Christianity and Labor Law

Abstract

Abstract The ties between religion and labor law generally go unknown and unappreciated. However, current labor law would not exist without the religious impulse. One cannot understand how and why labor law developed, both within and beyond Europe, and the full scope of its significance without an understanding of the role of religion. Religion is that for the sake of which one does everything else, and as Jürgen Habermas notes, religion “is primordially a worldview” that gives structure to a way of life as a whole. Given the centrality of work to humans, it would be astounding if religion took no notice of work. This chapter discusses the anthropological understandings and significance of work that Judaism and various branches of Christianity take, and it explains how religion shaped understandings of work, motivated actors, and shaped European and American labor and employment law.