a little late for Labor Day: Christianity, vocation and work

Two useful articles in World on Christian conceptions of work-- one from Gene Veith; the other, a review of two websites and two books by Marvin Olasky...

First, short excerpts from Veith's long effort:

Some early church fathers co-opted pagan holidays and turned them into Christian celebrations. Labor Day is ripe for a Christian takeover. A day that had its origins in the early struggles of the labor union movement is now little more than the last long weekend of summer vacation, a final time to fire up the grill before the fall grind starts up again. But celebrating the human capacity to work is an occasion to recover one of Christianity's most important, yet nearly forgotten teachings; namely, the doctrine of vocation.

Vocation is nothing less than the theology of the Christian life. It provides the blueprint for how Christians are to live in the world and to influence their cultures....

The great theologian of vocation was Martin Luther, who developed the teaching in his battles with monasticism—the view that the spiritual life requires withdrawal from secular life—and in defining "the priesthood of all believers." For Luther, vocation, like justification, is ultimately God's work....Vocation is, first of all, about how God works through human beings....Just as God is working through the vocation of others to bless us, He is working through us to bless others. In our vocations, we work side-by-side with God, as it were, taking part in His ceaseless creative activity and laboring with Him as He providentially cares for His creation....

Vocation is where sanctification happens, as Christians grow spiritually in good works and in their relationships. Vocation is where evangelism happens...Vocation is where cultural influence happens, as Christians take their places and live out their faith in every niche of society....

Then, from Olasky...

A plethora of Christian books and resources concerning issues of work, business, and calling is now available. I've found four particularly useful.

Those wanting a short book should get theologian Wayne Grudem's Business for the Glory of God (Crossway, 2003)....

Darrow Miller's LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM Publishing, 2009) is four times as long and broader in its analysis. Miller points out that many evangelicals have a dualistic worldview that leads them to divide life into sacred and secular realms....

Miller's thinking also underlies the first of the two web resources I recommend. Lifework: Developing a Biblical Theology of Vocation is a free, downloadable 84-page resource that contains an overall explanation and a series of vocation-related Bible studies on subjects from agriculture and accounting to motherhood and relief work....

Wayne Grudem's short book is to Darrow Miller's long one as the Lifework website is to the other top website resource I've found, that of the Theology of Work Project...