This book seeks to develop a theology of work as a foundation and motivation for engaging with the discourse on globalization. The book approaches globalization as the spatial distribution of work. Globalization is in a sense work spread out on the ground across the globe and a race to bring the telos of work to full realization. It maintains that to philosophically and theologically ground globalization, we must first ground work and its telos. This study of the depth and destiny of work aspires to meet this challenge using an indigenous African religion.

It develops a pneumatological theology of work by drawing from the African traditional religion’s concept of spiritual force. Work is seen as a human activity which arises from and returns to the all-encompassing context of the spiritual force through the channels of communality, participation, and possibilities. The study aims to orient work primarily to the transformative, shaping, and configuring power of the spirit in an intersubjective context.

Thus the book argues that unless the principles for organization and the good of work are rooted in religious depth of existence and driven by eros as a community-upbuilding power they cannot help the worker find his or her true being (that of a person-in-communion) and satisfy the deep spiritual need of humanity. It attempts to answer four key questions in the area of moral philosophy of work: How is the idea of work related to conception of what is morally good? How does the conception of work relate to the idea of God (spirit), cooperativeness, and the process of intensification of social life? Can men and women feel at home in work? How can the inner aim of work be brought to its dynamic full realization? Together, the responses present a framework to relate human creativity to divine creativity and to the religious depth of human existence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nimi Wariboko is the inaugural Katherine B. Stuart Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Center, Massachusetts. His other books include, God and Money: A Theology of Money in a Globalizing World, Pattern of Institutions in the Niger Delta: Economic and Ethological Interpretations of History and Culture and The Mind of African Strategists: A Study of Kalabari Management Practice.

CATEGORY
Religion/AFRICA