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Douglas
Thorpe,
with a foreword by Thomas Moore |
WORK AND THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT | ||
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A
stimulating historical reader on the spiritual dimension of work.
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WORK
AND THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT |
“Work is one of the most far-reaching mysteries in a human life.
Because it is so common and so much a part of everyday life, it's on a
literal level — as a way of making a living. Yet, along with family, marriage,
children, and friendship, work is what makes life worth living and accounts
for meaning and deep satisfaction.” “A crucial set of ideas to circulate now. The overall effect of
the book is to renew a sense of meaning for life, to give our acts dignity
in an age in which so much worthy work is despised or ignored.” For those looking for work, considering a career change, or dissatisfied with their jobs, there are shelves of guides to finding employment. Here is an anthology that helps us to understand why we work and how work can be rewarding to us. Douglas Thorpe has assembled an array of fine writing from classical times to the present, including Eastern, Western, and native viewpoints. The selections are arranged historically, “moving as human culture moves,” until, Thorpe writes, “we reach, in this wandering way, the modern city, with its associated industries and professions, which bear so little resemblance to the life that humans have lived for thousands of years.” Our challenge is to restore the age-old meaning that work can offer. This fine anthology is a reminder of the way work was, and they way it might still be. |
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| DOUGLAS
THORPE is the author of the critical study A New Earth. He teaches
at Seattle Pacific university and is program director of the Center for
Spiritual Development.
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