Working for Better INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHORS
JON BOYD IVP associate publisher and academic editorial director
Jon Boyd: Undertaking a sociological field study can be a bit unsettling: you never know what you’ll turn up, right? Any surprises (good or bad) that you found? Elaine Ecklund: We had an inkling that people would see their faith as important to their work but our data revealed that faith was even more important to work than we had anticipated, especially for Christians but also for the nonreligious. We did not find the kind of stereotypical “beating people over the head with the Bible” that some workplace leaders and some nonreligious workers are afraid of. More often than not Christians are pretty timid about expressing their faith in the workplace because they do not want to offend others. We frequently heard from Christians who said they self-censored to avoid making others feel uncomfortable, while we heard from those across various faith traditions (and none) that they would be happy to talk with coworkers about faith as long as it wasn’t judgmental. Denise Daniels: One thing that surprised me was how many pastors we spoke with said they talked about the workplace in their churches—but when we talked to their congregants, they usually said their pastor almost never talked about work. EE: Many Christians don’t know who to turn to in order to talk about the unique challenges of their particular jobs or industries from a Christian theological perspective. That’s where Working for Better comes in. It’s based on lots of data we collected but it’s also accessible for Christian workers in a variety of occupations. DD: And that’s needed. In our conversations with Christians, many demonstrated the sacred-secular dichotomy we’ve been talking about for many years. Given the strength of the faith-and-work movement of the past two decades, I thought we’d see more evidence of faith integration in our interviews. There was some, but not as much as I would’ve hoped.
JB: Sometimes the factors of “individual responsibility” and “systemic forces” can appear to be in tension or even opposition. EE: Really the individual and the systems do not need to be seen in conflict. It’s important to understand systems because they shape so much individual behavior. At the same time, the main way we change unjust systems is through doing a lot of reflection—individually and in Christian community—to first even notice where workplace systems can be better, then to understand our part in upholding systems and where we have the responsibility and power to bring changes. JB: Tell us about your path to coauthoring this book. Any tips you have for other scholars working as coauthors? EE: We met at a workshop on leadership sponsored by the H. E. Butt Foundation and really hit it off. We realized my previous work on how scientists understand faith and Denise’s research on sabbath and on women, faith, and work were compatible research agendas. There is a lot of great theological work out there and wonderful devotional literature on faith at work but less empirically based research, so we thought finding out what a variety of workers across the nation actually think and do related to faith in the workplace would make a really useful contribution. One key to our working relationship is being friends first and wanting to spend time together. Doing research together certainly allowed us to do that! We also have similar work styles and are somewhat complementary in our skill sets and networks. But what makes us really work together well is each wanting to see the other shine. It’s been a real privilege to work together. ■
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