\u201cWhat is your calling?\u201d This is a normal question to college and seminary students. As they are in the process of education toward a degree, they are also in a space of vocational discernment. Ideally their discernment includes internships where they glean experience to enliven their education through practical scenarios to taste and see whether they are a true fit for their chosen career path and what particular aspects they should pursue. The internal compass for finding meaningful work is guided by gifting, personality and the Spirit, often with the support of mentors and their community.<\/p>\n
Calling is typically a term associated with religion as it assumes a higher being has summoned one to their lot in life. In this way calling creates meaning, and in service to God, can become a life path transcending particular jobs while creating a vocational pathway such as engineer, pastor or chef.<\/p>\n
Max Weber in his text, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>, introduces Martin Luther as the father of the modern form of calling in his quotation of Sirach 11:20-22 which says,<\/p>\n \u201cStand by your duty and stick to it; grow old at your work. Don’t be jealous of what sinners achieve; just stick to your own work, and trust the Lord. It is very easy for the Lord to make a poor person suddenly rich. Devout people will receive the Lord’s blessing as their reward, and that blessing can be given in a moment.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Weber is interested in the effects of Luther\u2019s popularization, as it becomes part of his hypothesis in exploring why Protestants flourish financially above and beyond the Catholics of his time. Recognizing a correlation between Protestants and business, Weber sought to determine the source(s) for their evident prosperity.<\/p>\n Writing over a century ago, \u201cWeber regards the Reformation as emerging independently of economic factors but examines the ways that ideas from the Reformation are connected with the capitalistic spirit.\u201d[2]<\/a> Weber digs into the further effects on the market by the practical implications of the theology of Calvinist, Pietist, Methodist and Baptist movements.<\/p>\n Weber majored on the perspective of Calvinists in his writing, tying economics to theology as a way of justifying their election. \u201cThe only way of living acceptably to God was not to surpass worldly morality in monastic asceticism, but solely through the fulfillment of the obligations imposed upon the individual by his position in the world. That was his calling.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n While Luther did endorse the idea of calling he did not promote the capitalist spirit as an economic force but was a proponent of a more traditional economy as he opposed capital and profit-making while encouraging acceptance of one\u2019s occupation \u201cas a divine ordinance, to which he must adapt himself.\u201d[4]<\/a> This seems contradictory to Benedict Anderson\u2019s notation of Luther as the first popular writer due to the innovation of the printing press. Perhaps he did not benefit financially from his distribution but one wonders if there was a potential contradiction between his own theology and practice.<\/p>\n For Weber the irony of \u201ccalling\u201d is that it drives one to pursue great things for God in a secular workspace but then relieves them of the values they first held in relation to their religion once economic success is obtained. Thus, their values shift toward personal economic gain while appeasing the need for confidence in their salvation.<\/p>\n Dr. Erica Ramirez, sociologist and professor of religion at Portland Seminary remarks that, \u201cWeber is a helpful critique of the vulnerability of the Protestant concept of calling to the pressures of capitalism.\u201d[5]<\/a> While Ramirez recognizes work as a necessary function of the modern world, she asserts that calling can be misguided by the need for economic gain. Continuing her critique, she notes that some may be called into positions not in their best economic interest, in particular those who are called to the church as pastors.<\/p>\n As much as Weber argues for the connection of the Protestant ethic to the capitalist spirit, those who teach the doctrines of the church, pastors, would have not enjoyed the fulfillment of the connection themselves, unless they also strongly encouraged a trickle down system of tithe into the church from their church members. Although pastors may have received their own salvific assurance from their divine service, what would prompt them to promote calling as a means for business savvy?<\/p>\n In today\u2019s culture of ministry and calling of both Protestant church leaders and their lay disciples capitalism is endlessly interwoven as the system upon which the state (and by default those who are residents of the state) operates. Thus, the church does not have to promote capitalism as an economic engine for one\u2019s salvation as much as it is a probability that participants in the church will participate in and benefit from their production in a capitalist society.<\/p>\n In my experience with the church, the majority of pastors are the ones who benefit the least from their calling financially. Their calling is divinely mandated and, as such, is worth doing with little financial benefit in return. Do ministers want to make a living? Of course they do. But more than this, they are not looking to secure their election but to call people into a life of abundance in the Spirit, which requires them to be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. Disciple-making in this way is a hard sell to the capitalist spirit of today as it demands death of the inner money making machine to find real life and worth in God. The benefit of eternity with the Lord and a life lived in service to the King of kings while supporting a community through one\u2019s time and talents is a worthy calling and ethic for any Protestant.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.<\/em> Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons: New York, 1958. 85.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Gingrich, Paul. \u201cSociology 318: Classical Social Theory.\u201d University of Regina. http:\/\/uregina.ca\/~gingrich\/318n1302.htm (March 8, 2018)<\/p>\n