Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation

Book Overview

What am I going to do with my life? is a question that young people commonly face, while many not-so-young people continue to wonder about finding direction and purpose in their lives. Whether such... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802829279
• ISBN13: 9780802829276
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 468 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Reader on Theology of Calling

For the past three years, I have taught a class on the theological and practical aspects of understanding one's calling in ministry and in life. In my preparations, I have spent significant time wading through ancient and modern treatments of the topic of vocation or calling from a Christian perspective. I can say without hesitation that William Placher's Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation is one of the best treatments of the subject of vocation from a solid and balanced theological perspective. Placher, Professor of Humanities at Wabash College, has done an outstanding job in compiling a theological reader of representative historical selections on the understanding of vocation in the first two millennium of Christianity. Callings is a part of a larger initiative with the Lilly Endowment's Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV), a network of undergraduate college across the United States examining how to assist students in their understanding of vocation in their lives. A second volume by Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass called Leading Lives that Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be (Eerdmans, 2006) is also a part of this initiative. Of course when the Bible speaks of calling, the overwhelming basis is the calling to salvation in Jesus Christ and the calling to sanctification in that faith. It is when the question of "Now what" is posed that the variety of life enters the picture. It is the idea of vocation, of God calling us to something bigger than ourselves, which gives meaning and purpose to life. A thread found in both Placher's introductions and in his selection of the readings is the wide variety of Christian tradition on the topic of vocation. Whether one is called to be a martyr, a monk, a preacher, a career, a parent, or anything else; Christian tradition shows us that all can claim a part of Christianity's understanding of vocation. Placher does an excellent job in introducing his reader to the saints of old and what these men and women of faith were thinking when they considered their personal calling. Some of the accounts in the book, such as "The Martyrdom of Perpetua," are absolutely gripping to even the casual reader. What makes Callings so refreshing is that instead of just reading footnotes and very brief excerpts of past and current Christians thinkers, Placher gives his reader over fifty sizable selections of original source material from the likes of Ignatius of Antioch, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Ávila, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Søren Kierkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Sayers, Karl Barth, and others. There is no substitute to reading the passion in these various writers first-hand. Placher has made his book accessible for those wanting an introduction to great historical resources on the concept of vocation. Placher frames his work around four key time periods of vocational understanding and developm

Callings

Our church is studying vocational callings this year in conjunction with our pastor's doctoral program. I decided to read this book not only for that reason, but also the author will be speaking at our nearby college soon. The book has given me an excellent historical perspective on early callings of Chrisitan monastics that I am able to bring to modern life.

Who's calling?

William Placher is a well-known theologian, a good writer and a great teacher, recognised as such by the American Academy of Religion a few years ago. We used the book he edited, 'Essentials of Christian Theology,' last year for the systematic theology class in which I was teaching. This book reminds me of that text somewhat, in that it seems a wonderful resource both for private study and corporate learning. Placher states that this book is intended as a companion book by Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass (another of my favourite authors); both texts 'share [the] conviction that encountering ideas from the past can illuminate our reflection in the present.' Placher arranges this text in a chronological order, going back to the earliest Christian writings, and proceeds to modern times in four broad sections: * Callings to a Christian Life: Vocations in the Early Church, 100-500 * Called to Religious Life: Vocations in the Middle Ages, 500-1500 * Every Work a Calling: Vocations after the Reformation, 1500-1800 * Christian Callings in a Post-Christian World, 1800-Present Prior to these four sections, however, Placher provides some key biblical texts on calling, which include well-known stories such as the call of Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, the disciples, Philip with the eunuch, and Paul. These provide source material for many later reflections on vocation and calling throughout Christian history. The names represented in each section are almost all well-known figures from the history of Christianity. Placher provides a brief introduction for each section to set theological and historical context. In the first section, Tertullian and Athanasius, Augustine and Gregory are highlighted, among others. One key element in this period is that Christians were often not born as Christians - they were converts, and often converting to something less desired (and sometimes actively suppressed) by the general culture and authority. Calling to be a Christian during this time was a life-altering decision in many radical ways, inward and outward. In the second section, which spans half of Christian history, the situation is a bit different. The church, having become the official state religion, was now the expected affiliation. Most people in the Western world (which, despite terminological difficulties, includes the Orthodox East for considerations here) were born and raised into the church. Vocation as an idea here usually meant clerical or monastic life; one did not need by cultural standards a particular call to be a Christian, as this was understood. This does not make this period or the writers on vocation during this time any less valuable or relevant for today. Indeed, some, such as Benedict Nursia, Thomas Aquinas and Thomas a Kempis continue to exert enormous influence in Christian communities today. In the third section, the impulses that drove the Reformation and Counter-Reformation also sparked a new sens