Between Babel and Beast
(America and Empires in Biblical Perspective)

The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan

Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)

Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)

The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Theology: Vocation

Bonhoeffer (Ethics) challenges what he thinks of as the pseudo-Lutheran view of vocation.  Vocation is not merely a demand to stay within the already-settled limits of a job, an office, a set of procedures.  It is a call from Jesus to follow Jesus.  ”This call does indeed summon him to  earthly duties,” Bonhoeffer admits, “but that is never the whole of the call, for it  lies always beyond these duties, before them and behind  them. The calling, in the New Testament sense, is never a  sanctioning of worldly institutions as such; its ‘yes’ to them  always includes at the same time an extremely emphatic ‘no,’  an extremely sharp protest against the world” (168).

It is not possible, on this view, to reject the responsibility to address some injustice or evil on the basis of the limits of calling.  Rather, precisely because the call is a call from Jesus, it breaks the boundaries of the status quo.  Bonhoeffer offers the example of a physician:

“it may happen that I, as a physician, am obliged to  recognize and fulfill my concrete responsibility no longer by  the sick-bed but, for example, in taking public action against  some measure which constitutes a threat to medical science  or to human life or to science as such. Vocation is responsibility and responsibility is a total response of the whole man to  the whole of reality; for this very reason there can be no petty and pedantic restricting of one’s interests to one’s professional   duties in the narrowest sense. Any such restriction would be irresponsibility” (254).

Vocation cannot define ahead of time the limits of one’s responsibility.  Every Christian has to remain open to the call of Jesus to transgress whatever settled limits there might be.