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.  

Ergasia

Episode 29 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone Part Ten: God‘s Governance in the Midst of Tough Circumstances

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.

Episode 28 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone Part IXb: Work and Life Renewed – Prophetic Dreaming, Integrating Experience and Scripture

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.

Episode 27 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone Part IXa: Work and Life Renewed – Prophetic Dreaming, Integrating Experience and Scripture

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.

Episode 26 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part VIII: Work and Life Renewed - Deep Listening

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.

Episode 25 – Hard Work Never Killed Anybody, Part VII: Prophetic Resistance to the Forgetting of Injustice

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.

Episode 24 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part VI: The Economic Factors In Work-Related Death, Grief, and Trauma..

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.

Episode 23 – Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part V: The Death and Transformation of the Theologies of Hospitality and Pastoral Care

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.

Episode 22 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone Part IV: Creating Victims, Silencing Grief After Work Related Trauma

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?ReferencesBottomley, John  Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2015.

Episode 21 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part III: The Foundation of Prophetic Ministry, Listening with a Pastoral Heart

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.

Episode 20 – Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part II: Idolatry’s Bitter Fruit, Silencing Suffering and Injustice

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.

Episode 19 - Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part I: Subduing Death, Modernity's Heroic Intent

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  

Ergasia Special Episode No.3: A Statement of Intent

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 

Episode 18 - The Dream Betrayed, Part VI: The Church As Community of Justice

In this episode of Ergasia we continue our exploration of the book The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class by Lutheran scholar Karen L Bloomquist. In this episode, Bloomquist considers the question of how the Church can proclaim the Gospel of God's redemption in way that takes into account the reality of working class oppression, and which empowers the working class to resist the structures of domination and injustice by which their lives are controlled. References The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.

Episode 17 - The Dream Betrayed Part V: Redeeming Working Class Reality

In this episode of Ergasia, we continue our exploration of the book The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class by Karen L Bloomquist, published by Fortress Press. Bloomquist asks: what are the ways in which sin manifests itself in the structures of dominance and control that enslave working class life? How are these structures upheld by our conceptions of what sin is? And what is the relevance of the Gospel proclamation of grace, both to the realities of working class life and as a mechanism for liberation? References Bloomquist, Karen L The Dream Betrayed: Religious Challenge of the Working Class. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.

Episode 16: The Dream Betrayed, Part IV: The Dominance of Sin

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Ergasia

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