Abstract

The woes of the contemporary American worker, alienated due to excessively Taylorized work and diminished participation in decision-making, as well as the predicted strains in a future workworld call for some vision to alleviate the alienation and to guide manpower planning at a value level. The distinctness and uniqueness of contemporary work constantly confront the worker, researcher of work, and the counselor, but insights into and the values of work in a theological perspective are rarely encountered in workplaces, schools, churches, or families. No literature is available on the implications for counseling in a theology of work. This study, then, applies Bernard Lonergan's cognitional theory in an interdisciplinary, subject specialization approach so as to arrive at an insightful and value-laden theology of work. The experiences, understandings, judgments, and choices of history, economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and theology concerning work have been garnered from representative authors for insights to be internalized as values, From these insights and values were drawn implications for counseling. From this interdisciplinary effort emerged a theological definition of work, mimetic of the Trinity and based on human nature: work is human, consubstantiating, creative, redemptive, and inquiring activity, imaging the Creative Father, the Redeeming Son, and the Inquiring Spirit and striving for a more human world, society, and humankind to be returned to the Father, Son, and Spirit in the endtime. Human work, therefore, can be regarded as individual, personal, social, natural, divinely and humanly participative, consubstantiating, physical, emotional, intellectual, will-involved, spiritual, recompensed or non-recompensed, self and/or group sustaining and fulfilling, freeing yet limiting, eleemosynary, service, production, and/or information- oriented, self and other respecting, afflicted, associated with worship and leisure, technologically evolving, social consciousness and energy-raising, responsible, and Christian activity. Each of these represents a theological insight into and value of work...