Ergasia

In this episode of Ergasia, we conclude our exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed Anybody: How The Idolisation of Work Sustains This Deadly Lie by John Bottomley by going back to the beginning and exploring the origins of Bottomley's ministry to the world of work. How did Bottomley come to understand the gulf that exists between our beliefs and expectations about work and the sometimes brutal reality? How did this understanding lead him into an awareness of the gap between the Church's theological tradition concerning work and the practice it articulated through its congregation-centric polity? What is Bottomley's understanding of God's call to the Church with respect to its minstry to and within the world of work?   References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anybody: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

When our eyes are opened to the ways in which the idol of hard work disguises its complicity in the deaths of people sacrificed to its demands; and when we see the impact which being forgotten or victimised by the systems which are supposed to protect vulnerable workers or support their bereaved families - how do we make God's governance real in the world of human suffering? What does hope look like in such circumstances? What are the issues facing the Church if it wishes to rise to the challenges posed by modernity's construction of work and economy?   References   Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.  

In this episode of Ergasia, we conclude our two-part examination of the ways in which the experience of those who have been harmed by modernity's construction of work and economy can be integrated with the Scriptural witness of God's love for humanity and call to the Church to engage in a ministry of prophetic solidarity with suffering humanity. How does the idolatry of hard work deflect attention away from the harm it causes by misleading its own victims into finding someone else to blame? How does the biblical account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead critique our own culturally ingrained fear of death, thereby encouraging us to persist in our false belief in the centrality of hard work in human life? How is the Church called to repent of its own participation in the idolatry of hard work and the living death it imposes on humanity? References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

If the prophetic imagination is evoked by the process of deep listening, how can the wisdom gained by this listening result in the integration of the experience of work-related suffering with the witness of Scripture? How does Scripture continue to speak into modernity's construction of work and economy, and the false promises of the ideology of hard work? How does this process of integration challenge the Church to reflect upon its own identity as an employer, and its own co-option by the division of human life into the spheres of public and private>   References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

After a long delay, Ergasia is back - and in this episode, we continue our exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed AnyBody: How The Idolisation of Work Sustains This Deadly Lie, by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015. In particular we will begin the examination of how work and life can be renewed through the prophetic imagination, beginning with the need for deep listening to the pain of both the victims and the perpetrators of injustice   References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anybody: How The Idolisation Of Work Sustains This Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

How is the silencing of the justice claims of those harmed by modernity's construction of work and economy linked to a widespread culture of forgetting injustice? How is this culture linked to the injustice perpetrated by colonial society against indigenous Australians? How is the church complicit in injustice through its own captivity to the assumptions of modernity, and the forgetting of injustice in its own history? How can worship and the prophetic imagination it articulates become a ground for resistance to the idolatry of hard work? References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anybody: How The Idolisation Of Work Sustains This Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In today's episode of Ergasia, we look at the economic factors operating within work-related trauma, injury, and death. Who bears the economic cost when workers are injured or killed at work? How does the adversarial legal system within which workers' compensation systems are enmeshed affect grieving families? What are the broader human longings that might be better served by the process of restorative justice? What are the ideological purposes which the idolatry of work serves with respect to the economic factors of work-related harm? References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How The Idolisation Of Work Sustains This Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In today’s episode, we will look at the underlying principles that often govern the church’s approach to pastoral care, and how the often congregation-centric assumptions underlying these principles blind the church to it's calling to both the ministry of God's governance in the world of work, and the care of those harmed by work-related grief. References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In this episode of Ergasia, we continue the exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015. How do modernity's beliefs about work silence the victims of work related harm? How does modernity's understanding of and response to trauma pathologize the victims of injustice and label them as "sick"? How does the self-helpism of traditional support groups lead to the victims of work related harm being co-opted by the very idolatry by which they have been victimised? How does the companioning model of grief support break this cycle and enable "wounded healers" to bring a new freedom to both the bereaved and their carers? References Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In this episode of Ergasia, we continue the exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015. What is the starting point of any prophetic ministry? How does our experience of injustice open us to the need to listen to the suffering of others? What role does God's judgement and redemptive grace play in this process? References Bottomley, John  Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In this episode of Ergasia, we continue the exploration of the book  Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015. What is the true relationship between work and humanity? What are the hidden truths disclosed by the silence cast by the ideology of work on the suffering and injustice manifest in work-related harm? How has the ideology of work become idolatrous? These are the questions we will explore as we continue our exploration of this text and its examination of modernity's construction of work and economy. References Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In this episode of Ergasia, we begin an exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie, by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015.  What are the beliefs that underpin modernity's construction of work and economy? How did these beliefs come into being? What is the role of ideology in this process? How are modernity's beliefs about work and what constitutes the legitimate spheres for the expression of human emotion sustained? These are the questions we explore as we start this new series. References Bottomley, John Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

In this episode of Ergasia Special, your host, Brendan Byrne, sets out his vision for the podcast as he continues to explore the intersection of faith and work. What are the essential elements which a theology of work must contain in order to be properly Christian? What are the traps and pitfalls it must avoid? What, afterall, is the point and purpose of this podcast and the issues it explores? References Bloomquist, Karen L The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. Byrne, Brendan E., "Work and Faith: the prophetic imperative. A response to Graham Hooper". Engage.Mail, Ethos Centre for Christianity and Society, located at http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/work-and-faith-the-prophetic-imperative  

In this episode of Ergasia, we conclude our exploration of the book The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class by Lutheran scholar Karen L Bloomquist. Having taken us through the dilemma faced by the working class under the oppressive reign of neoliberalism, and having likewise identified both the sin lying at the heart of that oppression as well as the Church's contribution to the betrayal of working class hopes, Bloomquist issues a call to the Church to become a community of resistance that enables the structural injustices of corporatist capitalism to be identified, challenged, and transformed. References Bloomquist, Karen L., The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class. Minneapolis; Fortress Press, 1990