Monday, August 8, 2011

Princeton Professor Advocates for Faith at Work

There was an article a couple of months ago in the Princeton Alumni Weekly that talked about Princeton Professor David Miller, who is the director for the Princeton University Faith and Work Initiative. Read the article about Miller and his program here.

I really appreciated this. The author profiles Miller who believes that faith and work can be intertwined. Similar to the ideas in this blog, Miller felt coming out of college that he was told to live two separate lives--his work life and his church life. After 16 years in international finance, Miller saw that the two might not need to be separated.

The part of the article that most stood out to me was when he talked about the advantage that a person of faith has in the workplace over an athiest. You might not think about your religion as an advantage at work, but the article author quotes Miller as saying:
"One aspect of having a worldview grounded in faith or metaphysical things is that you have a different perception of time. You think in terms of eternity, and how you live this life matters for one’s eternity. If you have a longer sense of time infused by some spiritual tradition, it also means you treat the marketplace differently."

As you work, do you focus on eternity? How does that focus shape the way you interact with people at work? How does that focus change the way you do your job?

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