Table Of ContentVocation and the Politics of Work
Vocation and the Politics of Work
Popular Theology in a Consumer Culture
Jeffrey Scholes
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Scholes,Jeffrey,1971–
Vocationandthepoliticsofwork:populartheologyinconsumerculture/JeffreyScholes.
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ISBN978-0-7391-7890-4(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN978-0-7391-7891-1(ebook)
1.Vocation—Christianity.2.Work—Religiousaspects—Christianity.3.Consumption(Econom-
ics)—Religiousaspects—Christianity.4.Christianityandculture.I.Title.
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Contents
Introduction 1
1 TheologyofVocationandtheRoleofWork 19
2 TheologyatWork 49
3 ConsumerCultureandItsEffects 83
4 ThePurchase-DrivenLife 109
5 TowardsaPoliticalVocation 141
Bibliography 171
Index 181
v
Introduction
Studs Turkel’s popular 1972 book, Working, recounts the testimony that
Nora Watson, a staff writer for an institution that publishes health care
literature, gives about the meaning of her job. She laments, “A job like
mine,ifyoureallyputyourspiritintoit,youwouldsabotageimmediate-
ly. You don’t dare. So you absent your spirit from it. My mind has been
so divorced from my job, except as a source of income, it’s really ab-
surd.”1 Later, Nora adds, “I’m coming to a less moralistic attitude to-
wardswork....Idon’tthinkIhaveacalling—atthismoment—exceptto
beme.Butnobodypaysyouforbeingyou,soI’mattheInstitution—for
themoment.Whenyouaskmostpeoplewhotheyare,theydefinethem-
selvesbytheirjobs.‘I’madoctor.’‘I’maradioannouncer.’‘I’macarpen-
ter.’Ifsomebodyasksme,Isay,‘I’mNoraWatson.’”2
Nora’stestimonyexpressesafamiliarneed:tolocatelife’sactivitiesin
abroader,deeper contextinordertogainsatisfactionthroughtheirper-
formance.Sheisalsoconveyingthedifficultyinconnectingafundamen-
talactivityformost(work)toadeeper,fullercontext,orasshecallsit,a
calling or a vocation. Stating that her calling, for the moment, is just “to
be me” betrays the problem that arises when work and a vocation are
decoupled.Ifone’sspirithasvacatedandone’smindhasdivorcedfrom
anactivityascrucialtosatisfactionwithlifeasdailyworkcanbe,having
a calling that only requires Nora to be herself may not be enough to
endurethedailygrind.
This need to couple daily, remunerated work with a serious purpose
for doing it draws on a five-hundred-year history of the Protestant con-
cept of vocation. Since Martin Luther, all work, not just priestly work,
holds the potential to be godly or to be a response to God’s call. This
democratization of vocations has mercifully elevated the status of lowly
jobs, yet it has also burdened work with the duty to be meaningful and
satisfactory. As Max Weber famously pointed out over a century ago,
even though vocational work may have lost a connection to any divine
metaphysical truth, it is still pursued with a kind of religious vigor.3
Whether a vocation is considered to be a response to an actual call from
Godoritisusedtosatisfytheneedforlife’sactivitiestobegreaterthan
thesumofitsparts,itstillholdsimmensesocietalvalue.
Andrew J. Weigart and Anthony J. Blasi express the importance of
vocationsinevenstrongerterms:
1
2 Introduction
Much of the change and resistance to change in social life takes the
form ofthelong-termcommitments that peoplehave and which they
experience as transcendingcallings.Vocationsare not thetotalexpla-
nation for history—i.e., for change and resistance to change; one can
cite alienation, disaffection, greed, lethargy and conventionality as
well.Butvocationssurelyfilloutamajorpartofthepicture.4
In terms of work, it is these long-term commitments manifesting in the
formofacareerthatfeedoffofthesatisfactionwithone’sworktosustain
themselves. Satisfaction with work is, of course, measured differently
depending on the worker and on the context of the job. It is safe to say
that for most workers in the West today, job satisfaction entails much
morethanthemeetingofbasicneedssuchasfoodandshelter.Whatever
factors lead to job satisfaction, if a vocation is to retain any cultural cur-
rencyintheworldofwork,itmustalignitselfwiththese.Alternatively,
whateverfactorsleadtojobdissatisfaction,one’sconceptionofhisorher
ownvocationshouldbeabletoopposethese.
So when work is not living up to the demands that a vocation can
place on it, a divide between work and a vocation opens up, as Nora’s
testimony exhibits. This divide, especially for those who expect their
work to be vocational, invites several responses. If the jurisdiction of a
vocation has been overextended to include all types of daily work, then
theexpectationthatanyjobshouldbeabletodeliveronakindofspiritu-
alfulfillmentneedstobelowered,orthejurisdictionofavocationneeds
to be narrowed. Or if paid work and the activities that would befit a
callingare mutuallyexclusiveinreality,thentheproject tointegratethe
two should be abandoned once and for all. Or work must produce a
certainlevelofemotionalorpsychologicalsatisfactioninorderforittobe
vocation,andthenweshouldceaseexpectingtheworkitselftobe“call-
ing-worthy.” Or finally, perhaps the problem lies not with the lack of
agreementbetweenavocationandone’sfeelingaboutoneselfatworkbut
with the current inability of vocations to engage work and the material
andpoliticalfactorsthatleadtosatisfactionordissatisfaction.
The twofold purpose of this book is to elucidate the causes of this
latter “vocation problem” and in so doing, suggest the conditions that
allowforsolutions.Togetattheproblem,Ifirstshowthattheabstraction
of the Protestant concept of vocation from actual work by theologians
overthelast fivehundredyearscontributestoitsinabilitytoengagethe
concreteworkworld.Thesegradualmovestowardsabstractionhaveof-
ten been made, sometimes consciously, sometimes not, in response to
changesinthesocioeconomicenvironmentasitinvolvesthemeaningof
work.Thus,Ifollowthisanalysiswithacompanionpiecetothetheologi-
cal history that demonstrates the effects of culture on the nature and
comprehension of daily work. I pay special attention to the shift in the
twentieth century West from societies organized around production to
those now organized around consumption. It is this transition that also
