"doing well a thing that is well worth doing": Teaching Dorothy L. Sayers on Work
Collinge W.J.
2006
Horizons
0
10.1017/S0360966900002978
This essay discusses the use of Dorothy L. Sayers' essay "Why Work?" (1942) in a Freshman Seminar that inaugurates a four-year structured core curriculum in a Catholic liberal arts university. After a synopsis of Sayers' argument, it enumerates some contributions that her essay can make to a Catholic liberal arts education in (1) directing students' attention to the goods intrinsic to work, (2) situating work in a theological perspective, (3) introducing the idea that the worker's relationship to God is internal to the work, and (4) addressing work in terms of vocation. It concludes by considering some difficulties encountered in teaching Sayers' essay. Copyright © The College Theology Society 2006.
It was first published as a booklet why work?, An Ad Dress Delivered at Eastbourne April 23rd, 1942, (1942); Sayers' collection creed or chaos?, I Am Citing the American Edition of the Latter, pp. 46-62, (1949); The Essay is Now Available in Sayers, Letters to A Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine, pp. 125-146, (2004); Other Relevant Works of Sayers Include the Mind of the Maker, (1941); The Worth of the Work, pp. 217-225, (1979); Vocation in Work, pp. 42-44; Baker E., A Christian Basis for the Post-War World, pp. 89-105, (1942); Living to work, Sayers' Unpopular Opinions, pp. 150-155, (1947); Greene Eads M., The mystery of vocation, Inklings of Glory Christian Reflection, 2, pp. 59-67, (2004); Henry Newman J., Knowledge viewed in relation to professional skill, Discourse VII of the Idea of A University, 1959, pp. 170-192; Arendt H., The Human Condition, (1958); (2005); Ehrenreich B., Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, (2001); McCarthy, 120
Cambridge University Press
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