Making a Life: Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Work

Work shouldn’t be this hard-or this unfulfilling. Burnout, low wages, gig labor, layoffs, and the struggle to balance purpose with pay have made many of us question what work is, and what it could be--and should be.
Ethicist Kate Ward offers a fresh, timely perspective rooted in Catholic social teaching. She explores work not only as a paid job but as purposeful human activity, examining it through five lenses: purpose, care, food, art, and pay. Caregiving, often undervalued yet essential to every life, reminds us that work extends beyond the workplace. Food and art reveal how creative and repetitive labor shape our satisfaction, meaning, and sense of contribution. And pay exposes the persistent gaps between society’s valuation of labor and the real costs of living.
Ward draws on the Church’s centuries-long reflection on work, justice, and human dignity, showing how its teachings speak directly to the frustrations and potential of modern labor. This first book devoted to Catholic social thought on work illuminates how communities and societies can better recognize, support, and value meaningful human activity.
Making a Life encourages readers to rethink what work is for, who it serves, and how it can nurture human flourishing. Whether you are a student, a professional, or someone simply seeking more purpose in daily life, Ward provides a compelling roadmap for understanding work as a path to both personal meaning and the common good.

Kate Ward is associate professor of theology at Marquette University, where she received the Way Klingler Young Scholar award for research achievement. She is the author of Wealth, Virtue and Moral Luck: Christian Ethics in an Age of Inequality (2021). More than 20 of her scholarly articles and book chapters have appeared in journals including Theological Studies, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Journal of Religious Ethics and edited volumes from Oxford University Press, T&T Clark, Marquette University Press and Georgetown.