Transforming Work & Academia: A Vision from Bernard Amadei

In yesterday’s DM honoring Labor Day, I pointed out the heroism of those who are standing up in their places of work to speak truth to power and pay the consequences.

This is true of the four leaders at HHS who quit to protest how ideology at HHS is trumping science and jeopardizing the health of all Americans. We honor these workers of conscience for standing up for truth and protecting the most vulnerable among us.

Work is a place that demands the best of us. It is where very often we work out our vocations, our callings, the very reason we are on this planet for our brief sojourn. In work we invest our commitment to the Via Transformativa, to the values we are committed to and want to share with others.

Our work is very often the way we love the world.  And make it a better place, a place where compassion and justice can flow like a river, as the Scriptures say.

As a teacher in the classroom (or by Zoom) and in my writing, there is no greater thrill than seeing students of mine gift the world by their work. I am sure any teacher reading this understands what I am talking about. And of course, parenting and grandparenting is a teaching and mentoring role as well. In many and diverse ways we are all teachers.

Recently I received a book written by one of my students whose field is engineering. I have referred to Bernard Amadei in other DMs. He co-founded Engineers Without Borders, which has more than 18,000 engineers doing good work in many of the world’s hottest spots from Haiti to Afghanistan to West Africa and the Amazon. Theirs is exceptional work that only engineers can do, such as creating solar generated wells and so much more. God bless our committed engineers!

Bernard’s new book has a promising title: Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy. He challenges readers to imagine “prioritizing a peace-driven industrial complex over a current military-focused one.” He insists that “the engineering profession must participate and provide leadership in that transformation.” I love how he is holding his profession’s feet to the fire.

Isn’t that the work of all of us—to demand renewal and reform in the  professions and work worlds we operate in? And especially in this season of Labor Day?

That is certainly what I had in mind in establishing the University of Creation Spirituality 20-some years ago with a Doctor of Ministry degree in work. Bernard and I met there, and it is moving to see what he has accomplished in his profession these many years since.

In a previous book, Engineering for Sustainable Human Development, published 10 years ago, Bernard concluded that engineering students “lacked the necessary attitudes, skills, and knowledge to address the issues faced by humanity within the next 20 years.” Things have only “worsened” since then he reports in his latest book.

He sees the problem as an educational one that fails to include values and mindsets that encourage thinking systemically and using systems tools to approach complex problems. In this new book he addresses educators and decision-makers in science, engineering and technology for the 21^st century.

He cites scientist Gus Speth: I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change…I thought that with 30 years of good science, we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy. And to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation—and we scientists [and engineers] don’t know how to do that.*

Does this observation apply to all professions, workers and academic departments? I thank Bernard for this book and challenging his own profession so head-on.

*Bernard Amadei, Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy (Singapore: Jenny Stanford Publishing, 2025).

See Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

Banner Image: Bernard Amadei and friends celebrate the anniversary of Engineers Without Borders International, bringing together engineers, students and others to help disadvantaged communities improve their quality of life through education and the implementation of sustainable engineering projects at the grassroots level. Photo from EWB-I.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you agree that the top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy? How does one deal with those problems in whatever work world he or she is part of? And in training and educating for that work? And in employing one’s conscience vis-a-vis our work worlds?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time

Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
 “This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics