Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part IV

Losing the Duel with Dualism

In his book, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Darrell Cosden, who lectures in Theology and Ethics at the International Christian College of Glasgow, is searching for a theology of work that "works".  He has rejected (in principle) a destructive dualism long present in evangelicalism which divides creation into two storeys: an upper storey and a lower storey. 

The lower storey in this dualism is all that has to do with physical matter, and with the world of time and space in which we live and move and have our existence.  It is the world of blood, sweat and tears.  It is the world of marrying, bearing children and raising them.  It is the world of work.
  Evangelicalism has taught incessantly that this world--the lower storey--is all going to pass away and that the real action is when as disembodied souls we die and go to heaven.  Heaven is the upper storey.  The purpose of our life on this earth, of working in the lower storey, is to make sure we get to the upper storey, and we take as many people with us as possible, when we die.

But evangelicalism is not alone in believing this dichotomy between upper and lower storeys of existence.  It is a dualism inherited from Luther, who, in turn, received it from Roman Catholicism, which, in its turn, inherited it from the Western post-apostolic churches, which had taken it over from neo-platonic pagan thought.  It is an idol which is long past its due date for destruction.

Darrell Cosden has got out his hammer and has gone a long way toward shattering the idol.  Unfortunately, he fails to finish the job.  In fact, at the end of his book, he retreats right back into the dualism he so manfully attempts to reject.  This serves to demonstrate just how pervasive, powerful, and insidious this pagan notion is.

In his final chapter, entitled "Shaping the Things to Come: Mission for the Masses", Cosden argues that work (career, calling) is "missional" ( to use the current popular evangelical jargon).  He wants to affirm strongly that work and labour in the creation is spiritual, and of the Holy Spirit.  He closes by giving us a "vision" of what this work-orientated mission might look like (p.146ff).

Cosden tells a story of two work colleagues, one a Christian, the other not.  The Christian works for the glory of God in his occupation.  His non-Christian colleague eventually is intrigued, and in an atmosphere of warm collegiality, eventually becomes open to the Gospel.  At this point, despite his intent, Cosden is right back at the dualism he has striven to destroy.  If we get our theology of work right, we end up helping people get converted--and that is the real goal.  That is what makes it all worth while. 

It is clear that shaking off neo-platonism is a hard fight--so deeply ingrained it has become.  In fact we are bold enough to say that anyone reading this who does not know what neo-platonism is will have been influenced by it to some degree.  He will have mixed paganism and Christianity to some extent, and probably extensively.

In our next and final post on this issue, in true Lutheran spirit, we will nail a series of theses  to the electronic wall that will endeavour to shatter neo-platonism and the destructive dualism it has wrought within Christendom.  Stay tuned.