End of Work

John Hughes is Curate of St David’s with St Michael’s Exeter and holds a Cambridge PhD. He has published a number of articles in top journals such as Telos and Modern Theology.

"These two excellent books provide thematic indices of Christian ways of understanding both power and work. They also illustrate how profoundly the repertoire of Christianity and of its Judaic origins permeates contemporary society in spite of the impossible prescriptions and false descriptions that declare religion confined to the private realm." (Times Literary Supplement, 29 July 2011)"Its strength lies in its illuminating discussions of a fairly wide range of writers." (Times Higher Education Supplement, February 2008)

• Foreword. Preface.Introduction: Work in the Christian Tradition.1. Twentieth-century Theologies of Work: Karl Barth, Marie-Dominique Chenu, John Paul II and Miroslav Volf.2. Utility as the Spirit of Capitalism: Max Weber’s Diagnosis of Modern Work.3. Labour, Excess and Utility in Karl Marx: The Problem of Materialism and the Aesthetic.4. John Ruskin and William Morris: An Alternative Tradition: Labor and the Theo-aesthetic in English Romantic Critiques of Capitalism.5. The Frankfurt School: The Critique of Instrumental Reason and Hints of Return to the Theo-aesthetic within Marxism.6. The end of Work: Rest, Beauty and Liturgy: The Catholic Metaphysical Critique of the Culture of Work and its Incorporation into the English Romantic Tradition: Josef Pieper, Jacques Maritain, Eric Gill and David Jones.7. Concluding Remarks: Labor, Utility and Theology.Bibliography.Index