Diversity Of Vocations

A Catholic mother with six children who is also a member of a Franciscan community in the inner city reflects on the many wonderful ways we can all serve in the Body of Christ ???????????????????????? sometimes all at once.

Work. For some this word represents drudgery and the mundane. For others work is an idol to be served. If you find yourself anywhere on the spectrum from workaholic to weekend warrior, it’s time to bridge the gap between Sunday worship and Monday work. Striking a balance between theological depth and practical counsel, Tom Nelson outlines God’s purposes for work in a way that helps us to make the most of our vocation and to join God in his work in the world. Discover a new perspective on work that will transform your workday and make the majority of your waking hours matter, not only now, but for eternity.

Examining the state of the consecrated life today, Azevedo gives an inspiring account of biblical and contemporary theological insights into both the nature of religious vocation and its path to renewal. The key characteristic is its call for renewing religious life through radical commitment to Christ, to the poor and to the Church itself.

Does God have a specific plan for each of us, or is it more like general guidelines for all of us? How do my gifts and abilities, my personality and particular circumstances, impact my vocation? What is the role of the church in this process? What are the needs of the world that call us to respond? Awakening Vocation explores these questions and breathes new life into an ancient idea - rousing vocation from a centuries-long slumber. Inspired by the broad and inclusive Vision of the Second Vatican Council, the book traces the history of Catholic reflection on vocation and offers a constructive proposal for the present. In plain language, Edward Hahnenberg argues that Catholic thinking on vocation has been frustrated by a deficient theology of grace and that the key to reclaiming the notion of God's call today lies in a Vision of God's self-gift reaching across al of human history and into every human heart. Rethinking vocation in light of a revitalized theology of grace helps move beyond earlier dead ends, opening up new ways of imagining discipleship and discernment within our wonderfully diverse and yet deeply divided world.

Since Martin Luther, vocations or callings have had a close relationship with daily work. It is a give-and-take relationship in which the meaning of a vocation typically negotiates with the kinds of work available (and vice-versa) at any given time. While “vocation language” still has currency in Western culture, today’s predominant meaning of vocation has little to do with the actual work performed on a job. Jeffrey Scholes contends that recent theological treatments of the Protestant concept of vocation, both academic and popular, often unwittingly collude with consumer culture to circulate a concept of vocation that is detached from the material conditions of work. The result is a consumer-friendly vocation that is rendered impotent to inform and, if necessary, challenge the political norms of the workplace. For example, he classifies Rick Warren’s concept of “purpose” in his best-selling book, The Purpose-Driven Life, as a functional equivalent of vocation that acts in this way. Other popular uses of vocation along with insights culled from traditional theology and consumer culture studies help Scholes reveal the current state of vocations in the West. Using recent scholarship in the field of political theology, he argues that resisting commodification is a possibility and a prerequisite for a “political vocation,” if it is at all able to engage the norms that regulate and undermine the pursuit of justice in many modern workplaces.

The Reformed tradition in the twenty-first century is increasingly diverse, dynamic, and deeply engaged in a wide variety of global and public issues, from the arts and business to immigration and race to poetry and politics. This book brings together the insights of a diverse group of leading Reformed thinkers--including Nicholas Wolterstorff, Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Ashford, John Witvliet, Ruben Rosario Rodriguez, and James K. A. Smith--to offer a contemporary vision of the depth and diversity of the Reformed faith and its global public impact.

What is theology? It is nothing more, or less, than the study of God. All who pray are, in a sense, theologians. All who believe in Christ are called not only to sanctity, but to theology. "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2). Yet the field of theology, as taught in universities, can sometimes look like a distant abstraction, reserved for an intellectual elite. This cannot be not the case. To prove it, Cistercian Fathers Roch Kereszty and Denis Farkasfalvy of the University of Dallas, both veteran spiritual directors, bring us Theology in Practice: A Beginner's Guide to the Spiritual Life. Guiding readers from the first inklings of God's presence, to the fire of married love, to the miracle of the Eucharist, and even to the hour of death, this book completes the circuit between theological study and human experience. Never before has the Church believed as strongly as she does today that spirituality must, like leaven, penetrate and transform the ordinary, "average" walks of life. It ought not be limited to those who withdraw from the world. This unique work, written by two longtime friends and brothers in religious life, draws on the riches of the Cistercian founder Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—and with him the whole tradition of the Church Fathers—to communicate Christ's peace to hearts and minds.

Many colleges and universities have begun using the language of vocation and calling to help undergraduates think about the future direction of their lives. This language is used in both secular and religious contexts, but it has deep roots in the Christian theological tradition. Given the increasingly multi-faith context of undergraduate life, many have asked whether this terminology can truly serve as a new vocabulary for higher education. If vocation is to find a foothold in the contemporary context, it will need to be re-examined, re-thought, and re-written; in short, higher education will need to undertake the project of hearing vocation differently. In this third volume on vocation from editor David S. Cunningham, the thirteen contributing scholars identify with a wide variety of religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. Some contributors identify with more than one of these; others would claim none of them. The authors met on multiple occasions to read common texts, to discuss agreements and differences, and to respond to one another's writing; some of these responses are included at the end of each chapter. Both individually and collectively, these contributors expand the range of vocational reflection and discernment well beyond its traditional Christian origins. The authors observe that all undergraduate students--regardless of their academic field, religious background, or demographic identity-need to make space for reflection, to overcome obstacles to discernment, and to consider the significance of their own narratives, beliefs, and practices. This, in turn, will require college campuses to re-imagine their curricular and co-curricular programming in order to support their students's reflection on issues of meaning, purpose, and identity.