The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work [Paperback]

Lee Hardy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1990

Work concerns all of us: we spend more of our waking hours working than doing anything else. The importance of work and the need to reflect more fully and meaningful on it make Lee Hardys Fabric of This World a highly relevant book.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Hardy looks creatively at the meaning of work according to Greek, medieval, Renaissance, Marxian, and Freudian perspectives, then at Luther's view and subsequent Calvinist development and modification, concluding with contemporary Roman Catholic convergence. The second half of the book applies the theory to personal career choice and social job design; it then reviews seven management theories and ends with perceptive remarks about combining people-oriented choices and profit choices. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (May 4, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802802982
• ISBN-13: 978-0802802989
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good Christian book on vocations, February 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work (Paperback)

I liked this book. We have to read it for our class on career counseling and it gives a good primer on the theology of work--really the history of the theology of work. From the ancients to the reformers of Calvin and Luther. Chapter four details the modern thinkers on work and management. A good read overall.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't stop "nodding"!, July 8, 2010

By 

Adorisable (Wilmore, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work (Paperback)

This book is fantastic!
It was a required reading for a Career Counseling class.. and I was dreading reading "yet another boring required text." But as soon as I started reading it, I fell in love with the clear TRUTH (both encouraging AND challenging) in it - on every single page! I loved Lee Hardy's honesty and matter-of-fact stance.

The following sentences from p. 117 sum it all up, in my opinion:
"When the virtue of hard work becomes the vice of workaholism, it is likely that an underlying spiritual problem needs to be addressed. The addiction to work as a source of affirmation and self-esteem needs to be broken by an encounter with a God of grace who can provide all that we need apart from our own efforts, thereby freeing us for a life in pursuit of the righteousness of his kingdom."

Excellent book! I highly recommend it to everyone who "WORKS!"

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, June 17, 2011

By 

Justin Coulson (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work (Paperback)

The idea of a calling received newfound modern attention in Bellah et al's (1985) "Habits of the Heart". Building on this brilliant beginning, careers literature has boomed in recent years as researchers and careers counsellors have attempted to find ways for people to find greater meaning and purpose in their careers.

Hardy's "Fabric of this World" is a stellar review of the history of calling and vocation, turning a challenging history into a pleasing page-turner that I read in no time at all. Hardy's "Fabric" was published only six years after Bellah's seminal work, and provides a deep foundation that puts "Habits of the Heart" in context, but also offers a wonderfully solid theoretical platform from which research in recent times has launched. That this book was written before we had any of the research knowledge that we currently enjoy is a credit to the detailed and high quality research Hardy put into creating "Fabric".

While the final chapter deals with 1990's management theory a little too much for my liking, the historical review and discussion of how we find meaning and purpose in work through a 'service' prism was edifying.

I highly recommend this book. Simple, succinct, satisfying.