Zadok Catalogue 2010

Work and Everyday Life

Churches supporting Christians at work.
Alistair MacKenzie
Zadok Paper S168, Winter 2009
This paper provides an analysis of the theologies of mission, church and work, that undergird the practices of churches that are intentionally supporting Christians at work, and describes what is happening in these churches. Mackenzie intersperses the paper with examples of some of these practices. He identifies a widespread longing within churches for a bridging of the gulf between Sunday and the rest of the week; a strongly felt need to escape the dualism of sacred and secular, private and public, spiritual and physical.

Reflections on WorkChoices
Col Duthie
Zadok Perspectives 92, Spring 2006
I am somewhat ambivalent about the specifics of the WorkChoices legislation. I would much prefer a dialogue about a shift in industrial relations that challenge the nature of business ownership and encouraged employer/employee relationships toward mutual ownership of the risks, rewards, and responsibilities associated with workplace relations.

The church and a new world of WorkChoices.
Simon Bibby
Zadok Perspectives 92, Spring 2006
One of the striking features of the WorkChioces debate is the rival eschatology of the left and the right. Christians in business, both as employers and employees must find ways of modelling an alternative future. The church must find ways to equip its people to do this. The and only then, will we be challenging the 'accepted habits and assumptions' of this world.

The bargaining disadvantage of labour and the new IR laws
Craig MacMillan
Zadok Perspectives 92, Spring 2006
The labour market is not being deregulated but re-regulated in favour of employers.

Voices at work
Gordon Preece
Zadok Perspectives 92, Spring 2006
My concern is that the IR legislation has overturned a century of legislation based on Catholic social thought providing the social lubrication of our federal system. It radicalises the move away from longer term mor covenantal social relationships to short-term contractual relations. It swings the pendulum too far, increasing the power of employers without sufficient chacks and balances.

How not to be Ruth-less at work or Grace at work - a sermon on Ruth
Gordon Preece
Zadok Perspectives 90, Autumn 2006
Boaz doesn't stick to the legal minimum; he opts for the gracious maximum.

God@Work.
Miroslav Volf
Zadok Perspectives 90, Autumn 2006
If it is in God that we live and have our being, then it is in the power that comes from God that we do our work.

A fair go on wages?
Gordon Preece with Ian Harper
Zadok Perspectives 90, Autumn 2006
I'd want to assure people that the legislation doesn't say that the only objective is to get unemployed people into work, it also wants to make sure people don't lose thier jobs and that the minimum wage is part of the safety net.

Ministry in the marketplace: reflections on radical workplace change.
Alan Matheson
Zadok Perspectives 90, Autumn 2006
With the church's increasing concern with rampant individualism and the effect of work on family relations, why is there no encouragement to join unions?

Industrial relations and restorative justice.
Neil Holm
Zadok Perspectives 90, Autumn 2006
A workplace characterised by reconciliation, corporate redemption and restorative justice is a foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

On the way.
Alison Sampson
Zadok Perspectives 88, Spring 2005
By taking the slow way, on foot, with my eyes open and my ears pricked, I have found an abundance of grace here.

Performing the truth - with the help of the saints!
Doug Hynd
Zadok Perspectives 85, Summer 2004
Truth as speech cannot be separated from the truth of the life of the person who is speaking. Reading and reflecting on the life of the saints has something to offer the Christian public servant at a time when the challenge to the truth may press upon us in a variety of ways - as the recent Federal election highlighted.

When it's an industry, what is hospitality?
Simon Carey Holt
Zadok Perspectives 79. Winter 2003
Hospitality today is often confused with entertainment.

Mass destruction and mastitis
Dianne Brown
Zadok Perspectives 79. Winter 2003
"I'm so immersed in sustaining life and watching it thrive, that the thought of destroying life is anathema to me." New mother, Dianne Brown reflects on attending to the needs of a new life as Australia joins the war in Iraq.

Beyond Vocation: New Theologies of Work.
Christopher White
Zadok Paper S118, Autumn 2002
What has been termed, rightly or wrongly, the ‘Protestant work ethic,’ has given rise to the world of total work, which since the Industrial Revolution has come to pervade and rule much of modern Western life. Unsurprisingly, the increasingly dominant position of work in Western society has led to significant Christian (and other) interest in the subject. In the last decade, Miroslav Volf has put forward a pneumatologically oriented Trinitarian alternative to the (traditional Protestant) vocational approach.

Commissioned to Hear.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 74, Autumn 2002
Healthy organizations – and vibrant open culture – have their own internal auditors - people who provide the reality check, the uncomfortable voice, the different perspective. The characteristic mark of such people is the courage and clarity of their listening and the honesty and frankness of their speaking. They are often people of the word, who are accustomed by long habit to the art of listening in disciplined silence for truth.

Experience the New God.
Paul Mitchell
Zadok Perspectives 74, Autumn 2002
Like drug addicts we search for ever increasing highs – the toughest climb, the longest swim, the biggest special effort …

Why I'm a Witch: an interview with Fiona Horne.
Paul Mitchell
Zadok Perspectives 73, Summer 2002
Fiona Horne, author of Life’s a Witch: a Handbook for Teen Witches, talks about her beliefs.

Spirit at work.
Simon Bibby
Zadok Perspectives 72, Spring 2001
In following Jesus’ instruction to the church, Christians will find a model for resolving internal disputes in the workplace.

The Spirit of Protest.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 71, Winter 2001
Whenever ‘glabalisation’ is about, few people are immune to its impact. Whoever we are in the organizational scale, current economic processes have profound implications for the way we work, our security of employment and the ways economics will shape our lives.

A belonging wind blows.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 70, Autumn 2001
Belonging and making commitment in today’s working world is becoming possible again. The learning organization is not a castle that no-one ever leaves – graduation from the learning place is possible and even sometimes desirable. But neither is it a bustling railway station of people always in the process of arriving or departing. It is possible for it to be a community of learners as well as workers or colleagues.

Christian Faith and Professional Ethics in a Technological World.
Ian Barns
Zadok Paper S111, Autumn 2001
Professionals are involved in the processes of technological innovation, design, diffusion, regulation, promotion, management, adoption and interpretation. The author suggests that church communities need to support professionals as they reflect on the political, cultural, and spiritual aspects of the technologies. The Christian community needs to make the connections between the gospel and the discourse of the professions, between the politics of worship and the politics of professional practice, and affirm the eschatological significance of what we do as professionals.

My Father's Hands: Touching God through Daily Work.
Simon Holt
Zadok Perspectives 69, Summer 2000
How can we embrace our work as a part of our spiritual journey? Simon Holt explores the values that can help us reclaim work as an expression of our spiritual identity.

Spending in Secret: Shopping and Spirit.
Brenda Holt
Zadok Perspectives 69, Summer 2000
Even among Christians, managing money always seems to fall into the shadowy category of “secret business.” But, some secrets need to be revealed.

Leisure and the Christian Life: Relaxing into the Glory in the Ordinary.
Mark Hutchinson
Zadok Paper S108, Spring 2000
This paper considers the living link that must exist between faith, leisure and culture. In the Christian life there is often a religious busyness that leaves no space for creative leisure or for reflection, recuperation, and a ‘coming to one’s self.’ In most Christian traditions, leisure that is not productive is bad. He concludes that our real need is to enter more deeply into Christ’s Sabbath rest.

Spirit at Work.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 68, Spring 2000
A managerial spirit and ethos is appearing in church structures.

Mr Sheen for the Soul.
Paul Mitchell
Zadok Perspectives 68, Spring 2000
The Spirit leads me today, leads me in the first day of my passion for housework.

Plastic Jesus - Spirituality in the Packaging Industry.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 67, Winter 2000
Are there spiritual resources or themes to be found in the work context itself that can help arbitrate between the competing activities of our lives?

Spirit at Work.
Jim Barr
Zadok Perspectives 66, Autumn 2000
In a general management culture dominated by competency and efficiency, developing a ‘spirit’ of openness to suffering and weakness but remaining equal to the task of managing in the competitive marketplace is not easy.

Work work work, busy busy busy
Digby Hannah
Zadok Perspectives 57, Winter 1997

Towards a domestic spirituality
Simon Holt
Zadok Paper S87, Autumn 1997
There have always been mystics who embrace spirituality by withdrawing from society's hurly-burly to places of quiet solitude. But for those of us immersed in the relentless pressures of the pacy 1990s is it possible to keep alive our sense of things spiritual? Part of the answer to this dilemma is, according to Simon Holt, the development of a `spirituality of the ordinary, the mundane and the immediate'. Simon looks at the centrality of the home as a context for much of Jesus ministry. He considers some of the biblical metaphors of spirituality and how these can be applied in daily life. This paper is a timely reminder of God's kingdom as being right here where we are. Even a child's sense of wonder can revive in us the precious consciousness of God's presence in the simplest details of life.

Our Changing Work-Place
Various authors
Zadok Perspectives 52, Autumn 1996
Stresses in the modern work-place are, for many, making it difficult to maintain ethical integrity and spiritual consistency. This issue of Perspectives supports those workers who are struggling to meet this challenge. Articles include: Worrying about work, Looking beyond the glass ceiling, Ethics in the office, A trend to resist: dehumanisation in the work-place, Holding fast to our profession, Stress in the work-place, Discussion questions on 'faith in the work-place', Volunteering is real work!

Finding the Sacred in Everyday Life
Various authors
Zadok Perspectives 51, Summer 1996
This issue of Perspectives encourages a development of genuine spirituality in the midst of the affairs of everyday life. Relevant articles include: Listening to the 'other', The search for spirituality in land and place, Assertiveness: a Christian virtue? Go and sin no more: the gender and power issues are still with us.

The Professional Worker's Vocation: loving service versus self-interested idolatry as illustrated in the legal profession
Christine Parker
Zadok Paper S77, October 1995
This paper is a reflection on daily work - in the sense of paid employment. It focuses particularly on those occupations which have come to be called professions, and is illustrated by examples taken from the legal profession. The paper argues that the notion of loving service is essential to any Christian approach to daily work. While this is consistent with the rhetoric of professionalism, there are many potential hazards in professional occupations such as the dangers of self-interest, misuse of power and the enslaving pressures of employer expectations. The most insidious danger is how easy it is to slip from a position of seeing work as vocation to one which idolises work. While this paper is of particular relevance to those involved or about to become involved in a profession, the issues outlined are applicable to all forms of work - professional or otherwise, paid or voluntary.

Everyday Spirituality: connecting Sunday and Monday
Gordon Preece
Zadok Paper S76, July 1995
Some Christians are fortunate enough to enjoy a regular Sunday experience which is uplifting - an inspirational time of worship, for example, or the encouragement of being with close friends. But do these uplifting Sunday experiences flow through to affect their Monday performance? All too rarely. What are the reasons for this unhappy state of affairs? Why, if we are all ministers (diakonia), do we so rarely feel assured that our Monday to Friday endeavour really is ministry? Why, if we are all a people called by God (kleros), do we find it so hard to accept that our state of employment is also our Christian vocation? Gordon Preece's paper not only explores the historical and theological origins of the Sunday-Monday dichotomy but it offers some very practical guidelines for the development of a robust spirituality which is equal to the demands of our everyday workplace. Those interested in applying Christian ethics to their professions and who still strive for a meaningful prayer-life in the face of a hectic and demanding lifestyle will find reading this paper stimulating and rewarding - and even life-changing.

Theology for Home, Work and Leisure
Dr Robert Banks
Zadok Paper T27, 1986
Chris is an able and well-liked employee in a small, fast-growing computer company. So starts Robert Banks' first case study. From this and other stories of real life, he spells out the task of a theology of everyday life.

Christian Non-Conformity and Everyday Life: reflections on Romans 12:1-7
Peter Marshall
Zadok Paper T25, 1985
Our lives today are moulded by the values and attitudes which prevail in our society. Yet the Bible offers us the possibility of being transformed by God in all our daily situations. Marshall reflects on three periods in his life - as a new Christian, as a business executive, and as a New Testament social historian - and upon Romans 12:1-7 and its implications for his daily life.

Work and Religion: the Australian values study and the implications for the Australian churches
Peter Marshall
Zadok Paper S27, 1985
Work in Australia tends to dominate our lives, determining social standings and many attitudes. It mitigates against faith, presenting the church with one of its most complex tasks, the integration of religion and work in Australian life and the development of a theology of work.

Work, Sex and Religion
David de Vaus,
Zadok Paper S26, 1985
Work affects people's faith, providing a more influential and complete environment than religion, determining the attitudes and social relationships, and rendering faith less relevant. The implications for the church are serious.

The Pitfalls of Professionalism
John Wade
Zadok Paper S22, 1984
The author in a down-to-earth way explores some of the tensions between Christian faith and the day to day work of a lawyer.

Leisure: a study of its relation to work and society
Graeme Smith
Zadok Paper S14, 1980
A substantial discussion of work and leisure in recent thought. An assessment of its relevance for the life of a Christian and the role of the church.

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