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Vocation



 
 
A vocation as defined in a religious environment is an occupation for which a person is suited, trained or qualified. Often those who follow a religious vocation have a inclination to undertake the work, often called a calling
Calling

For the religious sense of the word, see vocation. For the rock band, see The Calling.For the album by Japanese band Unsraw, see Calling . For the single by Geri Halliwell, see Calling ....
. This type of vocation is either professional
Professional

A professional is a person who has completed a doctoral or law program or equivalent .A professional is someone who has a professional degree - a number one on the Hollingshead scale....
 or voluntary
Voluntary

Voluntary may refer to:*A word meaning "done, given, or acting of one's own free will", see Volunteer*Voluntary , a piece of music played as part of a church service...
 and can include many different religious backgrounds.

Background
Definition
Vocations can be seen as fulfilling a psychological
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 or spiritual
Spirituality

Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religion and faith, transcendence , or one or more Deity....
 need for the worker, and the term can also be used to EXPLAIN any occupation for which a person is specifically gifted, and usually implies that the worker has a form of "calling" for the task.






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Encyclopedia


A vocation as defined in a religious environment is an occupation for which a person is suited, trained or qualified. Often those who follow a religious vocation have a inclination to undertake the work, often called a calling
Calling

For the religious sense of the word, see vocation. For the rock band, see The Calling.For the album by Japanese band Unsraw, see Calling . For the single by Geri Halliwell, see Calling ....
. This type of vocation is either professional
Professional

A professional is a person who has completed a doctoral or law program or equivalent .A professional is someone who has a professional degree - a number one on the Hollingshead scale....
 or voluntary
Voluntary

Voluntary may refer to:*A word meaning "done, given, or acting of one's own free will", see Volunteer*Voluntary , a piece of music played as part of a church service...
 and can include many different religious backgrounds.

Background


Definition


Vocations can be seen as fulfilling a psychological
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 or spiritual
Spirituality

Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religion and faith, transcendence , or one or more Deity....
 need for the worker, and the term can also be used to EXPLAIN any occupation for which a person is specifically gifted, and usually implies that the worker has a form of "calling" for the task. The word "vocation" comes from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 vocare, meaning "to call"; , however, its usage before the sixteenth century, particularly in the Vulgate
Vulgate

The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of Vetus Latina....
, refers to the calling of all humankind to salvation, with its more modern usage of a life-task first employed by Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
.

Concept


The idea of vocation is central to the Christian belief that God has created each person with gifts and talents oriented toward specific purposes and a way of life. Particularly in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, this idea of vocation is especially associated with a divine call to service to the Church and humanity through particular vocational life commitments such as marriage to a particular person, consecration as a religious, ordination to priestly ministry in the Church and even a holy life as a single person. In the broader sense, Christian vocation includes the use of ones gifts in their profession, family life, church and civic commitments for the sake of the greater common good.

In Religious History

The idea of a vocation or "calling" has been pivotal within Protestantism
Protestantism

Protestantism is a movement within Christianity that originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the three principal traditions of Christianity, together with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy....
. Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
 taught that each individual was expected to fulfill his God-appointed task in everyday life. Although the Lutheran concept of the calling emphasized vocation, there was no particular emphasis on labor beyond what was required for one's daily bread. Calvinism
Calvinism

Calvinism is a theology system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes the rule of God over all things. It was developed by several theologians, but it bears the name of the French Protestant Reformation John Calvin because of his prominent influence on it and because of his role in the confessional and ecclesiastical debates t...
 transformed the idea of the calling by emphasizing relentless, disciplined labor. In the Institutes of the Christian Religion
Institutes of the Christian Religion

Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world and still widely read by theological students today, it was published in Latin in 1536 and in his native French language in 1541, with the definitive editions appearing in 1559 and in 1560 ....
 (1536), Calvin defined the role of "The Christian in his vocation." He noted that God has prescribed appointed duties to men and styled such spheres of life vocations or callings. Calvinists distinguished two callings: a general calling to serve God
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
 and a particular calling to engage in some employment by which one's usefulness is determined.

The Puritan
Puritan

A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group pietism....
 minister Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather . A.B. 1678 , A.M. 1681; honorary doctorate 1710 , was a socially and politically influential History of New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer....
, in A Christian at his Calling (1701), described the obligations of the personal calling as, "some special business, and some settled business, wherein a Christian should for the most part spend the most of his time; so he may glorify God by doing good for himself." Mather admonished that it wasn't lawful ordinarily to live without some calling, "for men will fall into "horrible snares and infinite sins." This idea has endured throughout the history of Protestantism. Three centuries after John Calvin's death, Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scotland satire writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics the "dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator....
 (1843) would proclaim, "The latest Gospel
Gospel

In Christianity, a gospel is generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus....
 in this world is, 'know thy work and do it.'"

The legacy of this religious ethic continues to exert its influence in an increasingly secular world. Modern occupations which are seen as vocations often include those where a combination of skill and community help are implied, such as medical, care-giving, and veterinary occupations. Occupations where rewards are seen more in spiritual or other non-financial terms, such as religious occupations, are also seen as vocations. Borderline occupations, where community service
Community service

Community service refers to service that a person performs for the benefit of his or her local community. People become involved in community service for a range of reasons ? for some, serving community is an altruistic act, for others it is a punishment....
 and more personal reward are more evenly balanced, such as politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, may often be regarded as vocations.

Modern Vocational Examples


Many forms of humanitarian campaigning, such as work for organisations such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated." Founded in London, England in 1961, AI draws its attention to human rights abuses and...
 and Greenpeace
Greenpeace

Greenpeace is an international non-governmental organization for the protection and conservation of the environment. Greenpeace utilizes direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals....
 can also be considered vocations.

The emerging church movement, Catholic social thought, and an increased interest in reformation thought has renewed interest in the Christian idea of vocation. Another aspect of vocation is working through how to define/discuss/and revitalize the importance of vocational thought not defined by an official church body. Several books have discussed this topic as well as the Catholic Church has defined the calling of the worker in Laborem Exercens.

Literary Clarification of term Vocation

These books have attempted to define or clarify the term vocation
Vocation

A vocation as defined in a religious environment is an occupation for which a person is suited, trained or qualified. Often those who follow a religious vocation have a inclination to undertake the work, often called a calling....
.
  • A Theology of the Laity by Hendrik Kraemer ISBN 9781573830317
  • The Fabric of this World by Lee Hardy ISBN 9780802802989
  • Your Work Matters to God by Doug Sherman and William Hendricks ISBN 9780891093725
  • The Call by Os Guinness ISBN 9780849944376
  • The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor ISBN 9781561010745
  • Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer ISBN 9780787947354
  • Lay People in the Church: A Study for a Theology of the Laity by Yves M.J. Congar, O.P. Translated by Donald Attwater 1959