(Theology In a New Key)

To follow this dialogue go also to THINK, Response ,  Aboriginals 1,  Aboriginals 2, Jesus

Testing our method.

we met in our larger group, comprising four students, six adults and our mentor. We presented our theological framework and method and led the group through a discussion on WORK/EMPLOYMENT/UNEMPLOYMENT/LEISURE simply as a test procedure. Read on to see what we achieved. 

Our experience

• Work is something we do for status as well as for money. In this country to not be working is to be of lower status. Is looking after a child work? People do not seem to think so (at least do not regard it as something of status).
• Maybe there is a distinction to be made between employment (paid) and work (a wider term). Work is associated with self-esteem. The Australian term 'bludger' (for someone who doesn't want to work) is a term of abuse.
• Do we work to live or live to work?
• Work appears to be linked to satisfaction, fulfilment (Is it seeing one's product, or feeling good about it or having control over what we do that give us this satisfaction?)

The Tradition

A brief look at two documents (one from Vatican II, the other the Catechism of the Catholic Church) offers different kind of language that we can put in touch with the points we raised in our exploration of experience:

• Work is something of a human activity, 'performing activities for the benefit of society'.
• Work is 'labour associated with the Creator'.
• The concept of vocation enters the discussion here…so a person bringing up a child may well be 'working' in the sense of performing an activity of benefit to society, of labouring in association with the Creator. Then there is volunteer 'work' along the same lines.
• What about the equality, then, of tasks, lots of them, in Australian society (equal because they are all for the benefit of society, or creative acts)? And yet there are certain 'status' activities - and child-bearing and rearing does not seem to be one of them. It is simply expected.
• From the Scriptures we get the idea of work as a duty - St. Paul - do not let those eat who do not work.
• We also hear the word 'talents'.
• The Catholic Catechism speaks of work as redemptive, and as sanctifying. BUT - work can also be demeaning we feel and soul-destroying, exploitative. Any balanced theology of work has to take this into account.
• 'Labour's value comes from human nature.' (CCC, somewhere).

Australian (and other) inspiration.

• There are certain grand figures of society - e.g. 'Weary' Dunlop, a magnificent figure of a man from the Second World War in Burma who worked for his fellow-man. Helen Keller.
• We considered the aboriginal concept of work which seems much more communal and not tied to money, more tied to the land, but uniquely Australian. This kind of work is not acquisitive in nature.
• Amongst white Australians, the Nimbin (hippie commune) experience expresses certain communal values, closeness to the earth. A society apart, one seeking and demonstrating happiness. A member of the group has direct experience of this community. The point was made that this bears some resemblance to early Christian (New Testament) communities, set apart, working for each other, sharing goods etc.
• A short passage from an Australian author Tim Winton, from his novel Cloudstreet, where he describes a work scene in typical Australian language, but one which sounds vibrant, energetic, even fulfilling even though the activity is not in itself a 'staus' one:

Our interpretation

From all the above we feel we can now make the following interpretation for ourselves re work, employment, unemployment, leisure:

• People need to feel useful and/or creative.
• Work means different things to different people on a scale ranging from survival to vocation. If one operates from a survival perspective, then 'leisure' is what you do when you don't work. If one operates from a 'vocation' perspective, then 'leisure' and 'work' may well be identified with each other!
• 'Work' and 'justice' are concepts which interrelate, since work can be described as a right, or a duty or a responsibility.
• It seems to be a question (ie what is work?) to be addressed to communities as well as to individuals.
• Part of human nature is to be happy. Work is part of this.
• Unemployment can be dehumanizing and limiting of the human spirit. The converse should also be true - employment can be expanding of the human spirit. Work can mean more human, and that is good.
• 'Paid' is only a small part of it. Would 'reward' be a better, more inclusive term?

We concluded our brief exploration with the thought that work patterns in this country are controlled by powerful forces of a political and economic kind. The need for exercising personal option and control in work had come through in our thinking. The fact that it doesn't suggests the element of structural evil in our work patterns….but that is another discussion….