Abstract
Religion in the workplace tends to make us uneasy-an intruder in a world of Weberian rationality. Nevertheless, while relatively few of us realize it, our labor and employment law has a strongly religious foundation, without which we would have little of the legal structure with which we are familiar. In this address, I will expose this foundation, and suggest that we only fully can understand the dynamics of the law in this area in light of the religious influences that gave our law its form. Secondly, I will suggest that the crisis that employment law finds itself in—and not just in the United States—only can be addressed through a willingness to consider anew the insights religion has to offer us on the nature and dignity of work and of the humans who perform it. Lastly, I will suggest that as much as we may wish to avoid the topic, religion will force us to confront it, in the workplace, in law, and in politics. It is integral to human personality and we can ignore it only by ignoring ourselves.
Recommended Citation
Thomas C. Kohler,
Religion in the Workplace: Faith, Action, and the Religious Foundations of American Employment Law,
83
Chi.-Kent L. Rev.
975
(2008).
Available at:
https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol83/iss2/19
