Vocation: Discerning our Callings Part 2

Schuurman in chapter three of his book, Vocation, lists four characteristics needed for fulfilling our calling in life. The first one is "A sense of dependence." This is demonstrated by our faith in God. This faith conquers anxiety and resentment. The author notes, "Seen theologically, anxiety and resentment are ultimately failures to trust in the God in whom we live and move and have our being" (54). The author asserts that the concept of calling helps us to see how our dependance is "a reminder of the various ways in which we are called to love God and neighbor." God uses us to accomplish His will and uses others to meet our needs.

The second characteristic is "a sense of gratitude." Gratitude complements dependence. Schuurman asserts, "Everything that contributes to life and its flourishing is a gift freely given from God" (56). Gratitude opens us to experience God's call. We understand that God has given much to us and we are to give to others. Gratitude makes us responsive to the needs of others. We will want to serve others with the gifts God has given us.

"A sense of obligation" is the third trait discussed. The author notes, "The sense of obligation arises out of our experiences of being sustained by others, recognizing our own dependence on orderly processes, knowing that orderly processes require our participation, and realizing that others depend upon our attention and care" (61). We are interdependent beings. We have been helped by others to get to our current place of usefulness. God calls us to help others to flourish in their lives. The author also sees our current obligations as showing God's callings in our life: "Our duties as children, parents, spouses, employers, employees, friends, and citizens are particular expressions of God's command to love God and neighbor" (63). We are to be faithful where God has placed us and to fulfill our responsibilities and obligations to those around us. People too often see God's calling as future and do not see God's callings in the present.

The fourth is "a sense of meaning." Most people are searching for a way to find meaning in their life. They want their life to count for something. They want to be part of something larger than themselves. The author states that we find meaning "by identifying parts and linking them to each other, forming larger wholes . . . these wholes are goods, ends, values that give meaning and purpose to life" (65). Schuurman states that the "doctrine of vocation encourages to connect all aspects of our present, past, and future to God's plans and purposes" (66). We want to connect our callings to God's purposes for the world.

Appearance versus Reality

Guy de Maupassant, "The Necklace," 1984, translated by Marjorie Laurie.

Maupassant (1850-1893) wrote a wonderful short story called the necklace. In this story he describes a clerk's wife who is unhappy with her lot in life. The author sets up the story beautifully from the very beginning:

"She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She has no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instructions."

This displays a master craftsman at work. Maupassant apprenticed for seven years under Gustave Flaubert who was a distant relative. Maupassant's writing showed a "lack of sentimentality toward his writers," as is shown in this story. We see very early that the clerk's wife is not happy with her life. Indeed she seems to hate her life:

"She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains."

The clerk's wife was all about appearances. The author observes: "She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that."

In a few paragraphs we know the clerk's wife well. She is unhappy with her lot. She is discontent. She feels she was born for better things. She desires to have the outward trappings of wealth: fine jewelry, dresses, and china.

This story makes me think how often we fret for what we do not have instead of rejoicing in what we do have. We are always thinking the grass is greener on the other side. We deal in appearances and not reality. We need to keep up with our neighbors. How much of our life is built on falsehood?

The Return of Christian Humanism

Lee Oser, The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien, and the Romance of History. University of Missouri Press, 2007.

Lee Oser believes that Christian Humanism can provide a rebirth to culture in our day. He observes, "At the heart of twentieth-century letters was the clash between a dogmatically relativist type of modernism and Christian humanism." The author proposes Christian humanism as a middle position between modern day extremes. He looks as three authors as models of this position: G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, and J.R. R. Tolkien.

Part one of the book covers "Humanism and Culture." Oser notes, "As creative writers of genius, Chesterton, Eliot, and Tolkien are orthodox in this humanistic sense, leaving the reader to unfold their theological and metaphysical implications." He thinks they provide examples on how belief and culture intersect. Oser notes, "The argument of this book is that Christian humanism conserves the radical middle between secularism and theocracy."

Part two discusses the three humanists: Chesterton, Eliot, and Tolkien. There is a chapter for each of them. Oser says that Chesterton "learned to defend his humanistic faith in reason and nature as a faith." Oser notes how Eliot relied "considerably on the light of reason to open his religious perspective," however, he thought faith supplied the answers to our questions and provided the orientations for our lives. Oser speaking of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: "If the great myth is a work of subcreation, a fantasy whose connection to reality is indirect, Tolkien asserts his scholarly craft in the framework supporting his myth. This framework is ineffect, a humanistic meditation on the nature of scholarship, and on the uncanny grounds of its health and continuity." The only displeasing part of this section is that it is so short. I definitely agree that Chesterton, Tolkien, and Eliot are excellent models of Christian Humanism. Oser seems to think the arguments for Eliot is the weakest because he spends most of the book defending him.

My favorite part of the book was part four. In this part the author presents his case for the radical middle position. In chapter seven he discusses the relationship between reason and nature. He speaks of the contribution of philosophy and theology to Christian humanism. In the next chapter he discusses literature. He makes an interesting comparison between Christian humanism and nihilism. Kurtz' statement: "The horror, the horror," and the Christian viewpoint that sees goodness at the bottom. The last two chapters cover "canon and literary form," and the "Romance of History."

This book was an enjoyable read. It is more of an argument of a need to return to Christian Humanism. Oser sees as the the best choice between liberalism and fundamentalism.

Conversations with Walker Percy

Conversations with Walker Percy Edited by Lewis A. Lawson and Victor A. Kramer. University Press of Mississippi, 1985.

Walker Percy was a great novelist. He won the National Book Award for his first novel, The Moviegoer. He was also a moralist, a philosopher, and a Christian thinker. Some might know that he was a great conversationalist. This aspect of Percy comes out in this wonderful selected interviews with Walker Percy over the years. The majority of his works are covered in these conversations. I think the only work not covered is The Thanatos Syndrome. The first interview occurs in 1961. The last interview takes place in 1984.

One can learn a lot a about Percy in these interviews. One thing that comes out is that he is an excellent interpreter of his work. A second thing is that he likes to ask the interviewers questions. A third aspect is that Percy is a likable person. You can tell the interviewers like him. Fourthly, it is like listening in on a discussion of the great ideas.

Here are some samples of Percy's comments:

"I'm not an activist, a racial activist. I don't march in picket lines, but I am completely convinced of the rightness of the Negro struggle for civil rights. My writings I think reflect this, and I don't mind saying so."

"I think that serious novel writing, that serious art, is just as important, and just as cognitive; it concerns areas of knowing, of discovering and knowing, just as much as in any science."

"All I can say is, as a writer you have a certain view of man, a certain view of the way it is, and even if you don't recognize it or even if you disavow such a view, you can't escape that view or lack of view. I think your writing is going to reflect this. I think my writings reflect a certain basic orientation toward, although they're not totally controlled by Catholic dogma."

Reading these interviews is like having Percy over for dinner and having a conversation with him.

Calvin's Institutes

Calvin's Institutes: Abridged edition. Edited by Donald K. McKim. Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

Have you ever wanted to read Calvin's Institutes but was hindered because of its size? Well you do not have to be hindered any longer. Donald K. McKim has produced an abridgement of For Lewis Battles' Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion. This abridged edition gives you a good feel for the Institutes. The selections are carefully chosen to show the breadth of Calvin's thought by a leading Reformed scholar. It includes an introduction that provides an overview.

Why read John Calvin today? Tony Lane provides this answer: "It is one of the most important theological works ever written and has had a profound influence upon European history . . . Its influence has extended beyond the circle of those who think of themselves as Calvinists." I would add that it is a theological treasure for the Christian believer even for non-Calvinists. I think that many non-Calvinists get caught up in the predestination issue. This is however, just a small part of the Institutes. It is not addressed until book three I think.

Some of the things that impressed me about Calvin's thought is its hardiness. It is an encouragement to endure hard times. A second thing is its realistic view of human nature. For example, he accepts the idea that believers struggle with doubt. Thirdly, I like his emphasis on discipleship. There is a strong emphasis on denying oneself, picking up one's cross, and following Christ.

McKim has done a good job with his selections. This is an excellent book for the beginner.

C.S. Lewis and The Abolition of Man

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man Or Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

David Naugle, "Education and the Abolition of Man." Naugle has written an excellent article applying Lewis' thought to modern education.
http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2009/06/education-and-abolition-of-man.html

The Abolition of man was first given as The University of Durham Riddell Memorial Lectures. It provided him the opportunity to express concerns he had about education in his day. Lewis was concern with the growing popularity of relativism and the arguments against objective truth. These dangers have increased in our own day. In these lectures Lewis argues that there is a universal moral law, the Tao, and that education should cultivate "true and just sentiment" toward this law.

Lewis gave three lectures. The first lecture addressed the "widespread modern assumption that value judjments do not reflect any objective reality." Lewis was responding to an English grammar book in which the authors say, we often "appear to be saying something very important about something and actually we are only saying something about our own feelings." Lewis believed that until quite recently people believed in a universal moral law and their was a right and wrong way to respond to it. These right sentiments must be cultivated in the young. He quotes from Augustine, Plato, Aristotle and others to prove this point. Lewis observes, "Aristotle says the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought." Plato says, "The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful."

In part two Lewis speaking of this grammar book: "The practical result of education in the spirit of The Green Book must be the destruction of the society which accepts it." Lewis says the new position is outside of the Tao. Lewis shows how they are not creating any new values but just picking some values out of the Tao and rejecting others. Lewis says this about the Tao: "This thing which I have called for convenience the Tao, and which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgements. If it is rejected, all  value is restrained."

In the third lecture Lewis speaks of the abolition of man. In the attempt to conquer nature he will conquer man. Lewis says, "what we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument." These conditioners who have stepped outside of the moral law will be a law to themselves. Instead of being guided by moral law, they will be controlled by their own wants and desires. Lewis says, "I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who has stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently."

I want to close with two of my favorite quotes from the book:
"In the older systems both the kind of man the teachers wished to produce and their motives for producing them were prescribed by the Tao . . . They handed on what they received: they initiated the young neophyte into the mystery of humanity which overarched him and them alike. It was old birds teaching young birds to fly." In other words, they humanized them.

The second quote concerns the irony of modern education: "And all the time--- such is the tragi-comedy of our situation---we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. . . . In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." Modern educators ridiculed the virtues but want virtuous students and citizens.

The Abolition of Man is even more applicable to our day than it was Lewis' day. What would he say today if he was still alive?

Your Grown-up Faith

Your Grown-Up Faith: Blending the Three Elements of Belief

By Kenneth L. Parker, Liguori, 2012, 108 pp., ISBN 978-0-7648-2221-6, $10.99 (paper).

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Catholic Library World, March 2013, Vol. 83 Issue 3 p.213.

Kenneth L. Parker’s Your Grown-Up Faith argues for developing a mature Christian faith. He does this by describing three stages of Christian belief: “The Child’s Way,” “The Youth’s Way,” and “The Adult’s Way.” The child’s way is characterized by the acceptance of authorities and the “religious environment they create.” The youth’s way is a period of questioning and curiosity. The adult’s way is where the faith is “internalized,” “the limits of human authorities are acknowledged, and the insufficiency of human reason is recognized” (xx). A grown-up faith would be a synthesis of all three elements.

The three elements of belief were originally developed by Friedrich von Hugel in his work, The Mystical Element of Religion. Parker draws from this work and the life and writings of John Henry Newman. In addition, this work is autobiographical since the author shares his own experience of going through these stages of faith. Parker grew up in the Wesleyan Church and became a Roman Catholic during his doctoral studies in Reformation history at Cambridge University. He has been a professor of historical theology at Saint Louis University since 1992.

Parker argues persuasively that we need to mature in our faith. His autobiographical reflections on experiencing the child’s way, the youth way, and the adult way enhance the value of Your Grown-Up Faith. This would be a good book to read in a study group.