by Gene Edward Veith
"We work to have leisure, on which happiness
depends." So said Aristotle, quoted by Notre Dame philosopher Gary
Gutting to explain "What Work Is For" in a recent
article for The New York Times. Luther countered this medieval view
of work---which is coming back into style in our consumerist culture---with his
doctrine of vocation.
To be sure, as Gutting says, we celebrate Labor Day by not
working. We work so that we can save up money to take a vacation. We spend most
our lives in the work force so that we can retire. Or as the British rock group
Hard-Fi says, we are "Living for the Weekend." We work in order to
not work.
For Aristotle, contemplation is the activity in which human
beings reach their highest fulfillment. For that, we need leisure. In our
culture today, though, most people probably do not use their leisure to
contemplate the good, the true, and the beautiful. Our leisure is filled more
with entertainment than contemplation.
Gutting recognizes that leisure can degenerate into idleness
and boredom. We should use our leisure, he says, for "productive activity
enjoyed for its own sake." Some things are good in themselves, Aristotle
says. Other things are good because they lead to things that are good in
themselves. For example, money has no intrinsic value---it is just dirty
paper---but it is an "instrumental good" because it allows us to buy
food so that we can stay alive, provide for our family, help others, and other
human purposes, all of which are valuable in themselves. In Book 7 of the Politics,
Aristotle argues that work is such an instrumental good.
If the "productive activity" enjoyed in leisure
can be good in itself---say, writing poetry or building a birdhouse or reading
a book---it would seem that similar exercises of human creativity and
rationality occur in the workplace. But the distinction between intrinsic and
instrumental goods is useful. What is missing, though, from Aristotle is other
people.
Love and Serve
According to Luther, the purpose of every vocation is to
love and serve one's neighbor. The farmer tills the ground to provide food to
sustain his neighbor's life. The craftsman, the teacher, the lawyer---indeed,
everyone who occupies a place in the division of labor---is providing goods and
services that neighbors need. This is God's providential ordering of society.
But for a Christian, the service rendered can become animated with love.
For Luther, vocation was far more than economic activity,
including also our callings in our families, the church, and the culture as a
whole. Each of these vocations calls us to particular neighbors whom we are to
love and serve. Husbands are called to love and serve their wives, and wives
are called to love and serve their neighbors. Pastors love and serve their parishioners,
who love and serve each other. Rulers are to love and serve their subjects, and
citizens love and serve each other for the common good.
Notice, vocation is not primarily about "serving
God" for Luther. He was battling the high view of "contemplation"
found in monasticism, which required the rejection of the vocations of marriage
and parenthood (the vow of celibacy), the vocations of economic activity (the
vow of poverty), and the vocations of citizenship (the vow of obedience, which
replaced the authority of secular law with that of the church). Luther denied
that "the contemplative life" of monasticism was more spiritual than
"the active life" of ordinary Christians living in the world.
The problem with the former was that it tended to isolate Christians from their
neighbors, at worse becoming a retreat into oneself. The monasteries claimed to
serve God---indeed, to allow for salvation by works---but God in Scripture
commands that we love and serve him by loving and serving our neighbors.
"God does not need our good works," Luther taught.
"But our neighbor does." Our relationship with God is established
solely by his grace in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. But then he sends us
out into the world to live out our Christian faith in love and service to our
neighbors.
Furthermore, God himself, in his providential care for his
whole creation, is working through our human vocations. God gives us our daily
bread by means of the farmer, the miller, and the baker. He protects us by
means of lawful magistrates. He creates and cares for new human beings by means
of fathers and mothers. He proclaims his Word and administers his sacraments by
means of pastors. He creates beauty by means of artists and musicians.
To use Aristotelian terms, loving one's neighbor means to
treat other human beings, particularly those we meet in our vocations, as
intrinsic, not instrumental goods; that is, we see them as being valuable in
themselves, and not just for how we can use them. This holds true for the way
husbands and wives need to treat each other, and for the way a Christian
business owner treats customers. Luther's neighbor-centered ethic requires
self-denial---bearing the Cross, which is not just suffering but sacrificing
oneself for others. Thus, wives submit (an act of self-denial) to their
husbands, who "give up themselves" (an act of self-denial) for their
wives---thus, in their callings embodying the relationship between Christ and
the church (Ephesians 5).
What Transforms Our Work?
Gutting goes on in his essay to criticize capitalism for its
view of work. Though Luther's doctrine of vocation played a major role in the
rise of free market capitalism, as many scholars have shown, his focus on
self-denial and service to the neighbor give it a different ethical dimension.
The free market, according to the Enlightenment, is governed by individuals all
pursuing their rational self-interest. Luther would no doubt recognize economic
laws as part of God's ordering of creation. He would acknowledge that fallen
human beings do not usually act in selfless love and service to others, but are
instead motivated by selfishness and the desire to be served rather than to
serve.
Nevertheless, God providentially works through vocation so
as to bless others despite the sinner's evil motives. (A business owner may
have selfish motivations, but unless the business meets people's needs, it will
not be successful.) For the Christian, on the other hand, ordinary labor and
ordinary relationships can be transfigured, as faith discerns the presence of
God, who is active in the humblest of callings. Our vocations become the arena
for the Christian life, where sanctification happens, the site of "faith
working through love" (Galatians
5:6).
The economy can indeed be a dog-eat-dog, Darwinistic,
self-obsessed struggle, which we yearn to escape---whether on a weekend, a
vacation, or retirement. But even the leisure, bought at such a cost, may still
keep us trapped within ourselves. The doctrine of vocation, properly
understood, frees us from our sinful selves through the gospel as our love for
God overflows into love for our neighbors. Our very work becomes
transformed not in its substance---Christian workers mostly perform the same
tasks as non-Christian workers---but in its meaning and in its value.
Gene Edward Veith is provost and professor of literature at
Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.
by Patrick Morley
