Vocational Exploration as Transformative Pedagogy

This chapter argues that the shape and style of classroom teaching make a tremendous difference in the work of bringing vocational reflection into a multi-faith environment. The author draws on insights from a variety of fields, including psychology, philosophy, and educational theory, to provide specific guidance about the geography and atmosphere of the classroom and about the kinds of learning that need to take place there. Greater attention to the affective domain, coupled with the creation of classroom spaces that students see as respectful of their particularities and differences, can create a positive space for vocational reflection and discernment across a variety of lifestances. The second half of the chapter offers a number of specific pedagogical exercises to accomplish this work, along with a discussion of how student engagement in this project might be appropriately evaluated. A rubric for such evaluation is also included.

Attentiveness and Humor

This chapter focuses on two important practices that are essential to the work of shaping the stories of a human life: the cultivation of attentiveness and of humor. College students who are committed to a particular religious tradition face not only the usual distractions and demands that all undergraduates face, but also cultural, social, and institutional pressures to “perform” their beliefs in a certain way. If students are to narrate their own lives in ways that make space for these complexities, they will need to engage in certain kinds of spiritual practices that will help them re-center themselves and tell their stories in their own voices. Drawing on the Sufi tradition, the author suggests that by cultivating the practice of attentiveness, and by maintaining a lightness of perspective and a dose of humor, students may be able to navigate their undergraduate years more successfully.

Doubt as an Integral Part of Calling

This chapter seeks to address the misleading assumption that vocational discernment should lead a person toward a clear and definitive goal. In practice, the process of finding one’s callings will necessarily be accompanied by doubt and uncertainty; in fact, the ambiguous and shadowy nature of vocation can be a positive feature. Many stories from various religious traditions remind us that even the most deeply committed and vocationally focused individuals have experienced doubt about their own callings and uncertainty about their lives. The chapter cites a range of scholarly literature on vocation to emphasize this point, then illustrates it through various elements in the Qur’an—including a detailed retelling the story of Joseph. Like Joseph, many people may retrospectively come to see how the various elements of their lives have been woven together, even if they faced a great deal of doubt and uncertainty along the way.

Do You Love Us?

This chapter focuses on the student academic experience as a whole; it explores the ways that a multi-faith environment can inspire and encourage students and teachers to enter into deeper conversations with one another. More specifically, it can help to focus attention on ultimate questions: What gives life meaning? What counts as a truly good life? How will my own understanding of these questions be reshaped by my encounter with people who hold different beliefs and engage in different practices? How do I understand my own identity in light of these questions? This chapter calls for educators to allow themselves to be shaped by the responsibility, and the joy, of empowering students to participate in an ongoing interreligious conversation about what makes for a good life. It includes an account of the author’s own experience of this kind of education, as well as the ways it is playing out in his current institutional location.

The Story of Me

This chapter offers a concrete alternative to the language of vocation, examining how narratives shape a person’s self-perception. Human beings chart the future direction of their lives based on their construction of stories about themselves; moreover, these stories are woven together and interconnect in complex ways. Such self-constructed and self-referential narratives are best described using the word myth: we are always engaged in a process of myth-making as we explore the contours of our lives. This language, suggests the author, may help us to reshape the concept of vocation in a way that recognizes the dynamic nature of the self, clarifies matters of agency, and attends to the retrospective nature of the construction of the self. To illustrate these points, the author offers a number of his own “myths of self,” as well as references to self-constructed narratives in the Bhagavadgita and in other literary and cultural accounts.

Renunciation of Vocation and Renunciation within Vocation

This chapter addresses the question of whether some people might be called to renounce a vocation and turn away from their callings because of some moral, relational, or religious demand. Drawing on various elements in the Hindu tradition, the author suggests an alternative: renunciation within vocation. Focusing on various interpretations of the Bhagavadgita (and in particular, the story of Arjuna’s struggle as to whether he should fight against his cousins), the chapter argues that it may be possible to separate ourselves from attachment to certain fruits of our labors without renouncing the work itself. This, in turn, may have a number of additional benefits for various aspects of vocational reflection and discernment—including greater attention to the process of discernment (rather than its result), as well as relief from the anxiety that is generated by the demand that one’s vocation be demonstrably “productive.”

The Call of Death and the Depth of Our Callings

This chapter focuses on a reality that every human being faces: the prospect of death. When this reality is brought to the forefront, one’s callings in life take on a new element; they become more significant, operating at a greater depth. This encourages those who are undertaking vocational reflection and discernment to consider the quality of their callings, rather than simply being satisfied that they have found one. The chapter draws heavily on the poetry of Guru Nanak, considered the founder of Sikhism, whose meditations on death—and on how an awareness of death shapes one’s life—suggest a new perspective on vocation. Nanak’s approach is compared with two Christian figures, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr., who also considered how our consciousness of death shapes the quality and depth of our vocations.

The Change a Difference Makes

This chapter offers a detailed description of the many ways that college students encounter difference, demonstrating how this tends to shape their understanding of their future directions in life. The author emphasizes the communal and reciprocal aspects of reflection and discernment on our callings, drawing especially on Jewish traditions in sacred texts and in modern thought. The chapter includes a description of the author’s own encounter with difference, which made for a significant change in her own vocational journey. This chapter introduces the term lifestance, which is used here (and by a number of contributors of other chapters in the same volume) to account for a wide range of perspectives, without necessarily assuming that these will always be connected with “religion.”

The Vocation of Church-Related Colleges in a Multi-Faith World

This chapter describes the myriad challenges that must be faced by academic institutions as they broaden their focus from a single religious perspective to a multi-faith approach. It begins by observing that academic discourse about religion is too often divorced from the actual experiences of real human beings, but careful attention to such experiences is essential in the undergraduate environment. It then tells the story of one institution that underwent a significant transition, from its original focus on a single faith tradition to become a genuinely multi-faith environment—for its students and for its faculty and staff. This process required wrestling with the privilege that was (often unconsciously) enjoyed by adherents to the institution’s founding faith tradition (Christianity). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relationship between an institutional shift to a more interfaith perspective and classroom efforts to make sure that multiple traditions and lifestances are given voice.

Gracious Reception

This chapter offers an alternative account of the Christian understanding of vocation, suggesting that vocational discernment is best understood not primarily as obedience to God’s call, but rather as a disposition of “gracious reception.” The point is initially illustrated with a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, followed by an account of the role of giving and receiving in Christian theological and liturgical traditions (particularly the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper). In a multi-faith context, Christians are called to be receptive to the circumstances of others, including those who do not share their faith tradition. This perspective marks the ministry of Jesus, particularly with respect to his encounters with difference; three such encounters are used to illustrate the point. A more receptive disposition can help individuals to make better use of the advice and constructive criticism that comes from outside their own perspective.