Recently the team at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles sat down for a conversation with Brian Gregor, Ph.D., and Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University Dominguez Hills. Brian is an ardent supporter of CFWLA and a member at Pacific Crossroads Church. We asked Brian to describe his career arc, the nature and intersection of a theology of work in the realm of academia, and the ways working from God’s acceptance rather than towards it embodies the posture Christians can have towards their daily callings.
Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles: As we get started, I would love to know a bit more about your career arc. What has your work life looked like throughout the years with all its twists and turns?
Brian Gregor: Growing up in British Columbia in a small logging town, I just wasn’t aware of a career path like this. Because it was mostly logging and agriculture, or else some kind of business. And so I never really had a very clear sense of what kind of work I'd end up doing.
I always was really interested in philosophical questions. There was a distinct moment in high school when I read The Screwtape Letters for the first time, I thought that, someday, I will do that. But I didn't really know how you end up doing it professionally. I was actually kind of thinking, well, maybe you become a journalist or something. After high school I worked the graveyard shift at a motel, so I read a lot, and at 22 I decided to go to back to school, and study philosophy at Trinity Western University. I didn’t know if I would be any good at it, but I just wanted to take as many philosophy courses as I could. I ended up doing really well there, and I had some really great mentors, and I got into a Ph. D. program, which brought me to the United States.
During grad school I was a teaching fellow, and honestly, I wasn’t as excited about the teaching part. My ambition was always to write. But as I started to get more comfortable in the classroom, I started to enjoy it a lot more. And my attitude about my work shifted.
“Whereas I realized, I will probably teach a lot more students in the classroom than I’ll ever have readers of my books. I started to realize that was a place to make a real impact.”
It started to dawn on me that writing the kind of things that I write—philosophy, articles, and books—not a lot of people end up reading that. Whereas I realized, I will probably teach a lot more students in the classroom than I'll ever have readers of my books. I started to realize that was a place to make a real impact.
I really like connecting with the students, especially because, for a lot of the students, it's their first time encountering these ideas. It's such a privilege to open up that world for them and guide them into asking these questions. A lot of them don't end up becoming philosophy majors, but then there are the few where that really clicks with them, and you get to be a bit more of a mentor. That's become a lot more meaningful than the idea of getting my name in print.
CFWLA: We would love to know how you as a philosopher think about work and vocation.
Brian Gregor: Sure. You know, God has things for us to do that are part of being his image-bearers on Earth. He's put us as stewards of creation, and there are things for us to do, and that doesn't only mean caring for the natural world, because culture is actually part of the development of the world.
Doing philosophy can be a type of act of service to God. Developing our understanding of things and this idea of philosophy as a kind of faith seeking understanding has always been helpful to me as a way of thinking about what it is I'm trying to do and my work. It's taking faith as a starting point and trying to think through the implications of it and what that means.
That can be true for more theological questions, but also even just thinking about the bigger questions of what it looks like to flourish as a human being. What are the things that help us flourish? What are the things that enhance our sort of experience of each other as creatures of God and what are the things that diminish our sense of each other?
One of my hobby horses in the classroom is talking about the Internet and social media and thinking critically about the issues of our time. What are the things that enhance our flourishing and what hinders it?
That's also philosophical work that, as Christians, is important to do. To think about that kind of thing and figure out what it looks like to reflect the image of God. What are the things that help us to see God's likeness in other human beings and develop that?
CFWLA: What are your thoughts on the ways rest and leisure play into our own work as well?
Brian Gregor: Josef Pieper points out how, for the ancient Greeks, leisure was the primary category. Work was the absence of leisure. So work means not being not at leisure, which is an interesting perspective, because we tend to think the opposite in modernity.
Leisure is basically whatever happens when you're not working, and this modern leisure is just kicking back by the pool or watching TV or whatever. But Pieper argues that’s actually just a type of idleness. And it’s deep rest and contemplation that really satisfies us and prepares us to see the higher things.
Honestly, I think that's important for Christians because we start our week on Sunday. We don't start on Monday morning when you have to pull yourself up and get out there and justify your life and your existence by your accomplishments or by your success.
Rather, we begin from that posture of rest and already being embraced by God. That's our starting point, and that frees us to do work in a different way. That frees us to work from acceptance rather than towards acceptance.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.