Holiness Through Work

Four decades after John Paul II published his 1981 encyclical on human work, this volume brings together original essays by internationally known scholars. The contributors take up the document's core concerns and purpose, testing its insights against the conditions of postmodern society.

The essays revisit the pope's understanding of labor and connect the dignity of the working person to the pursuit of holiness. A recurring argument holds that humanism can only reach its highest ideals when it is genuinely Christian.

The chapters range widely. Giulio Maspero examines work in the Bible and the Church Fathers, and Patricia Ranft traces theologies of work in the High Middle Ages. Angela Franks studies the metaphysics of labor in John Paul II, while Deborah Savage addresses technocratic work, women's labor, and the Church's social vision. Martin Schlag puts the pope in conversation with Josemaría Escrivá on contemplation, and Richard Turnbull offers a Protestant reading of Laborem Exercens. Michael Naughton and Geoffrey C. Friesen explore the subjective dimension of work, the first in general terms and the second within economics and finance. Christopher Michaelson considers subjects and objects in meaningful work. Javier Ignacio Pinto Garay and Alvaro Pezoa Bissieres look at the worker and the dignity of work in business ethics across global corporate practice, and Gonzalo Flores-Castro Lingán considers how the encyclical can be put into practice.

The book adds to scholarship in Catholic Social Thought. It is intended for graduate study and for readers who want serious engagement with Christian theology.