Chapter 6: “As the Birds to Flying, So is Man Born Unto Work”: Martin Luther’s Notion of Work as an Individual Source for Meaning

This chapter addresses the reformatory notion of work as put forward by Martin Luther as a source for producing meaning on the individual level in organizational work environments. We chose Luther, founder of German Protestantism in the 16th century, for his central significance in reformatory history and the extensive examination of work in his writings. Spiritual positions such as Luther’s are prone to nourish meaningful notions of work by framing them as a contribution to a higher level order (Zapf, 2015). This holds true even for secularized contexts in modern day market economy (McCleary … Barro, 2003), which is why the knowledge of such backgrounds contributes to a fuller picture of how a meaningful work environment is comprised.