Introduction

1. Hardy is writing this book to correct a widely held conviction about the meaning and purpose of work (xiv-xv).

a What is this mistaken conviction? Who holds it?

b What is the true meaning and purpose of work?

Chapter 1

2. According to Hardy, our feelings about work are deeply ambivalent. Sketch the range of opinion, explaining why we might hold such contradictory views (3-6).

The Ancient Greeks

3. How did the ancient Greeks view work? (6-8)

4. Often, beliefs about what ought to be (as morally appropriate) are anchored in beliefs about what nature actually is. What did the world of nature tell the ancient Greeks about the value of work? (8-10)

5. Similarly, ancient (and modern!) authors often define what is authentically human by contrasting it with what pertains to animals. What contrast is drawn regarding work? (8-10.

How does this human/animal distinction help them determine who ought to perform the ordinary labor needed to keep the society functioning?

6. Once again, ancient (and modern!) authors often explain ideal human existence by pointing to the gods (or God). What did the life of the gods teach the ancient Greeks about the relative value of work and leisure? (11-14)

7. Finally, ancient writers often used the human person as a microcosm or miniature of the larger natural or social world. Contrast Aristotle and Plato on their views of how the soul relates to the body, and what that implies about who should do the heavy labor in society. (14-16)

The Medieval Continuation

8. The Greeks established a threefold distinction which has endured in Western thinking. Define and distinguish each of the following: (16-18)

the life of labor

the active life

the contemplative life

9. How were these three forms of life ranked on the hierarchy of value? What was the relative value or importance of each? Why? (16-19)

10. What kind of work were monks expected to perform? How well does this work fit Hardy’s definition of good work?

11. How similar was the resulting social structure to that of the Greeks? (26)

The Renaissance Reversal

12. Once again, ideas of what humans ought to be doing often turn on what we think God is doing. Contrast the Medieval and Renaissance views of God, and outline the implications for how human work was viewed. (26-29)

Karl Marx

13. Like the Greeks, Marx views human capacities as superior to those of animals. What is it that we do best? (29-37)

Instead of contemplation, what ideal state or "self-fulfilment" does our nature point us towards? (see especially 34) What do we really want to do with our time?

14. How has this natural human purpose been distorted?

What does Marx mean by "alienated" labor?

15. What is Marx’s famous prediction about how we will be restored to our true fulfillment? (33-37)

Why hasn’t it come true?

Sigmund Freud

16. According to Freud, what do our deepest drives strive for? (38-43)

17. Does work help us fulfill these drives? If not, what purpose does work serve?

18. What, then, is the relation between work and happiness?

Chapter 2

19. According to Hardy, Western philosophy seems unable to arrive at a balanced appraisal of the value of work. Would you agree? (44-45)

Martin Luther

20. Why was it reasonable for a monk in Luther’s day—including Luther himself—to think that work had little spiritual significance? (45)

21. Of course, monks (including Luther) did work hard, at making themselves acceptable to God. What did Luther come to think of such effort? (45-46)

22. Luther redefined the "vocation" or calling of monks (and lay people as well): what are we called to do? (46-48)

How do we know this? How is our vocation revealed to us?

23. How widely does this call extend? (49-52)

Is the contemplative life still an option for Luther, or is it contrary to God’s will?

Are all occupations legitimate?

24. Luther tightened up one traditional criterion of vocation: self-denial or the acceptance of suffering. In genuine vocation, what kind of suffering is legitimate, what kind is not? (52-53)

John Calvin and Puritanism

25. Why does Calvin reject the medieval interpretation of Luke 10:38-42 (the Mary and Martha story)? Contrast the two interpretations. (54-58)

26. How, according to Calvin, do we know that work has spiritual significance—that God wants us to work? (Hint: what image of God does Calvin have? What image of human life?) (58-63)

The Calvinist Modification

27. How did Calvinists modify Luther’s understanding of the social order, with its "stations" and different kinds of work? (63-67)

Luther:

Calvinists:

28. How, for Calvinists, do I know what my specific vocation is? How do I know what God is calling me to be and do?

Roman Catholic teaching

29. What was the Catholic Church’s answer to the degradation of work and the exploitation of workers during the nineteenth century? (68-70)

Would Marx agree?

30. In the twentieth century, what has happened to the traditional Catholic emphasis upon the contemplative spiritual life as the "real" human vocation? (71-72)

31. Hardy claims that the Catholic position now converges with the Reformed (including Calvinist) position. List the points of convergence. (71-76)

Chapter 3

Career choice

32. The aim of the chapter is to provide guidelines for choosing one’s vocation. Explain the first distinction, drawn between general and particular callings. (80-81)

33. In what sense is an occupation only part of a vocation? And how many (particular) vocations do we have? (82-83)

34. In what sense are we free, and how free, to choose our vocations?

35. How do we know the content of these vocations—how we are supposed to find out what God wants us to do? (85-93)

When the "road to self-knowledge" is endorsed, what is the obvious danger?

What other obstacles are presented by this open-ended process of discerning vocation?

How can we be relatively confident we are on track? (91)

36. In what ways is this doctrine of vocation in agreement with, and at odds with, the "spirit of modern individualism" (xiv) which Hardy assumes is characteristic of the American scene?

37. By now you should be gaining some critical leverage on Hardy’s argument. Given your imminent entrance into the job market, does it seem (a) accurate to the Christian tradition; (b) helpful? What DOES go into the choice of a career?

Job Placement

38. Hardy sees both external and internal obstacles to finding a job which fits a sense of Christian vocation. (94-98)

Why isn’t the market, where value is measured by dollars, a reliable guide?

By what criterion is the "social value" of a job to be measured?

Why is unlikely that this criterion will be applied faithfully in the job search?

39. Why does the job market make it harder to connect work with service to the neighbor? (99-107; see especially 102)

Would you agree? Or do you think Hardy is exaggerating how difficult it is to find work which meets the social criterion of service to neighbor?

Do you think that certain occupations should be tarred as simply antithetical to Christian notions of vocation?

40. The French theologian Jacques Ellul argues that the social context of work is so "fallen" that we should seek to fulfill our sense of calling outside the world of paid employment (103-105).

Does Hardy accept this pessimistic claim? If not, how does he argue against it? (105-111)

Does Hardy appeal to theology or experience?

Whose argument carries more weight, as far as you are concerned?

Balancing commitments

41. Hardy claims that vocation encompasses more than work. What else does it include? (111-112)

42. Why do we tend to narrow down vocation, equating it with a job? (Or do we inflate the importance of the job to the circumference of vocation?) (112-118)

Reformed monasticism

43. Why does Hardy consider the prayerful spiritual life of monks a resource for enlarging our sense of vocation? How would it help mitigate the "idolatry" he has just finished describing? (119-121)

44. How can Hardy endorse what the Reformers (Luther and Calvin) denounced so sternly? What is carried over, and what rejected, from the earlier monastic model?

45. "For it is largely the social structure of work that determines the value of our work as a contribution to society and hence the degree to which our work can count as vocation." (123)

Would you agree?

Chapter 4

46. Why did it become difficult in the twentieth century to see work as a calling? (124-127)

47. The designing of appropriate work begins with the idea that work ought to be a "place of responsibility". Define. (127)

48. How did Frederick Winslow Taylor drastically change the nature of factory work in the early twentieth century? (129-135)

49. What limited assumptions about human nature informed his system for organizing work? (136-140) Measure against Hardy’s ideal.

50. What did Elton Mayo and the Hawthorne Experiment reveal about the nature of workers? (140-145)

51. Why is conflict likely between a mentally healthy individual and the typical work arrangements of a modern organization, according to Chris Argyris? (145-151)

52. What two distinct kinds of factors account for motivation at work, according to Frederick Herzberg? (151-155)

53. Outline the two contrasting theories of human nature delineated by Douglas McGregor. (155-160)

54. What is a major goal of work, according to Argyris, Herzberg and McGregor?

55. Why does Peter Drucker object to this humanistic approach to the design of work? (160-167)

What other dimension of human nature should motivational appeals target, according to Drucker?

56. Whose prescription for success is closer to Hardy’s ideal: that offered by Peters & Waterman (authors of a wildly best-selling book in the early 1980s) or that offered by Levering. Why? (167-174)

57. List and appraise Hardy’s concluding suggestions for how to make work more "vocational". (178-185)