THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
Friday and Saturday, October 26-27, 2007
The St. John’s University School of Law
Cynthia Toolin, Ph.D.
Holy Apostles College and Seminary
33 Prospect Hill Road
Cromwell, CT 06416
860-632-3022
Cynthia Toolin is a Professor of Dogmatic and Moral Theology at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT where she has been employed for eleven years. She holds advanced degrees in sociology and in theology. Her research interests are in the theology of work and in the use of inter-religious dialogue in promoting peace. She is currently working on a theoretical combination of the two interests.
Cynthia is a member of the Connecticut Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and has taken two courses at Hartford Seminary in Building Abrahamic Partnerships. In the last academic year she has brought 25 seminarians to a Mosque, a Hindu (and Jain) Temple, a Sikh Gurudwara and a Buddhist Temple to expose them to the beliefs and practices of other world religions.
In addition to teaching graduate level theology at the seminary and through distance learning, she teaches two undergraduate courses - Comparative World Religions and Sociology of Religion.
Abstract
Modeling a Spirituality of Work
John Paul II’s now famous statement, “Work is for man and not man for work” in Laborem Exercens is oft repeated. Yet the meaning of the phrase, “work is for man” is unclear and subject to numerous interpretations: work fulfills man, work promotes the common good, work contributes to culture, etc. All of these interpretations are acceptable, but the strongest one, and perhaps the most difficult to approach, is that work is for man’s spiritual growth. This paper focuses on this “good news” of work, that is, that a spirituality of work exists. Further “good news” is that we can model our spirituality of work on the examples given to us by each of the three members of the Holy Family as they lived and worked in relative obscurity in ancient Israel.