John Calvin on Work and It’s Relevance to the Contemporary Christian Workers in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33550/sd.v10i1.374Keywords:
work, vocation, service, John Calvin, theology of work, workplaceAbstract
This article is a study of the theology of work in the thought of John Calvin. By drawing and analyzing Calvin’s view on
work as a vocation and a service, I argue that there is tension but also a close relationship between work as a vocation and as a service in Calvin’s thought. For Calvin, aside from being a vocation, work is also a means for humans to serve others in love and justice since work also fulfills one another’s need for the common good. This study’s results indicate a close relationship between vocation and service in work, so it is not appropriate to ignore one and emphasize the other, in this case ignoring service and emphasizing vocation in work. In fact, by embracing work as both a vocation and a ministry in
their work, Christian workers can genuinely glorify God by humanizing people.
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