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Vocation

Article

Discerning Vocation through Loss, Suffering, and Death

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

In September of 2002, exactly one year after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, essayist Mark Slouka reflected on how those events had challenged the American psyche, defined for so long by the myth of happy endings. Here in the New Canaan, in the land of perpetual beginnings and second chances,…

Article

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

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

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…

Article

Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

In his profound and troubling book, Fear and Trembling, the Danish religious writer Søren Kierkegaard remythologizes the story of the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22. I say “remythologizes” rather than “analyzes” or “understands” because Kierkegaard takes pains to attend to all the unthinkable components of the story—to the narrative elements that resist translation into takeaway ethical lessons or airtight conceptual categories.

Book Review

Review of Jason Mahn, Neighbor Love through Fearful Days: Finding Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

If a sacrament is something ordinary that becomes a vehicle of grace—something like water, bread, or wine—then Jason Mahn has written a deeply sacramental book. Begun as a daily journal during six of the darkest months of 2020, this is a book of stories—stories that chronicle ordinary acts of courage, of neighbor helping neighbor, of…

Video

Vocation and Suffering: The Paradox of Lament and Appreciation

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

Article

Caring for Faculty During Times of Trauma

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Vocation

Discipline: Psychology, Theology

The last year prompted faculty to recognize that, when thinking about trauma-informed care, we not only need to be aware of the trauma that students are experiencing; faculty are also experiencing trauma in ways that we need to address. It might not always be acute trauma, such as losing a loved one. Certainly, faculty are…

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