one “takes it easy,” “goes with the flow,” works with the natural rhythms of the earth, stays in harmony with one’s environment.