Friday, October 27, 2006

The dignity of work


Alexander's religion reading this week centred on the dignity of work.

His religion book quoted two encyclicals - Rerum Novarum ( Pope Leo XIII) and Laborum exercens ( Pope John Paul II).

We discussed some of the ideas on work from Alexander's book.

I had read Rerum Novarum but not the latter encyclical.

Alexander searched for the text online, we printed it out and I have started my reading.

"Human work has an ethical value of its own, which clearly and directly remains linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a person, a conscious and free subject ... The sources of the dignity of work are to be sought primarily in the subjective dimension, not in the objective one."

Lots of interesting things to think about. And hopefully to talk about.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting.. I quoted from that very Encyclical 2 weeks ago in my homily about the rich young man (Mark 10: 17 -30)...I wonder if you remember that one!

Leonie said...

Yeah - I remember the homily. :-)But didn't remember the encyclical reference...