Calling in Context - by Susan L Maros (Paperback)

About the Book

Is the concept of calling universal? God calls all people, yes--but calling is not a monolithic concept. This path-breaking book helps Christians in the United States see how social location shapes assumptions and experiences with vocation, critically examining the cultural priorities of vocation that emphasize certainty, career paths, and personal achievement.

Book Synopsis

"I don't care for vocational books written in the United States; they're too American." When Susan Maros heard this comment from a Malaysian colleague, she was initially taken aback. Isn't the concept of calling universal? Why wouldn't resources with a biblical perspective on vocation apply to everyone?The reality is that each of us encounters our questions of calling from within a particular context. In this paradigm-shifting book, Maros explores how various dimensions of social location--including race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, and gender--shape our assumptions and experiences with vocation. Maros helps Christians in the United States in particular see how ideas about calling that emphasize certainty, career paths, and personal achievement arise from cultural priorities that shouldn't go unexamined, such as individualism, productivity, and meritocracy. She explains how unexamined "mental maps" can distort our perspective and refocuses our attention on biblical insights about calling as a lifelong journey. In the process, she helps us find both clarity and encouragement to explore the paths before us.God calls all people, yes--but calling is not a monolithic concept. Filled with numerous stories from Christians in diverse communities, Calling in Context invites anyone exploring questions of calling to find fresh possibilities in their own identity and engagement with God's mission. Reflection questions and Bible study prompts are included throughout.

Review Quotes

"Creatively critical, Calling in Context fills a much-needed space in the literature on Christian vocation, engaging ways in which gender, racial and ethnic identity, economic status, and social class shape people's vocational possibilities and practices of discernment. The book challenges individualist and idealist assumptions present in dominant North American understandings of vocation, inviting readers into richer conversation and vocational practice that is more attuned to the variety of ways in which vocation is experienced globally, more faithful to the range of biblical narratives of vocation, and more attentive to God's interaction with human beings over time."

--Jane Lancaster Patterson, professor emerita of New Testament at Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas, and director of the Communities of Calling Initiative at the Collegeville Institute

"In Calling in Context Susan Maros counters the popular notion of vocation as an individual's calling discovered outside of time and place with a fresh, communal understanding that is grounded in God's action in the world and discerned in the midst of personal intersections and diverse experiences. Claiming vocational discernment is contextual and lifelong, Maros seeks to deepen awareness and awakening unconscious assumptions by inviting readers into a reflective process. Well written with personal stories, rich connections to Scripture, and challenging reflection questions, this book is a great resource for Christian leaders as it recognizes the importance of social location and directly addresses the impact racial-ethnic-cultural identity, socioeconomic status, sex/gender, power, and privilege play in vocation."

--Terri Martinson Elton, professor of leadership at Luther Seminary

About the Author

Susan L. Maros (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is an affiliate assistant professor of Christian leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, where she has also served as a doctoral supervisor, and an adjunct professor at the King's University, Southlake, Texas. She is a past president of the Academy of Religious Leadership.