Called to Work: Developing a Framework for Understanding Spiritual Orientations Towards Work

Abstract

This study examines how individuals understand spiritual calling to work. We draw on theoretic insights from Max Weber and Karl Marx to analyze 186 in-depth interviews with religious individuals in the United States. We argue that these classical frameworks can help us to better understand contemporary religious interpretations of calling in relationship to work. We propose a framework for categorizing ways of viewing work as a calling that consists of intrinsic/extrinsic meanings in work and goals that are proximal/distal to the workplace. While focusing primarily on Christian respondents, we note that some respondents from Jewish and Muslim traditions did not resonate directly with the term “calling” but had alternate ways of viewing their work that closely aligned with Christian conceptions of calling. We ultimately argue for the theoretical benefit of a Weberian conception of calling for contemporary understandings of how meaning is attached to work, but also highlight that seeing work as calling may be a double-edged sword because doing so may provide benefits to workers while simultaneously obscuring their own oppression.