Reviews

“I make people beautiful”

Work Matters: Lessons from

Scripture. By R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans, 2012, 176 pp. $16 U.S.)

A woman introduced herself at one of Paul Stevens’ classes by saying “I am just a hairdresser.” By the time she finished the course she sang a different tune. “Now she said, ‘I make people beautiful, and I do a lot of counseling’.”

Anyone who has followed Stevens’ work will have no trouble relating to the hairdresser’s emerging self-understanding. Longtime marketplace professor at Vancouver’s Regent College (and as a periodic speaker at MEDA’s Business as a Calling conventions), Stevens has

“Work is a means of spiritual growth. Without it we cannot fulfill our role as human beings.”

distinguished himself as a beacon in the Ministry of Daily Life movement. Few scholars have done more to promote an authentic, biblically-based understanding of what work means to the Christian life. Many devotees have found his books life changing, from Liberating the Laity: Equip‑ ping All the Saints for Ministry (1985) to more recent offerings like Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation in the Marketplace (2006).

In this book he carefully develops a theology of work based on working folk in the Bible. First and foremost, of course, is God, who is depicted from the start as one who works, creates and innovates. God is shown in various types of working garb — gardener, shepherd, potter, physician, teacher, vineyard-dresser, metalworker and refiner.

We humans — made in God’s image — are also workers. “Work is not a human invention,” Stevens points out. “It is a divine calling and a way of imitating and resembling our Creator. To be made in the image of God means that we are created like God as relational beings and that we are made like God in that we work.”

Stevens notes what is often overlooked: the command to work was given before the fall, not after, “hence work is meant to be a blessing, not a curse.”

From Adam and Eve to Ruth and Amos, Stevens looks at more than 20 biblical accounts of people who worked. He teases out the theological meaning of their work — whether it is manual or intellectual, domestic or commercial.

Every worker has a lesson. Cain and Abel, in addition to whatever else they represent theologically, come to us with different skills, one a farmer, the other a herder. “Already,” says Stevens, “we are beginning to see the diversification of talent, gift, and calling....”

Jacob is presented as the first biblical character to have his work “vividly described in its complexities and satisfactions....” Joseph is depicted as a model management consultant. Bezalel was directly appointed by God to create beautiful things and teach others to do the same. Ruth does survival work. David’s work is royal, Nehemiah’s shrewd. And so on.

Stevens lets the biblical stories speak with important theological inflections. Work

Excerpt:

“We can create beauty not just in music and the visual arts, but also in a meal or a deal, a voice or an invoice, an operation or a cooperation, a community formed or an immunity created, a test or a quest, a swept floor or a forgiven heart, a canvas painting or a computer program, a plaything or a work-thing, a toy or a tool.” — R. Paul Stevens is “a means of spiritual growth” without which we cannot fulfill our functions as human beings. It is also communal. In an aside that should lift the spirits of any businessperson, Stevens explains that a “company” is literally a way to share bread, for cum pane means “with bread.” Finally, “Good work unfolds the potential of creation.” One hopes this book will put a nail in the coffin of the pseudospiritual hierarchy that elevates “religious” callings higher than others in the economy of God. “One dangerous yet widely spread belief today is that God gives his Spirit to people in the form of spiritual gifts solely for ministry in the church,” Stevens writes. “But spiritual gifts are intended for all the people of God so that they can enter into God’s beautiful work of transforming creation, culture, and people. And we learn from this that the most significant way in which God’s spiritual gifts are demonstrated in the world is through our work.”

If readers think this title looks familiar, they may be right. In one of those oddities of the publishing trade, this is the second book this year to appear with the same title. Two issues ago, we reviewed another Work Matters (by Tom Nelson). Both books are excellent. To avoid confusion, buy both. — Wally Kroeker