Book Review: Work

This book review was included in the June 2019 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

I’ve read multiple books by Dan Doriani and he has never disappointed. He is a clear thinker, a strong writer, and provocative (in a good way, not a heretical one).

His latest book - Work - tackles a subject that is relevant in one way to all of us, and maybe especially to those who wrestle with their calling related to jobs and career. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, especially after being back in an office environment for a month. Why is work important? Is all work equally valuable? What does it look like for a Christian to live out their calling from Monday to Friday?

Doriani writes from a perspective of experience. He is in his 60s and is able to look back on the bulk of his career. Doriani sees work as intrinsically good - a gift that God gave to Adam and Even even before the fall. But he also knows what it means to put too much of his life into his work. He admits that at one point, “I was working 75 to 80 hours per week and losing weight because I could not find time to eat.”

Given that work can either be disdained as necessary evil or be glorified as the be-all and end-all of our existence, Doriani’s mission is to restore a Biblical vision of work.

Doriani also looks at how work has been viewed by Christian leaders in the past. I thought this section got a bit academic at times, but there are lessons to learn from people like Martin Luther and John Calvin on the subject. He also deals with the thinking of non-Christians like Karl Marx.

Doriani once wrote an entire book on application in sermons, so it is not surprising that this book moves beyond theological and historical analysis. He devotes much of the book to issues of calling and what it tangibly looks like to live out that calling. He acknowledges that we need to exercise caution, because our culture so deeply values choice - and many times we do not get to specifically choose our job - but he says “the goal, the ideal, is to serve God with our highest and rarest gifts. If a man has matchless skills in a strategic field and reaches them by arduous training, he should use those skills.” (note - Doriani interchangeably uses men and women throughout the book)

But what about if you work in a difficult place? What if the company you work for is not run by Christians and makes questionable moral decisions? Can you stay? Doriani says yes, “if they can mitigate evil there and if they are not required to sin.” But he lists several questions that believers in this situation should ask, including “Am I serving my King? Promoting justice? Or fitting in and making a living?”

The other side of work, of course, is rest. Doriani discusses the importance of worship and rest - especially on Sundays, without applying an overly conservative/legalistic Sabbath principle.

To sum it all up, Doriani points out that our work is often the best way for us to love our neighbor. “At work,” he says, “we have the most skill and training, the most resources, and the strongest teams, so we multiply our capacity to love people. Therefore, if anyone changes the world, they probably do so at work, whether spontaneously or deliberately.”

This book will be helpful for any Christian, but will be most helpful for those in career mode and probably less so for those whose callings are in the home or who have less degree of choice related to their callings.