E.F. Schumacher wrote iconic books on what constitutes good work or “right livelihood” or wise work. He warned us that as a species “we are now far too clever to survive without wisdom.”
Notice what he is saying: Being clever is not being wise. Being rich or being powerful is not being wise. And having a degree in knowledge does not make you wise. And that lacking wisdom, we may not survive.
I have proposed the same thing: That we have knowledge factories but very few wisdom schools. Thus many of our workers and those in professions from law and judiciary to economics and business to media and journalism to seminaries and religion may be far from wise. Knowledge does not make you wise.
In an Epilogue to his classic work, Small Is Beautiful, Schumacher tells us the need to keep our inner houses in order when he says: Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do?’ The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting: We can each of us work to put our own inner house in order. The guidance we need for this work cannot be found in science or technology, the value of which utterly depends on the ends they serve; but it can still be found in the traditional wisdom of mankind.
The mystics of all traditions are among those carriers of “the traditional wisdom of mankind” that needs to be studied and upgraded and applied for our time.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work, p. 21.
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner image: The importance of working together is clearly evident in an Amish barn raising. Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Does your commitment to studying the mystics and sacred books of humankind contribute to wisdom in our time?
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter