Rite and ReasonThere is a particular antipathy to religious commitment in many quarters of Irish society today, writes Greg Heylin
In today's world there is a huge emphasis on the individual, which has many healthy aspects when it comes to the spirituality of work. Slavish following of instructions is out. Finding one's own perspectives on life and work is in.
People are writing on work and spirituality in accessible language. These books draw on wisdom from psychology, sociology, poetry, literature, world religions and new age teachings. Most emphasise taking adult responsibility for one's own actions and beliefs.
The starting point for change is with oneself. Most importantly these popular books take spirituality out of the rarefied atmosphere of church buildings and religious rituals and assert that the spirit is abroad at work.
There are downsides to pursuing one's own spiritual path. Too much emphasis on the personal can lead to self-absorption: I look at the spiritual purely as a resource or tool that I can use, like a hammer, a tube of glue or a detailed manual. When I need it, I can take it off the shelf. When I decide it is no longer relevant I put it aside again. Those who profess a religious commitment are not immune from this approach. If my autobiography is my only holy book then the initial love affair will eventually lead into a cul de sac, where I feel that only I, myself, alone can carry the load of my life and my work. This is mistaken. There are friends, family, lovers, teachers, maybe even colleagues and bosses, who can help one along part of the way.
Step two of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step programme also reminds us that there is a higher power.
Estimates of the numbers committed to a religious tradition vary between 16 and 17 out of every 20 people on the planet. The census returns for 2006 suggest this holds true for Ireland.
However, there is a particular antipathy to religious commitment in many quarters of Irish society today. In the world of paid employment there is usually a wall of silence in relation to religious commitment and a reticence about spirituality.
Irish church and social history can account for some of this antipathy. To loosely paraphrase one of our taoisigh, talking on a related topic, any sentence with the words "religious" and "tradition" deserves to be ignored.
This is sad because it is based on a misperception of what religious traditions at their best should be about. Once one gets beyond the often numerous surface distractions, one will find a wealth of human experience and wisdom contained in religious traditions.
To take an almost random sample of Christian examples: Gregory the Great (c.540-604) on action and contemplation, Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1326/7) on his interpretation of the story of Mary and Martha, Dame Julian of Norwich (1342-c.1416) on a benign, loving God in times of catastrophe, and Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) on service; all have something to say to today's worker.
Their wisdom and the wisdom of others like them can help one survive the rough times at work. This wisdom can support the development of new insights and perspectives on work. It can also embolden people to act and speak in new ways in work and about work.
Religious traditions need encouragement to take seriously the notion that the spirit is alive and well and waiting to be discovered and engaged with in the world of work. Some of those with a religious commitment regard much of the secular world as beyond the reach of God.
These are the pragmatic atheists whose God is sterile: found only safe within a church or within an authorised prayer formula. Roman Catholic social teaching has been called the church's best-kept secret, a point acknowledged by the Vatican.
This is in spite of eight major papal documents in the hundred years since 1891, and in Ireland two books by the Irish Catholic Bishops' conference in the 1990s, published within seven years of each other. It is now down to workers themselves to dig out the treasures of the tradition, and reflect on and argue with what they find there from the perspectives of their own lived work experience.
It is only by ongoing engagement with current experience that the wisdom of the ages can throw light on the work problems of today. Paradoxically a tradition stays alive not by staying the same, but by growing and developing with each new generation.
Greg Heylin is author of Work and Spirituality: Finding the Balance (Veritas, 2007)