Theology of Work 2.0: Part One
The Placial Project is about place, but the topic of place is quite new to many people. This is odd, because we use the word “place” throughout our conversations. “Hey, there is a car in my parking place.” Or “Would you like to have dinner at my place?” Or “National parks are my happy place.” And so on.
And yet, whenever someone asks about our website, I receive polite but blank looks. If asked to elaborate on what place is or what placemaking entails, I reply that we discuss the notion that the Bible has a grand mission of place, one that runs throughout all of its chapters. This mission is about God’s opening command to humans to make the world more like what God wants it to be. But … at that point, my friends usually smile and agree that this would be nice, and then the conversation changes. However, the implications are vast, perhaps too vast.
Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash
So, as I begin writing these posts, I need to find a point in common with friends. I have said in the past that to advance a theology of place is to embark on an interdisciplinary project, one that involves philosophy, geography (both human and physical), and several fields of theology, such as the theologies of work, of mission, of culture (and culture making), and of the kingdom of God.
And since one needs to start somewhere, I will choose (drum roll please) … the theology of work (TOW!). This theology is a good selection, if I may say so myself, because many of you have already read a TOW previously, making a comparison/contrast easier.
Big picture, I’m proposing to advance the current understanding of theology of work. In other words, I’m suggesting TOW 2.0. Building upon TOW 1.0, you will not need to unlearn anything. Instead you simply will need to incorporate new sets of questions and discussion points.
For today, I begin with the familiar (and first) Great Commission of the Bible, Gen 1:26–28. This is a standard text in TOW 1.0. Typically, TOW 1.0 focuses on humans as workers, noting that work itself is not from the curse of Gen 3 but is commanded prior to “the Fall.” Or as someone has said before, to be human is to be a worker; that is God’s design. From this observation, TOW 1.0 then expands to consider how work can open doors for effective ministry, such as in conversations of Business As Mission (BAM).
But TOW 1.0 focuses on the act of working. In TOW 2.0, the focus shifts to explore the rest of the text of Gen 1:26–28. The human worker is to produce something, namely a place. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue her and rule over (creation),” reads Gen 1:28a. In other words, TOW 2.0 will focus on the direct object of the verbs of the Great Commission. Or, to make a long story shorter, TOW 2.0 adds a focus on the production of place, or more specifically of God’s place. TOW 2.0 is about the placial “thing” that is to be produced. (Note: “Thing” is slightly misleading, since “the place of God” includes God, people, and all creation within the vicinity of God’s place.)
In many ways, you may be thinking, this sounds like, “culture making.” Yes, but as I will note in future posts, placemaking is larger, conceptually speaking, than culture making. In future posts I will propose a similar need for Culture Making 2.0. But for now, with one step at a time, I begin with a focus on how theology of place advances theology of work in new and fascinating ways.