Hearing in a New Key

Abstract

This epilogue commends the verbal and auditory metaphors used to describe vocation, but argues against employing these in an overly rationalistic way. In fact, the whole book might be seen as a response to Immanuel Kant’s attempt to offer an account of religion “within the limits of reason alone.” The author posits five religious and vocational themes inherited from the Enlightenment, demonstrating how these are modulated into a new key. These five shifts are described as: beyond otherness to difference; beyond univocity to multiplicity; beyond the rational to the affective; beyond results to process; and beyond activity to integration. A final section observes that vocation has been subjected to other limits—focusing only on certain stages of life, limited to particular religious perspectives, or restricted to matters of paid employment. These limitations should be removed, so that vocational reflection is available to all students in all aspects of their lives.