Hands-On Work: Toward a Theology of Crafts and Trades
Introduction
The ancient rabbis elevated work to the level of a mitzvah (a holy obligation since the Torah commands ‘six days you shall labor’ before it demands that we rest on the Sabbath). They said that a father was obligated to teach his son a trade: ‘whoever does not teach his son a trade has taught him robbery.’[1]
It is with a sense of awe and wonder that I see how my course work at BGU is really a record of my spiritual journey and a progression of deeper understanding of who God is calling me to be. Every theological reflection paper chronicled my journey and laid the foundation for the next lesson/phase of growth. For example, the above quote was referenced in my course paper in “Taking Your Soul to Work” as I was dealing with the grief and turmoil of my father’s death. Since then, the essence of teaching a son a trade has taken on greater significance as I wrestle with mentoring a new generation of machinists for our business, community and industry. I’ve come to conclude that learning a trade, which is the engagement of the head, heart and hands, is inextricably tied to virtuous character development, which is, in essence, the attaining of wisdom. Since true wisdom can only come from God, I believe the argument can be made that learning a trade, though lacking the evangelical component of introduction to the person of Jesus Christ, is an exercise in training in godliness and, therefore furthering one’s spiritual journey. Especially for a young person, learning a trade can be the cornerstone for discovering his/her sense of purpose and calling in joining God in His massive work project of creation. As a play on an old proverb, we could ask, is craftsmanship next to godliness?
In the following, I will present the theological basis for my Craftsman with Character curriculum with the following progression. I will first discuss God’s purpose for creating us as it relates to work. This will lead to examining how work can be meaningful but also how it can be demeaning, in particular in manufacturing. Crawford’s work on soul craft and a discussion of the soul, knowing and wisdom from biblical anthropology will point us to the wisdom of the crafts. This wisdom can lead to a virtuous life full of meaning and purpose as God intended. In applying all of the above, I present a theology of gear making in the context of Edgerton Gear, Inc. I end with an examination of the central role virtuous character development plays in the making of a journeyman machinist.
The Image of God
Any discussion that makes such a bold assertion that learning a trade is akin to godliness necessitates a strong argument rooted in solid biblical theology. If our intent is to help young people discover their sense of purpose, or in other words, who they should become, we must first explore God’s intended purpose for mankind from the very beginning. Most of us are familiar with the Genesis account, where we are told,
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Although we often hear references of being made in God’s image in terms of our nature or even physical attributes, for the sake of this discussion, it is helpful to examine what God’s purpose was for creating humankind in His likeness. After blessing His new creation, we read that God told them to, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (1:28), often referred to as the Creation mandate. Immediately, humankind was given a job to do, albeit, in the vernacular of my teenage sons, a ginormus one! But is it just a job? Is humankind simply put on earth as caretakers of God’s science project? Or is there something fundamentally linking our work to our relationship with God? Hans Walter Wolff argues that the phrase “the image of God… points first and fundamentally to a correspondence between man and God. The unique nature of man in creation is to be understood in the light of his special relationship to God.” [2] Humankind has a special place in creation as God’s rulers and stewards, but not in the sense we often think of as rulers and authority, to exploit resources for our own benefit. On the contrary, Wolff makes the case that we are God’s statues, much like this: “In the ancient East, the setting up of the king’s statue was the equivalent to the proclamation of his domination over the sphere in which the statue was erected.”[3] We are God’s living statues, a sign to creation of God’s glory and dominion. Indeed, we see this imagery in Psalm 8 as the psalmist proclaims, “You have made mankind a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet” (verses 5,6). So we are God’s representatives, his stewards over His creation, entrusted with His dominion yet dependent on God’s grace and goodness. The task is so great and God’s desire for relationship so grand that Adam and Eve are instructed to fill the earth with other stewards. “The stewardship over the world is therefore entrusted to the great company of mankind with the multitude of its members; and this presupposes that they all partake in the dominion over creation.” [4] Wolff continues to argue that from the very beginning, humankind has been given the commission to establish civilization. I quote him at length as he captures the breadth and depth of this endeavor.
This …commission to establish civilization… applies to all men, and it embraces every age. There is no human activity that is not covered by it. The man who found himself with his family on an unprotected plain exposed to ice-cold wind and first laid a few stones one upon another and invented the wall, the basis of architecture, was fulfilling this command. The woman who first pierced a hole in a hard thorn or fishbone and threaded a piece of animal sinew through it in order to be able to join together a few shreds of skin, and so invented the needle, sewing, the beginning of all art of clothing, was also fulfilling this command. Down to the present day, all the instructing of children, every kind of school, every script, every book, all our technology, research, science, and teaching, with their methods and instruments and institutions, are nothing other than the fulfillment of this command. The whole of history, all human endeavour, comes under this sign, this biblical phrase. [Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.] [5]
Unfortunately, in modern day, we rarely, if ever, hear of the practical implications of our stewardship commission in our churches or schools. We instruct our children to get an education so they can get a job. The purpose of this job is often to simply have a means to buy the things we desire. Not only have we lost sight of our royal purpose, but no thought is given to how our fulfillment of our commission provides infinite opportunities to interact with our Creator through His creation. Wolff continues, “When man enters into relationship to the things of this world, whether in his day’s work, or in his meals, or in his discoveries, he also enters objectively into relationship with God, as their Creator, who has apportioned these things to him.” [6] The things of this world have been apportioned to us by God! If we rightly understood this phrase, it should send shivers down our spines.
I remember when my father “apportioned” his life-long work to me, his gear shop. He entrusted it to me to care for it, to manage it diligently, to ensure that it prospers beyond him. But it wasn’t just a legal transaction. It was a relational transaction that continues to this day. Working in the shop under his authority was to learn not just machining; it was to learn of my father as well. How much more so with God when we interact with His material world? God’s creative act is an act of a passionate artist full of creativity and love. He creates unfathomable beauty and complexity and essentially leaves it unfinished so that His most prized creation can share in the joy of finishing it, to learn of Him in all of our endeavors.
Obviously our rebellion against God has resulted in this ideal going awry but the intent is still in place. Robert Farrar Capon makes a whimsical yet passionate argument. Although we have fallen short of God’s ideal in caring for God’s creation, all the way back to Eden, Capon argues that doesn’t mean our calling is diminished.
[Adam] has missed the point of creation twice for every time he has caught it once; and hovels, ruins, and wars are the record of his failures. But it is the point that remains his preoccupation; the catching of the hint of the park is still the heart of his calling. For 75,000 years, give or take what you like, he has raked leaves and split bulbs, and he has built himself some pretty fancy gazebos. Culture—civilization—is the sum of his priestly successes, the evidence of the fulfillment of his vocation. The life of Adam is parks and plazas, and houses worthy of his priesthood; it is falling in love with the hinted garden in the world and lifting it into a paradise indeed. Though an unjust king, he is a king still; though he failed his priesthood, he remains a priest forever. History has been his glory and history has been his shame, but the shaping of creation into the city of God remains his obsession.[7]
Bearing “the image of God” is no small matter and needs to be impressed upon our youth. I argue that crafts and trades have the intrinsic potential to awaken the slumbering royalty in all of us.
The Curse of Work
In our technological, hedonistic 21st Western culture, it seems it is difficult to find people who actually love their jobs and/or find their work especially meaningful. Coming from a blue-collar background, I grew up with the impression that work is something that responsible adults just do. Much like eating spinach or Brussels sprouts, you may not like it, but it’s good for you. Even today, we seem to be obsessed with getting out of work. “TGIF – Thank God it’s Friday.” Wednesday is referred to as “hump day,” as in we’re over the hump of the middle of the week. I still remember a rock song from my youth entitled, “Everyone is living for the weekend.”
Many Christians mistakenly believe that work is simply the curse resulting from Adam & Eve’s fall from grace, citing Genesis 3:17-19.
Cursed is the ground because of you;
Through painful toil, you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
And you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
You will eat your food
until you return to the ground.
But upon careful examination, we read that it is not the work that is cursed, but the ground, as it will produce thorns and thistles. Work will now be more difficult as we will sweat and struggle, but we will still work. From the very opening of the Genesis account, we see God at work and declaring His work good. As stated above, the creation mandate for mankind still applies. As we examine scripture with our eye bent towards the role of work, we quickly discover its pervasiveness and its obvious necessity in advancing civilization.
Robert Banks, in God the Worker, does a marvelous job of exploring the myriad of metaphors and images drawn from everyday work. My wife, a musician and dancer, is especially keen on his discovery that, “In the Bible, the earliest division of labor lists in order these occupations: owners of livestock, musicians and metalworkers.” [8] Imagine her delight that musicians are listed before metalworkers! But the advancement of technology and industry doesn’t always mean that metalworking is always meaningful.
In my manufacturing world, the perception of a machine shop is that it is dirty, dark, and dangerous. A factory job is what a person out of high school settles for if they don’t go to college, as it is boring, monotonous, and unskilled. This has been one of the curses of the Industrial Revolution. For example, “In 1913, Ford hired more than 52,000 men to keep a workforce of only 14,000…. Turnover, or unhappy workers quitting, was very high because of the resulting boring, dangerous, low paying jobs, and Henry Ford's company, like many manufacturers, had trouble retaining workers.” [9] By the end of that same year, the distaste for assembly line work became so great that “every time the company wanted to add 100 men to its factory personnel, it was necessary to hire 963.” [10] So in 1914, Henry Ford essentially had to bribe men to do demeaning jobs by doubling wages for his assembly line workers to $5 a day.
To be certain, many types of work today are demeaning, and it is exceedingly difficult for workers to truly believe their work is meaningful and fulfilling. Laborers are often seen as a commodity or as a machine to simply do a job, not engaging their hearts or heads. But this is exactly the reason that crafts and trades have such a special place in Scripture and offer so much to young people. I argue that craft work necessitates the engagement of the mind, the hands, and the heart. It is the vehicle to discover one’s own nature and the practical application of truth. In other words, by employing the whole person, the crafts provide a means to discover true wisdom and further a person’s journey towards God.
We now turn to examine the nature of knowing and how wisdom is equated with producing. Lastly, I will conclude with a discussion on contextualization in terms of crafts. A commitment to excellence and practical wisdom in the context of crafts can and should lead to the development of virtuous character.
Thinking as Doing
My head learns knowledge, but my hands test if it is true.
My hands do the work, but my heart gives it meaning.
My heart has passion, but my hands and head give it expression.[11]
Matthew Crawford, in Shop Class as Soul Craft, argues, “real knowledge arises through confrontation with real things.” [12] He states that work “is meaningful because it is genuinely useful”[13] and that he often finds “manual work more engaging intellectually.” As a philosopher/academic scholar and motorcycle mechanic, Crawford has credibility on both sides of the fence between the world of academics and the blue collar tradesman. From a philosophical standpoint, Crawford rails against the educational norms that put so much emphasis on thought while providing such little value on doing. “We take a very partial view of knowledge when we regard it as the sort of thing that can be gotten while suspended aloft in a basket. This is to separate knowing from doing, treating students like disembodied brains in jars.”[14] He proposes that thinking separated from doing is not only an anemic substitute for true knowledge, but degrades the human spirit to the point that, “it becomes imperative to partition work off from the rest of life.”[15]
I only need to go to our local high school to see Crawford’s point. From early on, students are told they need to get a college education. It doesn’t really matter in what subject, as long as they get a degree. It is as if acquiring knowledge, whether is it relevant or not to anything practical, will provide the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, in providing a career that will be lucrative and fulfilling. Anecdotal as my examples may be, I can’t help to think of the numerous times we go to our local grocery stores and the young person at the register, although doing quite well in school, has the greatest difficulty counting out the correct change for a customer. Or I think of the young interns we get in our shop, although passing algebra and calculus, find it almost impossible to convert even the simplest fractions to decimals, which is often required in machining. When I recently chided our school’s superintendent that the educational system is failing in providing students with practical math skills, he agreed but stated there simply isn’t time to do so as the universities require high test scores in theoretical and higher math. So this begs the question: if, according to Crawford, real knowledge arises through confrontation with real things, are students gaining real knowledge or just information? Put another way, how does acquiring more information further us as God’s image bearers, as His stewards? We learn of God’s world and ourselves by thinking and doing. As Crawford argues, “The things we know best are the ones we contend with in some realm of regular practice. Heidegger famously noted that the way we come to know a hammer is not by staring at it, but by grabbing hold of it and using it.”[16]
Perhaps what we need today is to think more like the Hebrews of ancient Israel. Johannes Pedersen and Aslaug Moller, Danish biblical scholars of ancient Israel, note “all the Hebrew words most commonly used to designate the process of thinking reveal the movement of the soul in the direction of activity.”[17] According to Pedersen, “thinking is not theoretical, but of a pronouncedly practical character.”[18] Hans Wolff points out that “the Israelite finds it difficult to distinguish linguistically between ‘perceiving’ and ‘choosing’, between ‘hearing’ and ‘obeying’” and that it is “a factual impossibility of dividing theory and practice.”[19] In other words, according to Crawford, “If thinking is bound up with action, then the task of getting an adequate grasp on the world, intellectually, depends on our doing stuff in it.”[20]
It is interesting to note that Crawford entitles his book Shop Class as Soulcraft. Whether his intent was in reference to the Hebrew understanding of the soul, only he can answer. However, for the ancient Hebrew, the soul was the totality of a person. As Stevens instructs, “Soul” in biblical anthropology is a term denoting human beings in their hunger as “longing persons.”[21] According to Wolff, man does not have a soul, like we have an organ such as a liver or a heart, but we are a soul. It is the essence of who we are. For as Stevens again instructs, “Life, for biblical persons, is total and cannot be segmented into two parts: a disposable shell (the body) and an indestructible ‘spirit’ core (the soul). Thus the familiar Psalm, ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name’ (103:1) could be simply and helpfully translated, ‘Bless the Lord, O my life!’” [22]
Going back to Pedersen, we find the connection between thinking, doing, and one’s entire being. “He who understands how to think well is wise. Wisdom is a property of the soul or, rather, a faculty, an ability to produce, a skill in shaping the very thought which yields the right result.”[23] It is remarkable to think of wisdom as “an ability to produce” and “a skill in shaping the very thought which yields the right result.” According to Pedersen, it is this kind of wisdom that “is essential in the making of a soul. If a man lacks wisdom, then he has no heart.”[24] Wisdom is not just information one can “Google.” Wisdom cannot be measured by grades and degrees. Wisdom is that practical knowledge that only comes “through confrontations with real things.”[25] I can think of no better vehicle to confront real things than crafts and trades.
The Wisdom of Crafts and Trades
Arguing in favor of the wisdom of crafts and trades in developing a young person’s character and helping them find their calling in life is a case easily made.
We should note first that Jesus himself did not come from the proletariat day-laborers and landless tenants, but from the middle class of Galilee, the skilled workers. Like his father, he was an artisan, a tekton, a Greek word which means mason, carpenter, Cartwright and joiner all rolled up into one. (Mark 6:3)[26]
According to Justin Martyr, “He was deemed a carpenter (for He was in the habit of working as a carpenter when among men, making ploughs and yokes; by which He taught the symbols of righteousness and an active life”[27]. We have a stunning Old Testament example of this.
In Exodus 31 & 35, Bezalel, an Israelite, “filled with the divine spirit, particularly with wisdom and understanding to devise thoughts and to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass.[28] But a further reading of Exodus 31 and 35 shows that Bezalel and his crew were also artisans in wood, stone, weaving cloth, making utensils, and even in making anointing oil and incense. By every definition, Bezalel was an artist.
In God the Worker, Robert Banks shows numerous examples of God being especially concerned with craftsmanship and quality. In designing the earthly tabernacle, scripture gives extraordinary detail for to design. “There was an overall concern for excellence both in structure and furnishings. God is a God of detail as well as vision and of quality as well as quantity.”[29]
Through crafts and trades, we not only find creative expression but we discover virtue as well. In Becoming Good, David Gill defines virtue as those “powers and capabilities we have… that enable us to achieve excellently our intended purposes. We could also say that virtues are the skills needed to accomplish the task of life.”[30] Working in the trades provides a constant feedback loop of progress in accomplishing our purposes. We may think we know how to accomplish a task such as playing a musical instrument, unclogging a sink drain, or fixing a broken gear. In theory, we may have all the answers. But until we actually machine the gear and assemble it in the gearbox, our theories are simply theories. If our notes are sharp or flat, the water doesn’t go down, or the gear doesn’t fit, we obviously didn’t know as much as we thought we did. In discussing the importance of failure in learning, Crawford humorously states, “Not only do things tend to go to hell, but your own action contributes inevitably to the process.”[31] Our interaction with the material world forces upon us humility and, hopefully, the attainment of wisdom (i.e., practical knowledge) as we learn what works and what doesn’t.
I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t want their life to have meaning and purpose. I have argued to this point that God created us for a purpose and that this purpose must engage our entire being, not just our heads, as in abstract thinking and information. Our purpose is more than being a machine on an assembly line that has little need for thought. But a sense a purpose must also have heart, the realm of our being where creativity and imagination reside. The trades and crafts require such heart and virtue. Whether crafting a dance, plumbing a house, or fixing a broken gearbox, all the senses of thought, body and soul are engaged. For example, ask 100 gear makers to reverse engineer a broken gear and make a new one, and you’ll see 100 different ways of getting it done. The same can be said for plumbing a house, building a deck, or sewing a dress. First comes the creativity and imagination, then the cognitive abilities of making a plan, and finally comes the execution of the idea with the manipulation of the physical materials. It can be said the end product is an expression of the creator.
Dorothy Sayers, in The Mind of the Maker, makes a strong assertion that it is when we are creating that we are most akin to God. “The difference between the mind of the maker (an artist) and the Mind of his Maker, [is] a difference, not of category, but only of quality and degree.”[32] She asserts that the common man should deal with life creatively for it is our God given nature; “the very grain of our spiritual universe…. If we [confine] the average man or woman to uncreative activities and an uncreative outlook, we are…doing violence to the very structure of our being.”[33] We are created to create. We need to create. “[The average person’s] need is to express himself in agriculture or manufacturing, in politics or finance, or in the construction of an ordered society.”[34]
Again, I come back to the trades and crafts. Young people searching for a purpose or a career need to be reintroduced the world of crafts. The craftsman finds creative expression every day. In the process, he is able to find true wisdom as “the impossible barrier between information and knowing”[35] is breached as he engages his head, hands, and heart. Ultimately, through exercising a trade, a rediscovery of our royal image is possible.
As the Puritan Richard Steele eloquently states,
The supreme felicity, and great end of man, is to know, love, and glorify God his Creator, Redeemer, and Benefactor. But as we are beings endowed with powers and faculties of body and mind, fitted and designed for actions relative to our present state of being; and are placed by divine providence in mutual dependence upon each other.… Both reason and religion require, that all, as they are able, should be employed in such a manner as may be beneficial to themselves, and the society to which they relate.[36]
A Trinitarian Model of Theology of Work
To further my argument that craftsmanship is next to godliness, perhaps we need look no further than the Trinity. Dorothy Sayers asserts that our entire being and our creativeness are reflective and/or an expression of the Trinity.
For every work of creation is threefold, an earthly trinity to match the heavenly. First, there is the Creative Idea, passionless, timeless, beholding the whole work complete at once, the end in the beginning: and this is the image of the Father.
Second, there is the Creative Energy [or Activity] begotten of that idea, working in time from the beginning to the end, with sweat and passion, being incarnate in the bonds of matter: and this is the image of the Word.
Third, there is the Creative Power, the meaning of the work and its response in the lively soul: and this is the image of the indwelling Spirit.
And these three are one, each quality in itself the whole work, whereof none can exist without the other: and this is the image of the trinity.[37]
The Father is outside of time and space and is analogous to Sayers’ ideal writer, a person who has an idea for a book. The creative idea is not the book itself or even the creative process behind and in the writing of the book. It is an idea that has been there before time in the writer, that is already complete and whole, which the creative energy needs to write, and which the creative power gives the words meaning and life to those reading the words.
Take my wife’s creativity for example. She has an image of a dance in her mind after hearing a certain song that elicits or brings the idea of a dance to the forefront in her mind. The dance is already complete in her mind. The process of actually choreographing the dance, whether or not in her mind or in actually practicing and working out the steps of the dance, is the creative energy at work, much like Jesus being the Lord of the Dance, coming to teach us all to be free and live up to what the Father intended for us. Once the dance is complete and actually danced, it is there that the meaning and purpose is expressed. In other words, the response it elicits from her heart, those participating and those watching, is the creative power, much as the Spirit works in our lives and the world to sing the Son’s accomplishments back to the Father, where His idea originated.
So what does all this have to do with the Theology of Work? Everything! As I have been laboring over the Craftsmen of Character curriculum, the process of creating the course has been very intuitive. I feel like I’ve been preparing for this all my life. There is this sense that it is a very important work that will bring young men and women to do Kingdom work, to be the princes and princesses they were meant to be. I’ve had a difficult time articulating why I believe this, but now I understand! Let me explain.
In our pre-fallen world, I believe that God had an idea or a spark of creativity assigned to every snowflake, every bird, fish, animal, plant, and human in creation. Scientists tell us that no two snowflakes or birds or fish or animals, or plants are identical. Every bit of creation has its own unique characteristics. Everyone is beautiful, slightly different, and has its own special stamp of the Creator. Now expand that to God’s most precious creation, which he said was “very good,” and we see His creativity taken to an even higher level in His creation of people. As there are trillions of snowflakes, birds, fish, animals, and plants, each unique, so it is even more so with people. God’s creativity has exploded across the universe and finds its greatest expression in us! Every person has God’s unique stamp of creativity on them. To fulfill His desire for us to be Co-Creators, he necessitated that every person has a different role, a unique destiny to fulfill, an expression to be expressed at a certain time and place in this great expanse. But the world is broken.
Perhaps in no more astute manner can we see the effects of sin on God’s creation than in human beings. It is difficult to imagine this side of eternity, what the natural world would look like without the effects of disease, death, and violence. We get glimpses in wilderness places where man’s influence is minimal, but even there, we witness life and death struggles in the form of aging, disease, and fighting for survival, whether in the quest for food and withstanding the elements or staving off predators. But it is in the human, created in the image of God, that the greatest tragedies of the fall are played out billions of times a day across the planet. For in the fall, our identities as princes and princesses have been lost. Like Narnia in winter, a dreaded cold darkness has fallen across the land and caused great suffrage for its subjects.[38] The singers no longer sing; the colors of the landscape have faded to a blasé gray; inspiration and hope are faded memories of a past dream. The good news of the gospel involves the discovery that we are somebody! We are significant! We have a place in this world and have been uniquely created to serve a purpose! When Aslan is on the move, the vibrant colors of spring burst forth not only across the landscape but in our hearts as well!
When Jesus says he has come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), does He not mean He has come to restore us to our proper identity, to rescue us from the winter of the fallen world and awaken our souls, much like calling forth the decaying Lazarus from the foul-smelling tomb? In this gospel account, we get more than a glimpse of how agonizing it must be for the Father to see His most prized creation, His beloved, ravaged by decay and death of this world as Jesus is deeply moved to the point of weeping, even though this same scene is repeated untold times across the globe every day. Jesus’ response? “Lazarus, come out!” And when Lazarus comes out of the tomb, Jesus then instructs to “Take off his grave clothes and let him go” (Jn 11:43-44). Soon after, we see Lazarus hosting a meal and reclining at the table with Jesus. What a beautiful snapshot of the good news, a dead and decaying subject of the kingdom now restored to dine with the King! This is a perfect metaphor for the Theology of Work.
Theology of Work is simply the understanding that we have been called to participate with God in His work. On the surface, many believers may find this uninspiring or relegate it to “church” work. But when we expand our definition of God’s work to include the care, sustaining, reconciling, and restoring the entire earth to God’s initial intent, the scope of God’s work is beyond comprehension. The task is so great, billions of people are needed for the task. There is no human being that is not needed. The target unemployment rate is 0%! All hands on deck! But sadly, it could probably be argued that less than .01% of earth’s population comprehend that they are called to full-time employment in God’s purposes. As Hans Walter Wolff points out in Anthropology of the Old Testament, “The stewardship over the world is …entrusted to the great company of mankind with the multitude of its members; and this presupposes that they all partake in the dominion over creation.”[39] TOW’s aim is to sound the alarm and raise the awareness that everyone is needed, everyone is uniquely, fearfully, and wonderfully made to fulfill some task in the greatest work project in the history of the world. And in the process, human beings discover their rightful place in God’s family and that they are heirs as sons and daughters of the Most High.
As I have worked on my curriculum, I keep thinking of all the young men and women in our communities who have no idea what they want to do with their lives. They enter college or they do not, drifting aimlessly, trying to seek purpose and significance in a world that seems threatening and hopeless. The educational system tells them they need to attend college or university. To what end? Our culture holds up the allure of money, power, and prestige, if only young people can find the proper job to attain these. Actually enjoying a job is an added bonus. The ultimate goal is to be happy, which is often mistakenly defined as making money so they can buy happiness in the form of a myriad of offerings. As shown in the fascinating documentary Happy, our society overwhelmingly believes that money is equated with happiness. In fact, a rickshaw driver living in a slum of Kolkata, India, actually has a “happy quotient” higher than most people in the. U.S. As Psychology Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois demonstrates in their research, after a person’s basic needs are met, having more money has little or even an adverse effect on a person’s happiness.[40]
As the documentary points out, true happiness is rooted in finding a sense of purpose, peace, and community. But as misguided as our culture is in regards to finding happiness and one’s sense of purpose, I wonder if the Church hasn’t exacerbated the problem by failing to integrate faith into our everyday lives.
If a typical Christian is asked today what their purpose is, the response would probably be something along the lines of, “To glorify God and to love your neighbor as yourself.” David Gill, in Becoming Good, expounds this typical response by explaining there are three aspects of this Christian doctrine of human purpose and mission of human life:
The first and most important of these purposes has to do with our relationship with God: knowing loving and glorifying our Creator, Redeemer and Friend. The second purpose concerns our relationships with other people. This part of the mission needs to be elaborated in several directions because these others may be near or distant, enemies or friends, and so. In short, our mission is to love these neighbors, to promote conditions in which they can know truth and experience life, and to retard or ameliorate conditions that harm them. Third, our mission is to be blessed personally, to experience the fullness and wholeness of life as God intended for us and our intimate companions.[41]
While everything that David Gill says is profoundly true, I believe the average Christian struggles to understand what a life lived accordingly actually looks like. Is it “church” work, i.e. teaching Sunday school, doing “mission work,” and/or being intimately involved in the affairs of the local church? As my wife Tracy recently pointed out, when talking to other women about their spiritual lives, they often comment that they feel inadequate as Christians, as the demands of raising a family are not conducive to serving God. For them, glorifying God is equated with involvement with doing “ministry” in the local church. This response is probably more endemic than we care to admit. Although Gill is writing primarily to Christians, I fear the use of Christian lingo and doctrine has alienated the average layperson from a relevant, meaningful, practical Christian life. I argue that what is desperately lacking for most believers, and especially for the unchurched tradesmen and students, is simply a contextualized Theology of Work.
What does “knowing, loving, and glorifying God” look like? If we approach the question from a Trinitarian model of work as stated above, I believe the light begins to come on for most people. In understanding we are Co-creators, made in the image of God, to join in God’s massive love/work project of filling the earth and subduing it, our everyday lives take on new significance. In other words, if our true natures, in process of being saved and redeemed by Jesus, are free to fulfill God the Father’s purposes, the Spirit will illuminate and animate us and our work to the benefit of the world and joy of the Father. Homemakers and machinists, farmers and administrators, plumbers and teachers, pilots and lawyers, and every other profession, trade and skill will find expression in God’s kingdom work. No task is too small or seemingly irrelevant. The hope and goal of raising a godly young man or woman starts with the holy work of changing diapers and providing meals and a secure and nurturing home life. Behind every printed Bible are literally tens of thousands of manufacturing workers cutting trees for paper, hauling the trees in trucks made with mined iron ore, petroleum products and other natural resources, with the use of power from hydroelectric dams, coal burning power plants, built by engineers, architects, cement workers, electricians, plumbers, and a myriad of other trades. And we haven’t even begun to make the paper yet in the paper mill! God, in his infinite love, left the earth, so to speak, unfinished. As a mother or father has great joy in cooking, building and working with their children, so God has invited us to join Him, with our creative talents and gifts, to use our creative energies to collectively do something truly magnificent.
Theology of Gear Making
A machinist with doctoral degree David Hataj (On the right) and Dr. Paul Stevens (On the left)
Craftsmanship is an attitude and a quality possessed by people enabling them to make things that give pleasure to themselves and others. The work of their hands is the very best they can do, and the fabricated objects possess both utility and beauty.[42]
As I have stated earlier, as a young journeyman machinist coming back to faith in Jesus, I could not figure out how gear making had anything to do with the kingdom of God. Once again referencing the experience at the 1984 Urbana missions’ conference that housed presumably every mission agency on the planet, I wondered if a gear maker had any role in the kingdom of God. Apparently not, as the closest anyone could think of was to send me over to Mission Aviation Fellowship as they might need an airplane mechanic. I was NOT a mechanic. I was a very skilled gear maker who had 17 years of experience at the age of 21! Although my father wasn’t Jewish, he unknowingly made some Rabbi proud according to the Talmud saying of, “‘whoever does not teach his son a trade has taught him robbery.’”[43] My father taught me the trade of gear making, and I was really good at it. However, the church didn’t seem to care. Obviously I have since come to realize that gear making is just as holy a calling as any others that God ordains.
I get chills every time I read Exodus 31 as “Bezalel (the craftsman) is the first and only person in the Old Testament who is described as being filled with the Holy Spirit.”[44] One of Robert Banks’ metaphors in God the Worker is God as a metalworker. Banks makes a brief argument that a highly organized metal industry was crucial in the expansion of Solomon’s kingdom.[45] I now understand my role as a gear maker when Hans Walter Wolff argues in Anthropology of the Old Testament that from the very beginning, humankind has been given the commission to establish civilization. “The whole of history, all human endeavour, comes under this sign, this biblical phrase.” [Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis 1:28] [46] Although few people ever realize it, modern civilization as we know it would not exist without gear makers. I often demonstrate to audiences that there is hardly anything manmade we can point to that doesn’t require tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. And every one of those manufacturing jobs requires the use of gears. The craftsmanship of gear makers contributes to the pleasure, beauty, education, and convenience of mankind in more ways we can count. But this is only part of the theology of the gear maker. Gear making also draws us closer to God, whether the craftsman realizes it or not!
According to Graeme Smith,
One thing we know about God is that God makes things and is pleased with what he makes (Gen 1:31). Human beings made in the image of God are like God when they make things and are pleased with the results of their labor. If this logic holds, superior craftsmanship is a form of Godliness.[47]
Dorothy Sayers makes the fabulous argument that we are most like God when we are creating. Quoting Berdyaev from The Destiny of Man, Sayers says,
God created man in his own image and likeness, i.e., made him a creator too, calling him to free spontaneous activity and not to formal obedience to His power. Free creativeness is the creature’s answer to the great call of its creator. Man’s creative work is the fulfillment of the Creator’s secret will.[48]
Gear making not only requires Smith’s superior craftsmanship, but a considerable dose of creativity must be employed every day as the gear maker engages the steel and forces his/her will upon it to make it conform to almost impossible tolerances, often much less than the thickness of a human hair.
As I walk through my shop, I see in our machinists numerous examples of what Smith describes: “perfect conception and supreme skill are the essence of divine craftsmanship.”[49] Our machinists are obviously not divine angels, but they do bear the image of God. In the skillful exercising of their trades, they arguably draw nearer to the heart of God than any of us can surmise. For as Stevens concludes in his article on “Trades”:
The life of a tradesperson is shot through with intimations of eternity and invitations to develop a denim-jean spirituality: forming things by hand, making the connection between bodily activity and mental creativity, creating something of benefit for others, working in teams, learning and teaching in an apprentice relationship life on life, talking with fellow workers about the stuff of everyday life….Trades are like chores; they are not just opportunities to practice spiritual disciplines, but because of their somewhat tiresome nature and service role, they invite us Godward.[50]
So the journey in becoming a journeyman gearmaker potentially has its rewards in this life and the one to come. However, the process of becoming one is not simply a matter of mechanical aptitude and opportunity. The education of a tradesperson is akin to biblical discipleship. There are character qualities that must either be acquired or already possessed. The following discussion examines these virtuous traits and, in the words of David Gill’s title, Becoming Good.
Virtuous Character Development
I begin this section by explaining the use of the word virtuous in my curriculum. Although the title may be Craftsman with Character, it is thus implied that I am aiming for virtuous character and not just character in a general sense. Every young man or woman who enrolls in this course has character. The question must be asked, “What kind of character?” As in novels and movies, there are good characters and bad characters. So it is with character development. Bill Hybels’ definition of character as, “who you are when no one is looking,” [51] doesn’t go far enough in helping us understand what character qualities are necessary in helping our students become successful tradespeople. As quoted earlier, Gill argues for virtue as a better word to describe those attributes that are necessary for good character. He defines virtue as “powers and capabilities… that [enable] us to achieve excellently our intended purposes, [in other words] virtues are the skills needed to accomplish the task of life.”[52] This is remarkably similar to Pedersen’s definition of wisdom, “Wisdom is a property of the soul or, rather, a faculty, an ability to produce, a skill in shaping the very thought which yields the right result.”[53]
Gill goes on to discuss Plato’s four cardinal virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and self control. He notes, “Thomas Aquinas viewed the four cardinal virtues as “natural” virtues that help us achieve our natural end.”[54
Justice – Everything has its proper place, in harmonious integration, fulfilling its purpose.
Wisdom – The capacity to make good practical judgments.
Courage – Literally “the readiness to fall in battle.” It is the capacity to do what is right and just despite our fears.
Self-control – The capacity to do what is right despite our desires and appetites. [55]
It doesn’t take much thought to see how these four virtues are needed for everyday life, especially for the craftsman. We discovered they have practical applications in every phase of gear making. Students need to be aware of how critical virtuous skills are, not just for the skilled machinist but for everyday life.
Continuing with Thomas Aquinas, Gill defined the “three supernatural” virtues of faith, hope, and love as necessary to achieve our supernatural end (to see and know God) …[and must be] ‘infused’ by God’s Spirit.”[56] This raises an interesting dilemma. Can there be any expectation of our students being “infused” with these virtues in a gear shop? It may be argued that since the curriculum does not have an overtly Christian tone to it, we can only expect to impart four “natural” virtues as they “are knowable to human reason.”[57] However, I side with Stevens in his article on “Organizational Values.”
The virtuous organization would be shaped by three foundational organizational values from the Bible: faith, hope, and love. These values can be applied to both persons and structures in organizations that are not overtly Christian, but where people in positions of influence can shape the values of the organization.[58]
He goes on to argue that “Christian values are relevant not only to individual persons but to the structural and cultural contexts in which those persons live and work…[and] that people on a spiritual journey may embrace and live at least partly by Christian values.”[59] I am assuming that every student I encounter is on a spiritual journey. Edgerton Gear is God’s dominion where Jesus is Lord. So I have every expectation that, at the very least, students will be exposed to God’s Spirit through the virtuous conduct of our craftsman, if not outright “infused” as the Spirit leads. Regardless, going back to Graeme Smith’s comment that “superior craftsmanship is a form of godliness,”[60], virtuous character is the foundation of this superior craftsmanship that students will be exposed to.
The Role of Community
This leads us to the role of community in developing virtuous character. As Gill succinctly states, “Let me put it bluntly, you cannot build a strong, good character without at the very same time being actively involved in significant community experience.”[61] For the high school student, the role of a healthy community is even more critical as communities “help their members discern what is right and wrong in particular cases, and they support and help them carry out the right thing.”[62] Communities hold a mirror up to us and reflect back who we really are as opposed to who we think we are. Put another way by Parker Palmer, “reality is a web of communal relationships, and we can know reality only by being in community with it.” [63]
Gill lists seven functions of community in shaping character.
1) Provides role models and behavior patterns.
2) Approves and rewards right behavior.
3) Disapproves and punishes wrong behavior.
4) Helps us discern right and good.
5) Assists and supports our performance.
6) Builds strength through demands, tests, and trials.
7) Gives direction and meaning through stories and traditions.[64]
Every one of these functions is critical not only for character development but for craftsmen to learn their trade.
Cardinal Wyszynski argues there is a sanctifying quality of work, especially when done in an educational spirit with others:
Through work, a certain measure of perfection has to be fulfilled. For one of the aims of every sort of work is the perfecting of the workers. Listening to the instructions of our superiors, we should have the desire to accept those directions in the proper spirit, and the intention of making use of the work given us to derive new spiritual values from it. Work then will not be a hardship, but rather a school in which, by obeying orders, we shall train our will and intellect continuously. Every type of work ought to form and cultivate something in us.[65]
Conclusion
In summary, relating back to my first point of God’s purpose for creating us as it relates to work, Theology of Work is at its very core a wholistic exercise of sanctification and serving our Creator with all of our mind, all of our strength, and all of our heart. We were and are created to create, to do meaningful and purposeful work, gaining wisdom through the practical application of knowledge as we engage our head, hands, and heart. Every day, the craftsman’s character is tried and tested as our trade demands virtue for excellent results. These excellent results are not only a reflection of our character, but of our Creator’s nature and intent for all of creation. In the context of a virtuous craftsman, I come back to Graeme Smith’s argument of “superior craftsmanship [as] a form of Godliness.”[66] God willing, this curriculum will result in more young people becoming godly.
(From David Hataj’s doctoral dissertation with Bakke Graduate University)
References:
[1]Jeffery Salkin, Being God's Partner: How to Find the Hidden Link between Spirituality and Your Work (Woodstock, Vt: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994), 109.
[2] Hans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), 158.
[3] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 160.
[4] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 162.
[5] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 164.
[6] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 160.
[7] Robert Farrar Capon, An Offering of Uncles; the Priesthood of Adam and the Shape of the World (New York,: Sheed and Ward, 1967), 28.
[8] Banks, God the Worker, 17.
[9] Tom Hopper, "The Assembly Line and the $5 Day - Background Reading" https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-54463_18670_18793-53441--,00.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2013.
[10] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft, 42.
[11] David Hataj, "Head, Heart & Hands," (2013), Directed study with Bakke Graduate University, unpublished, 2013.
[12] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 199.
[13] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 6.
[14] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 163.
[15] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 192.
[16] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 164.
[17] Johannes Pedersen and Fru Aslaug Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii (London: Oxford university press, 1926), 125.
[18] Pedersen and Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii, 126-127.
[19] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 51.
[20] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 164.
[21] R. Paul Stevens, Biblical Anthroplogy and the Dignity of Doing (Vancouver, B.C.: Regent College), unpublished lecture.
[22] Ibid. (italics mine)
[23] Pedersen and Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii, 126-127.
[24] Pedersen and Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii, 127.
[25] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 198.
[26] John R. Schneider, Godly Materialism:Rethinking Money & Possessions (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 109.
[27] Mike Wittmer, "Jesus' Plows", Word Press http://mikewittmer.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/jesus-plows/ (accessed Nov. 12, 2013).
[28] Pedersen and Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii, 127.
[29] Banks, God the Worker : Journeys into the Mind, Heart, and Imagination of God, 221.
[30] Gill, Becoming Good : Building Moral Character, 31. (italics mine)
[31] Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft : An Inquiry into the Value of Work, 203.
[32] Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), 182.
[33] Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, 182.
[34] Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, 185.
[35] Banks, God the Worker : Journeys into the Mind, Heart, and Imagination of God, 199.
[36] Steele, The Religious Tradesman, 9-10.
[37] Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, 37-38.
[38] C. S. Lewis and Pauline Baynes, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 1st HarperCollins ed., The Chronicles of Narnia (New York: HarperCollins, 1994).
[39] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 162.
[40] Dir. Roco Belic, "The Happy Movie" (Wadi Rum Films, 2011).
[41] Gill, Becoming Good, 80-81.
[42] Graeme Smith, "Craftsmanship," in The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity : An a-to-Z Guide to Following Christ in Every Aspect of Life, ed. Robert J. Banks and R. Paul Stevens(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 240.
[43] Jeffrey K. Salkin, Being God's Partner : How to Find the Hidden Link between Spirituality and Your Work (Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights Pub., 1994), 44.
[44] Smith, "Craftsmanship," 242.
[45] Banks, God the Worker : Journeys into the Mind, Heart, and Imagination of God, 50.
[46] Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 164.
[47] Smith, "Craftsmanship," 240.
[48] Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, 61.
[49] Smith, "Craftsmanship," 240.
[50] R. Paul Stevens, "Trades," in The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity : An a-to-Z Guide to Following Christ in Every Aspect of Life(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 1045.
[51] Gill, Becoming Good, 28.
[52] Gill, Becoming Good, 31.
[53] Pedersen and Møller, Israel, Its Life and Culture, I-Ii, 126-127.
[54] Gill, Becoming Good, 97.
[55] Gill, Becoming Good, 95-96.
[56] Gill, Becoming Good, 97.
[57] Gill, Becoming Good : Building Moral Character, 97.
[58] Stevens, "Organizational Values," 718.
[59] Stevens, "Organizational Values," in Banks and Stevens, The Complete Book, 720.
[60] Smith, "Craftsmanship," 240.
[61] Gill, Becoming Good, 43.
[62] Gill, Becoming Good, 46.
[63] Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach : Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, 10th anniversary ed. (San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 2007), 97.
[64] Gill, Becoming Good, 48.
[65] Stefan Wyszyński, All You Who Labor : Work and the Sanctification of Daily Life (Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 1995), 165.
[66] Smith, "Craftsmanship," 240.
