Review of Working At The Warehouse
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Nur Khairina MK
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Review of Working At The Warehouse
[Following is a volunteer review of "Working At The Warehouse" by Jerry A. Greenberg.]
Jerry A. Greenberg's book Working at the Warehouse is a fascinating look at the human relationship with religion. It is a story that centers around Lew Thompson. Lew is general manager of a moderately-sized warehouse, RDST warehouse (short for a righteous distributor of salvations tools). The warehouse runs a business to sell religious kits and other religious items. Then one day, a mysterious driver arrives at the warehouse, bringing items that they had not ordered. They discovered that it is prohibited items which are 10,000-year-old prayers that can bring humanity peace and prosperity, as well as put a stop to wars. It detached humans from the needs of all these tools, the very things they are selling. Therefore, it presents a dilemma of whether to save the warehouse's business interests and jobs or to save the goodness of mankind.
The story takes us behind the scenes of how organized religion actually operates which is interesting. For example, there is a part Lew mentioned about all these “tools” and items that we needed to get closer to God such as salvation kits, heaven phonebooks, and real words of God caught on tape. Interesting how the author relates these religious items to health benefits products because both categories are intangible items that made it difficult to measure their benefit.
I find myself stopping and pondering after reading it. It truly makes you think about things like the role of religion in society and how it influences the economy. Religion is treated as a security blanket in a society with all its traditions and trappings. Mankind requires a force greater than himself. Surprisingly, religion has an impact on global economics. Without the vast wealth of organized religions, the global economy could collapse. Organized religion helps to fund the construction of recreation and activity centers, which has an economic impact.
As the story unfolds, you'll be jumping from side to side because we are not sure which side is telling the truth. From one point you feel compelled to protect the items for the goodness of mankind, but after learning about the importance of religion you feel the need to destroy it. The boundary begins to blur, and each side appears to have a hidden agenda behind everything they're doing, and everyone has a good reason for doing what they're doing.
The characters, particularly the main character Lew, have good character development. He shifted from a jaded person going about his daily routine to someone searching for what it meant to be alive. Instead of following in his parents' traditions, he begins to think about himself and discover his "spiritual identity" in order to comprehend what religion meant to him.
It does, however, feel a little rushed near the end. It makes us question if there is more to the ending, such as how their lives altered following the major incident. You see the build-up to all of these questions, but you just get a glimpse of a changed mindset, not how it affects their actions.
The sudden rush towards the ending made me feel the need to deduct one star which led to the final ratings of 3 out of 4 stars. Several typos, notably in the later chapters, including misspellings of the characters' names twice.
Overall, a good book to read, and I highly recommend this book to religious individuals of organized religion because it caused us to pause and reflect on what was going on behind the scenes. This is the kind of book that makes you feel differently about religion and truly appreciate religion in its essence. There is a discussion of religion's relevance, thus I feel atheists will also enjoy the book by learning why religion still exists today.
******
Working At The Warehouse
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Jerry A. Greenberg's book Working at the Warehouse is a fascinating look at the human relationship with religion. It is a story that centers around Lew Thompson. Lew is general manager of a moderately-sized warehouse, RDST warehouse (short for a righteous distributor of salvations tools). The warehouse runs a business to sell religious kits and other religious items. Then one day, a mysterious driver arrives at the warehouse, bringing items that they had not ordered. They discovered that it is prohibited items which are 10,000-year-old prayers that can bring humanity peace and prosperity, as well as put a stop to wars. It detached humans from the needs of all these tools, the very things they are selling. Therefore, it presents a dilemma of whether to save the warehouse's business interests and jobs or to save the goodness of mankind.
The story takes us behind the scenes of how organized religion actually operates which is interesting. For example, there is a part Lew mentioned about all these “tools” and items that we needed to get closer to God such as salvation kits, heaven phonebooks, and real words of God caught on tape. Interesting how the author relates these religious items to health benefits products because both categories are intangible items that made it difficult to measure their benefit.
I find myself stopping and pondering after reading it. It truly makes you think about things like the role of religion in society and how it influences the economy. Religion is treated as a security blanket in a society with all its traditions and trappings. Mankind requires a force greater than himself. Surprisingly, religion has an impact on global economics. Without the vast wealth of organized religions, the global economy could collapse. Organized religion helps to fund the construction of recreation and activity centers, which has an economic impact.
As the story unfolds, you'll be jumping from side to side because we are not sure which side is telling the truth. From one point you feel compelled to protect the items for the goodness of mankind, but after learning about the importance of religion you feel the need to destroy it. The boundary begins to blur, and each side appears to have a hidden agenda behind everything they're doing, and everyone has a good reason for doing what they're doing.
The characters, particularly the main character Lew, have good character development. He shifted from a jaded person going about his daily routine to someone searching for what it meant to be alive. Instead of following in his parents' traditions, he begins to think about himself and discover his "spiritual identity" in order to comprehend what religion meant to him.
It does, however, feel a little rushed near the end. It makes us question if there is more to the ending, such as how their lives altered following the major incident. You see the build-up to all of these questions, but you just get a glimpse of a changed mindset, not how it affects their actions.
The sudden rush towards the ending made me feel the need to deduct one star which led to the final ratings of 3 out of 4 stars. Several typos, notably in the later chapters, including misspellings of the characters' names twice.
Overall, a good book to read, and I highly recommend this book to religious individuals of organized religion because it caused us to pause and reflect on what was going on behind the scenes. This is the kind of book that makes you feel differently about religion and truly appreciate religion in its essence. There is a discussion of religion's relevance, thus I feel atheists will also enjoy the book by learning why religion still exists today.
******
Working At The Warehouse
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Always Strive to Be a Better You by Pete Hall
