Deanna A. Thompson

Deanna A. Thompson is Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community and the Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College. Since her diagnosis of incurable cancer, Thompson has published several books related to suffering and vocation, including Hoping for More: Having Cancer, Talking Faith, and Accepting Grace (Cascade, 2012); The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World (Abingdon, 2016); and Glimpsing Resurrection: Trauma, Cancer, and Ministry (Westminster John Knox, 2018).

Article

Beyond Deep Gladness: Coming to Terms with Vocations We Don’t Choose

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Deanna A. Thompson, Author

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

Back in the 1990s, St. Olaf and many other campuses across the country were infused with grants from the Lilly Endowment to explore the concept of vocation. Lutheran institutions of higher education lift up vocation in part due to the prominent role it plays in Lutheran tradition and identity. Vocation comes from the Latin vocare…