With hammer in hand, Martin Luther (1483-1546) struck a significant blow
against clericalism and for the laity in the world by insisting on the
universal call to holiness. A cobbler’s work is as valuable to God as is a priest’s,
he explained. The vocation of a homemaker is no further away from God than that
of a priest in the pulpit.
Subsequent leaders of the Reformation lost sight of
Luther’s significant contribution on the primacy of baptism and the centrality
of lay spirituality. Instead, those leaders preached the “utter depravity” of
each person and claimed that the world was a playground for the devil.
Temptation lurked all around. This pessimistic turn in Protestant thinking only
reinforced the heaven and earth dualism, the difference between clergy and
laity.
Gradually, Protestants found a way to balance the good
that people can do in the world and the persistence of worldly evil. For
example, successful industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) pointed to the philanthropic responsibilities for monied Christians, in his 1889 essay “The Gospel of Wealth.”
Max Weber (1864-1920), a founder of sociology,
popularized the balanced approach in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism (Penguin, 1904). Certain Christian virtues (like thrift,
competence, loyalty, efficiency, measured charity) reinforce habits that are
important to success in a capitalist economy, he wrote. Unfortunately, the
Christian side of this philosophy has been eclipsed these days by a laissez faire
style of capitalism that prizes utilitarian ethics, individualism, and
consumerism.
What does Catholicism have to say about work?
Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
were greatly disturbed by the downside of capitalism: crowded housing,
dangerous occupations, child labor, in a word, misery. Their radical
proposals included the abolition of private property.
Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) came to the defense of private
property in his 1891 encyclical, On the Condition of Labor. Leo XIII added,
however, that capitalism must have restraints, like government regulation,
labor unions, professional standards and more.
In his Theology of Work (Regnery, 1966), Fr.
Marie-Dominique Chenu, OP (1895-1990) further developed Catholic doctrine about
the laity at work. His perspective, like that of other contributors to Vatican
II (1962-1965), was pegged to an industrial economy with its impoverishing
downside.
Before his election as pope, Saint John Paul II
(1920-2005) was a stonecutter in a limestone quarry. He was employed in a
chemical plant and as a railroad maintenance man. He was a dramatist and a
theater promoter. He was also quite fluent in the Marxist perspective on work.
As pope, he wrote a September 1981 encyclical, On Human Work. It stands
as a masterful Catholic reflection on the philosophy and theology of work.
Kate Ward of Marquette University brings the topic into
our post-industrial context with Making a Life: Catholic Social Teaching and
the Meaning of Work (National Center for the Laity, 2026).
Ward begins with a contrast between a work-until-you-drop
mindset and a Catholic worldview. Our current economy is premised on what she
calls workism. It values activity in the world exclusively by “outputs
that can literally be counted.” Workism is associated with long hours on the
job, with unpredictable job schedules, and with side hustles (aka
entrepreneurship or gigs).
By contrast, as she details, Catholicism uses “an
inclusive definition of work.” For starters, Catholic theology regards work as
“more than what we do for pay… Unpaid work is work.” It is “any activity
through which humans transform the world.”
Ward heaves aside the pessimistic idea that work is a
punishment for sin. Adam and Eve were (in one translation) “dressing paradise”
before the Fall and they continued to work thereafter. Rather than a
punishment, work in and of itself contributes to holiness.
Though Catholicism maintains ideals about work, it is
realistic; work--on the job, around the home and in the community--is irksome. Nonetheless,
keep in mind that through toil and accomplishment the “primary importance” of
our activity “is how it shapes the worker, rather than what work produces,”
Ward urges.
Injustice finds its way into the world of work—again, on
the job, in the home and in the community. Inadequate wages are a prime
example. Yet, a person’s employer might be paying “the best they can afford,”
Ward interestingly acknowledges. She goes on to explain the concept of indirect
employers. These are the entities that set the terms within which a
person’s direct employer (like a small business owner, a non-profit
agency, or a franchise) operates—factors like government regulations, the
sector’s expectations, the corporate office that controls significant
variables.
Ward concludes Making a Life with applications of
Catholic doctrine to caregiving, to art and leisure. She also examines food
preparation from farm to table. Like all products of work, a meal is “a larger
reality that can be called sacramental.” It stands “for something larger; the
labor that produced it.” That labor is an extension of God’s ongoing creation
and thus a meal (like other products or accomplishments) contains grace.
Pope Leo XIV chose
his papal name, he says, precisely to build upon the Catholic theology of work
begun in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. Specifically, Leo XIV says Catholicism must
reflect on an AI-economy. Kate Ward’s Making a Life is a good start to
such reflection.
Droel
is editor at National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).
It distributes On the Condition of Labor by Pope Leo XIII (free), On
Human Work by Saint John Paul II ($7) and Making a Life by Kate Ward
($18).
