Theologies of work, Part I

"Work," explained Adam Smith, "is a necessary evil." Faced with the Catholic teaching that only priests and monks were engaged in spiritually significant work, however, Martin Luther suggested otherwise, proclaiming: "It is more spiritual for a cobbler to use good leather and a strong stitch than it is to pass out tracts." Even mundane work, in other words, can glorify God.

Oddly enough, many contemporary pastors seem to blend Smith with Luther, yielding a curious mixture. Work is going to be difficult and unpleasant, they teach, because of the Fall. But work is also a beautiful thing, so long as the Christian does it with diligence while evangelizing in the workplace.

Writing at Bible.org, for example, Pastor Bob Deffinbaugh offers a coherent summary of this doctrine. "Any honorable occupation," he writes, is a ministry where one can "serve men and glorify God." Writing for Campus Crusade for Christ, meanwhile, Bob Thune lists ways that our work glorifies God, such as working hard and honoring our superiors. Yes, work is hard, they tell us. But it can also be rewarding, in the spiritual sense.

Both writers -- exemplary of many pastors in this domain -- are remarkable for what they leave out, namely: that our labor should reflect the fact that we are formed in the image of the great Creator. The modern theology of work seems to be that you can dig ditches and fill them back in all day long, so long as you do it with a smile and invite co-workers to your small group.

Faced with the question of what work Christians ought to do, in other words, many pastors seem to believe that the content of the work -- so long as it is legal -- is irrelevant, and that what matters is one's attitude, and one's effort to evangelize within it. No wonder Concordia University's Center for Faith and Business is so blunt in the 10th of its Commandments for the Workplace: "Be satisfied with what you have." The modern Christian theology of work, schizophrenic to the core, can say little else.

So is all honest, legal employment that one might take on equal, so long as one is diligent about it, and one evangelizes? Friday I'm going to argue absolutely not, and that our modern theology of work, such as one can tease it out of our pastors, is woefully inadequate. But I'm curious about your conception of work. How is its purpose for the Christian different than for the pagan?