Sunday, August 9, 2009

Sayers on work!

Some excerpts from Dorothy Sayers essay 'Why Work?' as they appear in Letters to a Diminished Church:

I have already, on a previous occasion, spoken at some length on the subject of Work and Vocation. What I argued then was a thoroughgoing revolution in our whole attitude to work. I asked that it should be looked upon-not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God. That it should, in fact, be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that man, made in God's image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing. (125)


What is the Christian understanding of work?...I should like to put before you two or three propositions...The first, stated quite briefly, is that work is not, primarily, a thing that one does to live, but the thing one lives to do...My second proposition directly concerns Christians as such, and it is this: it is the business of the Church to recognize that the secular vocation, as such, is sacred...This brings me to my third proposition; and this may sound to you the most revolutionary of all. It is this: the worker's first duty is to serve the work. (134-142)

1 comment:

  1. Very nice and well put. We should all follow this and I believe we would find more joy and contentment in life.

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