What People Are Saying

Foreword by Nicholas Wolterstorff

Many are the writers who lament the breach between the faith and the work of Christians in the modern world. Some go beyond lament and seek to contribute to healing the breach. Their typical strategy is to develop a theology of work—supplemented, now and then, with a theologically informed ethic of work. Their assumption is that if Christians acquire the right theological thoughts about work by reading their writings, the breach between faith and work will be healed and integration will ensue.

The authors of this book join the crowd of those who lament the breach, but they stand out from the crowd in a way that is of fundamental importance. They remark that they, too, once assumed that teaching the laity a theology of work was the path to integration. No longer. They became “convinced that theologies of work need to be practiced, embedded, and embodied in communities of worship.” Furthermore, “daily work should ‘show up’ in the community’s prayers and sermons, its songs and benedictions, its testimonies and sacraments. Theologies of work matter, but they need to be sung and prayed. We need to find ways for our theologies of work to inhabit more than our brains—they need to enter our bones…An integrated life is not an intellectual achievement, an all-of-a-sudden eureka moment of theological discovery…The fabric of faith and work needs to be slowly and intentionally woven back together over a lifetime of prayer and worship.”

Lest mistaken conclusions be drawn, the writers go on to declare that “The mind of the worker still matters. What workers think about theology, vocation, and work is still important.” But the question that concerns them is this: “How does a theological idea about work actually embed itself deeply in the life of a worker? Put another way, how does an intellectual theology of work become a lived theology of work? Some Christians have a theology of work floating about in their brains; others have it embedded in their bones. We want the latter.”

The authors observe that they have found nothing quite like the book they have written. “As far as we can tell,” they say, “the academic fields of ‘Workplace theology’ and ‘worship studies’ have never been brought together In sustained conversation.” Liturgical studies “almost never mention work or workers,” nor are there “any books on workplace theology that seek to learn from the field of worship studies.” I, too, know of nothing quite like this book. It is a trailblazing achievement!

After an Opening section that the authors call “Foundations,” in which they develop the case for their approach, there is a section of six chapters called “Resources” in which they describe, in considerable detail, how work was integrated with worship in ancient Israel and in the early church. The section is truly remarkable, both in the skill with which it brings to life those ancient worship practices and in the breadth of scholarship that it displays.

In the final section on “Practices,” the authors consider ways in which the worship of the church today can become what they call “vocationally conversant worship.” Though they offer concrete examples of such worship, they emphasize that theirs is not a how-to-do-it manual. Christian worship is too diverse, and work in the modern world is likewise too diverse for any one-size-fits-all list of suggestions. The examples are not meant to be copied but to stir the imagination of worship leaders to craft vocationally conversant worship that fits their particular worshipers and their particular workers.

Though the scholarship is remarkable in its breadth, it is presented in a way that makes it readily accessible to those who are neither theologians nor liturgical scholars—lucid and blessedly free of scholarly jargon. Take and read!