Religion

REL 4035, Life, Meaning, and Vocation 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Identify the sources of his/her fulfillment and identity. 2. Assess the extent to which person identity played a role in the choice of what to do for work. 3. Assess the extent to which work has formed his/her character. 4. Evaluate the give and take that exists between one’s identity and the many vocations one has.

Reading Assignment Leading Lives that Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be “Must My Job Be the Primary Source of My Identity”, p. 181-187 “Just Work”, p. 188-191 “Why Work”, p. 191-195 “The Door in the Wall”, p. 201-215 “The Sabbath”, P 216-221 “Friendship and Vocation”, p. 229-243

Unit Lesson What do you plan to do after you get your degree? This is a question commonly asked of college students. When we meet someone new, one of the first questions asked is usually, “What do you do?” The question is actually, “What do you do for work or for pay?” Our culture puts a disproportionately high priority on work, and we believe that one’s work says something about who one is. This section explores the question about the relationship between work and identity. Should work be the primary source of our identity, or should other things in life define who we are? In “Just Work,” Russell Muirhead points out that we do not have complete freedom in choosing our vocations. Society itself has chosen what roles are options in life. We have to choose from predetermined roles. Additionally, Muirhead looks at the interplay of identity and vocation pointing out that who we are determines our choice of work but that what we do for work also forms our character. Finally, Muirhead raises the issue of justice and work or “just work.” We have come to believe that everyone deserves work that is a “good fit.” This is a justice issue. The question is, is it true? Are there jobs out there that may not be a good fit for anyone, yet they have to be done by someone? Who gets those jobs, and where is the justice in it? Will society work if we all only take work that “fits” us? Dorothy Sayers takes a Biblical concept to an extreme in “Why Work?” She rightly notes that the creation stories of the Bible suggest strongly that the human was created to work. She argues that in working the human being is living in image of God. To her, the human lives to work. Work is our identity. Work should not serve us, but we should serve our work.

UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE

Vocation & Identity

REL 4035, Life, Meaning, and Vocation 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

In a fictional work of literature “The Door in the Wall” by H.G. Wells, we get a very different take on identity. In this story, we meet a man who encounters another world through a door in a wall. It is a beautiful fantasy world in which the man feels more alive, fuller, and more human than in any other experience in life. It dulls the experience of work and daily life for him, as somewhere deep in the recess of his soul he longs to feel that alive, that full, and that human again—as he longs for that place. What happens when a person’s deepest self seems to be found in a world beyond? Abraham Joshua Heschel, makes that case, in “Sabbath,” that the end or goal of human life is not work, but rest. He challenges the Greek idea that rest is to refresh us for work, and argues that work is for rest. After all, rest—Sabbath—is the end of creation. The last day of creation is a day of rest. It is what heaven and earth are moving toward. For now, the Sabbath is sacred time, “a sanctuary in time,” a moment in time that touches eternity. When we have time to rest, time not to work, we find out what we are about away from work. Who would we be and what would the world be without rest? Finally, in ”Friendship and Vocation”, Gilbert Meilaender puts some important historical checks on the current use of vocation. He points out that when the Reformers used this idea, vocation was not thought to be fulfilling. It was necessary for the sake of the common good, but it was recognized that work could be “ugly, crippling, and dangerous.” This is contrasted with the classical Greek idea that fulfillment is found in friendship. Having leisure with friends that allows one to “have out his talk” is what should be fulfilling. Meilaender plays these off each other and comes to Anselm, who found a strange contradiction in God’s will. It is God who on the one hand gives us the gift of deep friendship, and it is God who gives vocation which at times calls us on to new places in life, which requires the severing of deep friendships. Anselm does not try to resolve this dichotomy in God’s will. The question could again be raised: where do we find the truest self, in friendship or in vocation?