A Philosophy of Work

“The root of our evil is the lack of a philosophy of work.” Peter Maurin

St. John Paul II has left us a philosophy of work within the framework of his Christian Anthropology: the human person is made in the image of the Trinitarian God. An important element of this anthropology is WORK, particularly the “subjective dimension” of work. “Through work the worker becomes more a human being."

Human work is the fundamental and decisive key to solving – gradually solving - the social question which is ultimately a matter of “making life more human,” or, in the language of Peter Maurin, making it “easier to be good.”

Jesus, God and man, “devoted most of the years of His life on earth to manual work at the carpenter’s bench” demonstrating that “the basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person.” (Laborem Exercens, n.6).


Laborem Excercens is a very rich document. Of all its wonderful insights, I want to examine how St. John Paul II evaluates work:

“Each sort [of work] is judged above all by the measure of the dignity of the subject of work, that is to say the person, the individual who carries it out.” (LE, n. 6)

Let’s get to the bottom of this sentence using mathematical notation:

VALUEwork = f(the dignity of the worker)

From other parts of his Christian Anthropology, St. John Paul emphasizes that only two attributes give dignity to the human person:

Creation in the image God

Baptism as a Child of God

Each aspect has its own dynamic in the value of work:

VALUEwork = f(the worker as Image of God) + f(the worker as a Child of God)

Image of God

“Man is the image of God partly through the mandate received from his Creator to subdue, to dominate, the earth. In carrying out this mandate, man, every human being, reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe.” (LE, n 4).

Work as sharing in the Activity of the Creator. When we work we are carrying out the family business. When we lose that intention – carrying on the family business of Creation – when we work for ourselves (influence, money, fame) our work loses its dignity.

Child of God

There is only one Son of God, the more we appear to the Father as His only begotten Son, the more we are Child of God. Imitation of Christ, being another Christ, St. Josemaría goes so far as to use the term “Christ himself” because then it is Jesus himself who does the work, just like in the workshop at Nazareth. Ordinary, hum-drum work becomes redemptive, participates in the redemptive mission of Jesus.

What’s This Going to Look Like? When asked this question, I used to say “I have no idea.”
But, as Dorothy Day used to quote Lenin: “There can be no revolution without a theory of revolution,” so I’ve designed an Infographic that captures exactly what this is going to look like:


A family, a community of persons which can be scaled up to a large corporation.

Everyone is working, contributing to the needs of the family/community.

No one is thinking of himself. Each one has his/her eyes and thoughts on someone else.



During Advent of 1917, Dorothy Day followed the working poor into St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village and began to discover a church of the poor. She knelt and prayed in the back pew where this stained glass window is clearly visible.