Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: post 8

Week 3: chapters 6-8.

We turn to chapter 7, 'Work'.

(If you've just joined us, have a look at this post for orientation...)

Key point:

• Work should be a fully human relationship where employer and employee are bound by friendship rather than simply power and money.

My synopsis:

Modern work dehumanises us. It encourages us to luxury and to use others simply as resources. On the other hand, work allows us to be fully human in serving and being served by our fellow man. As in all things, to ignore God in work is to cut away the foundation of our humanity.

My critical discussion:

Again, Esolen starts the chapter with a picture, Murillo's painting of the Holy Family (above), The space is full of 'business', but it is a business conducted in the sight and awareness of God, and between people who have a genuine affection and relationship with each other.

Esolen in this chapter turns to paradigmatic aspects of Catholic social teaching as it is known in the modern world: Leo's Rerum Novarum and the nature of work and the State. The very fact that it is only now, right near the end of the book, that these things emerge, is a sign that Esolen regards much of the presentation of Catholic social teaching as flawed. Rerum Novarum is not itself a new thing, but simply an application of existing Catholic principles. Wealth, poverty and work are not things which can be treated in isolation from our wider human nature, but have to be understood against an understanding of our natural and supernatural ends. The family, as the first society for human beings, helps us understand what it is to have a fully human relationship with others. Great art and the Western tradition of thought help us understand and apply abstract principles in concrete ways.

Leo's Encyclical, Rerum Novarum, makes much of the Guild: that body of workers who come together in self managing 'unions' and who establish a culture of mutual respect between master and worker. In essence, they are a way of bridging the gap between the affection of a family and the public, utilitarian space of work. The nearest equivalent in modern times is the profession (eg that of law). But even these are succumbing to the pressures of the market and being replaced by a more impersonal, temporary set of relationships between competitors.

Questions:

• What are the features of a successful working life?
• Is it possible to be idle throughout one's entire life and be happy?
• Is there a way of reconciling the innovation and cost reduction brought about by a competitive market with a 'family like' atmosphere in a workplace? 
• Is anything like a 'family' atmosphere in a workplace really desirable? Doesn't it lead to an absorption of private life by the employer?

[Details of image: Murillo, Holy Family with Little Bird. Full details here.]


[Back tomorrow (9/9/15) with the final post this week on chapter 8, 'The State'.]