Toward a further understanding of work as spiritual

Abstract

This article explores work as spiritual, emphasizing Catholic social thought and related religious and spiritual writings with a view toward further understanding of work as spiritual, or integrating the sacred in the secular. The literature suggests that work, whatever its form, can be spiritual. However work is done, when its purpose is either religious by the command of God, or spiritual by the innate being of man serving an individual desire or a connection to the universe, the activity exhibits a basic spiritual nature. Exploring this concept remains in an early and incomplete stage and is the subject of additional research. The expression of work as spiritual appears in religions, belief systems, and secular literature. Modern Catholic social thought expressed in encyclicals which reflect earlier scriptural writings, supports a chain of interest drawn through monotheistic religions, and other religions and belief systems. Further, this linkage of work as spiritual appears in the secular writings of, among others, Maslow, Palmer, Wilber, and the neuroscientists Newberg and Waldman. Work as spiritual conceptually exists as an intensely religious experience and in the intense concentration involved in solving an intricate problem. Not as well-known is an understanding of work as spiritual as a way of enhancing personal development, serving others, and higher living that is not necessarily religious.