What's your theology of work?

How does your idea of the "divine" or the "sacred" -- however you understand this -- relate to work?

Many of us have never thought about this.

I hadn't explicitly until I entered seminary. Now I'm wondering how any of us can think about work, our careers or our "impact" without starting from our ideas about what's sacred!

The theologian Dorothee Soelle can help us look at this idea of a "theology of work". Soelle was a German liberation theologian and poet, professor, activist and mystic. She wrote a book exploring her own theology of work called To Work And To Love: A Theology of Creation.

She taught at Union Theological Seminary and famously taught ideas like: "God is Justice" & "I believe in God who created the world not ready made...but who desires the counter-arguments of the living and the alteration of every condition through our work, through our politics."

Even for me, someone very skeptical of all things Christian and most references to God, these are inspiring interpretations of religion.

One theology of work that many of us are familiar with is the "curse" model.

In this version, humans were frolicking in Eden eating mangoes, having orgies, and basking in God's love until our devious curiosity and willfulness and sexuality and feminine wiles caused us to fall into sin. Then our Sky Daddy got really mad, cast us out of the garden and now we have to toil and suffer to support ourselves as our punishment.

This is a basic but popular interpretation of Genesis 3:17 -- and it's very possibly the theology of work you absorbed from your parents and society.

Here's another theology of work that you might be familiar with: the "Protestant work ethic." This one goes: Laboring is the will of God. Work is the antidote to sinful idleness. Work is good regardless of it's substance. Work is how we show our obedience to God -- and don't ask any further questions. It's also richly ironic as a phrase that came about as white Protestants enslaved people and committed genocide.

Soelle examines both of these theologies of work in her book and she criticized Christianity for "accommodat[ing] people to meaningless work." Yikes!

These are some questions I wonder about as I consider my own theology of work:

• Is our creativity sacred? Are our unique gifts sacred? If so, are we acting like it? Shouldn't we share them on Earth in this lifetime?
• How can we do that and get by economically?
• What's this whole "rest" thing? Is it OK? Is it healing? Is it dangerous, or holy?
• What matters more than productivity and achievement and wealth?
• What is enough?
• Can our work possibly fill our cup and *be* our spiritual path, linking us to community and spirituality, rather than draining and exhausting us?
• Is all work abusive and extractive?

Slowing down to ponder our "God" or sense of the divine

Soelle does something very meaningful in her book by clarifying her concept of God or divinity. She says her God is the God of Exodus before creation. She says she believes specifically in the God who heard the suffering cries of the Israelites enslaved in Egypt and liberated them. *That* is the God described in Genesis. For Soelle, there is no creation that isn't wholly interlinked with liberation.

She says her God is "in process" -- not all powerful. God is growing and learning alongside humans, persuading us to be good. Soelle says God is "power in relation," a definition she borrows from a fellow feminist theologian, Carter Hayward.

Maybe it's a good idea for all of us to think about our idea of divinity, the sacred, or God so that we can consider how that shapes our philosophy and approach to other parts of life.

Soelle's theology says work should be:

- liberating

- us co-creating life alongside God

- us perfecting our gifts

- creative

- a form of self-expression

- us imagining new solutions to problems humans face

- improving how we relate to community and humanity

- challenging

- visionary

- not oppressing the poor

- reconciling our relationship with nature

- not enabling the military

- positive for nature and the Earth

- joyful

- building solidarity between workers, and between workers internationally

- includes rest

Soelle's theology of work even includes sex!

She says sex is where we learn about ecstasy, wholeness, trust, creativity, pleasure, rest, and relating to each other in mature, responsible, nuanced ways. She says our work should be informed by the erotic, because that's how we learn to affirm our bodies and each others' bodies.

Soelle says that:

Work can be a place to live our faith.

Faith is being empowered to love and struggle for justice.

Through our work, we can reconcile creation and liberation.

Soelle's theology of work is inspiring...and lofty!

Maybe our work shouldn't hurt us, life or the Earth. This will require a lot of swimming upstream.

Here's one great page from the end of her book:

This last sentence ends "...we rediscover the source of our creativity and our connection to all living things"

What is your theology of work?

Does your idea of the divine combine liberation and creation? Or just creation?

Does your work align with Soelle's criteria?

Are your standards for "good work" this high?

Is "good work" accessible? Or is this all la-la-land academic talk?

Want to dig into your own theology of work?

I offer 1:1 leadership coaching and spiritual accompaniment.

We talk about this idea and more.

You can set up an intro call here.