While studying Christian Socialism in England for my Master's paper, I found an interesting devotion that was spoken of amidst the working class and the defenders of the worker. One Christian Socialist wrote during the First World War: "Your scented and curled and comfortable little god on a nicely gilt crucifix is not the God of butchered soldiers and broken women and … [Read more...]
Has God Promised Employment?
[on: "give us this day our daily bread"] "Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal support. And although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His hand, and … [Read more...]
Work in Eden and Heaven
As I look forward to the prospect of job-hunting this week I've been thinking about the nature of work. I've often heard a sort of Weber-ian account of the virtue and greatness of work, as well as the often-remarked claim that there was even work in the Garden of Eden, and thus work was a part of Paradise for man. I've always felt this to be completely untrue. I hate work … [Read more...]
Is Flight From the World To Be Understood as an Act of Piety or Despair?
“There are on record examples of men who, forsaking marriage and the administration of the Commonwealth, have hid themselves in monasteries. This they called fleeing from the world, and seeking a kind of life which would be more pleasing to God. Neither did they see that God ought to be served in those commandments which He Himself has given and not in commandments devised by … [Read more...]
Work Ethic – Why I Like Marxism
"The work ethic has become obsolete. It is no longer true that producing more means working more, or that producing more will lead to a better way of life. The connection between more and better has been broken; our needs for many products and services are already more than adequately met, and many of our as-yet- unsatisfied needs will be met not by producing more, but by … [Read more...]