Of Some Earthly Good: An Introduction to Vocation

Here's an excerpt from an eBook published by the Lutheran Church of Australia:

"Vocation has had a chequered history in the western world. For many centuries it was confined almost exclusively to the church, which used the term to designate those who had an ecclesiastical function.

At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin broadened the theology of vocation along New Testament lines so that it referred to the life of every Christian in three major areas of communal living: the family and economics, the state, and the church.

In the centuries after the Reformation the doctrine of vocation was distorted to such an extent that it left a bad taste in the mouth. People were taught that God had placed them in their particular station in life, and any attempt to change the status quo was an act of rebellion against the Almighty. This distorted version of the doctrine of vocation was used to justify the preservation of the existing social structures in which many people, especially women, were oppressed and ‘kept in their place.

Today in the church we are almost back to pre-Reformation times: vocation is what a pastor or priest has. Outside the church vocation refers to one’s occupation. So we have vocational education’ in which people are instructed in the skills required to take their place in the workforce, and we have vocational guidance, where school-leavers (mainly) are given some help in deciding which career-path they might follow."

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