{"title":"Surprise, Hope and Gift: A Pneumatological Account of the Unexpected Nature of Vocation","authors":"Cara F. Lovell","doi":"10.1111/ijst.12629","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>God's call can be surprising and unexpected. This article evaluates theologies of vocation in light of this potential for surprise. Contemporary Protestant theological interpretations of vocation are critiqued as incomplete due to their tendency to present vocation as the expression and utilisation of innate abilities without giving sufficient account of how an individual might be called to something totally new and surprising. It will be suggested that this arises from a focus on creation as the dominant theological lens for interpreting vocation. An alternative focused on eschatology and pneumatology will be proposed in which both natural talents and new abilities are recognised as gifts of the Spirit given for the purpose of anticipatory proleptic participation in the coming Kingdom of God.</p>","PeriodicalId":43284,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Systematic Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijst.12629","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Systematic Theology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijst.12629","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
God's call can be surprising and unexpected. This article evaluates theologies of vocation in light of this potential for surprise. Contemporary Protestant theological interpretations of vocation are critiqued as incomplete due to their tendency to present vocation as the expression and utilisation of innate abilities without giving sufficient account of how an individual might be called to something totally new and surprising. It will be suggested that this arises from a focus on creation as the dominant theological lens for interpreting vocation. An alternative focused on eschatology and pneumatology will be proposed in which both natural talents and new abilities are recognised as gifts of the Spirit given for the purpose of anticipatory proleptic participation in the coming Kingdom of God.
期刊介绍:
The International Journal of Systematic Theology has acquired a world-wide reputation for publishing high-quality academic articles on systematic theology and for substantial reviews of major new works of scholarship. Systematic theology, which is concerned with the systematic articulation of the meaning, coherence and implications of Christian doctrine, is at the leading edge of contemporary academic theology. The discipline has undergone a remarkable transformation in the last three decades, and is now firmly established as a central area of academic teaching and research.