After Sunday: A Theology of Work

Thompsett, Fredrica Harris

After Sunday: A Theology of Work. By Armand Larive. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. ix + 198 pp. £50.00/ $85.00 (cloth); £12.99/$21.95 (paper).

After Sunday is a superb, at times brilliant, and engrossing book. In it Armand Larive addresses a neglected and abused theological topic: the significance of work. His systematic theological exploration of work is set within the framework of the doctrine of the Trinity. Larive brings his background as a teacher of philosophy, an Episcopal priest, and, more recently, a carpenter in the Puget Sound area to his text. His substantial theological analysis is apt and comprehensive, practical and philosophical. Although ethics and spirituality are not his primary focus, he concludes this book with spiritual, ethical, and ecclesiological reflections on work.

Larive begins by reviewing the reasons that work has been devalued, including assessing traditional theological barriers against work. These include the neglect and, in some instances, the repudiation of natural theology; a misplaced emphasis upon perfection; apocalyptic teaching that places the kingdom of God at some future end-time; and the Protestant emphasis on faith over work, which prohibits work from being seen as a means of salvation. Augustine and Luther, as he frequently notes, put up theological "fire walls" that bar work from positive soteriological significance in the kingdom of heaven. He also eschews an assumptive theology of a God "who is only active in church" or in the private reflections of each human heart (p. 61).

From the outset Larive presents "work" as a positive component attuned to the gracious, cooperative character and image of God. At the heart of After Sunday is the doctrine of the Trinity. Drawing on Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), Larive deepens and extends Volf's distinctions "of the Son as eschatological, the Father/Mother as protological, and the Spirit as pneumatological" (p. 7). The three chapters, one each devoted to a dimension of the Trinity, lead the reader toward fresh Christological expressions as well as sound critique that culls theological assumptions that are no longer helpful for postmodern theological practice. These three chapters are worth greatest attention. For instance, he recasts atonement theology toward a Christus Victor interpretation that signifies the death of Christ not as a "substitute but as a representative whole liberating path humanity can follow" as we contend with the principalities and powers of the world (p. 55).

Following Roman Catholic theologians, and in particular Yves Congar, Larive redirects understandings of ministry to give "the laity the place of primary identity" (p. 64). In tune with Philip Hefner's anthropology, Larive defines humanity as "created co-creators" (p. 73). In a church that is absorbed with its own identity, Larive observes, often the laity are in actual practice clients of the ordained, or at best have instrumental status for maintaining the institutional church's fabric. Instead Larive sees laypersons, by virtue of their baptisms, at the church's core as central participants in accomplishing God's work in the world (pp. 63-64).

Along the way Larive asks blunt and folksy questions and offers telling assertions, both practical and theological. For example, he asks: "Does God care about honey bees, or Otis elevators, or Gortex, or arc welding? The answer has to be yes" (p. 43). Theologically he envisions "work" as part of the creative character of God. He is attentive to feminist theologians who lead him to view humanity relationally. Larive the philosopher also invites collaborative theological reflection with theologians of science, in particular John Polkinghorne. His arguments here can prove dense, yet they reveal the interconnected fabric of his wide theological approach.

I will return again and again to this book to mine its resources. Clergy and others who are genuinely interested in viewing laity as more than clients or instruments of parochial service will find that reading and reflecting on After Sunday is time well spent. Larive has given us a provocative, enlightening, and essential component of our theological homework.

FREDRICA HARRIS THOMPSETT

Episcopal Divinity School

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Fall 2005
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