The affirmation of work for work’s sake calls into question not only the secular fascination with efficiency but also the traditional religious motivation to work. If one considers work a means of gaining acceptability in God’s sight or as proof that one has gained this acceptability (as some Puritans have done, more despite than because of Calvin’s teaching), then one will tend not so much to increase productivity (which is what one does when one considers work a means of earning) as to intensify production. For the more one works, the more one will be, or know that one is, pleasing to God. But when one considers work as an end in itself, one will believe that God is pleased not only when human beings work, but also when they delight in their work. One will, therefore, have no reason to shy away from sacrificing the intensity of production for the enjoyment of it.d
Miroslav Volf
Work in the Spirit
