This installment of the Reading Wheel Review features a written dialogue between Dr. J. Daryl Charles, senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, and CRCD’s executive director, Dr. Jordan Ballor. Through a discussion of Dr. Charles’ Our Secular Vocation: Rethinking the Church’s Calling to the Marketplace, this conversation addresses misconceptions
The marketplace, then, is the chief setting in which Christians impact society. It is there that, day in and day out and generation after generation, Christian influence will produce its greatest effect.… The church’s main witness to the world occurs in the marketplace.– J. Daryl Charles, Our Secular Vocation: Rethinking the Church’s
I write with motivation that is, broadly speaking, twofold. On one level, I am burdened that within the church we need a rediscovery of the doctrine of vocation and of the design and dignity of work. While we Christians are impeded by both the culture’s view of work as well
The crisis of work and vocation is not merely material or secular; it is also deeply theological and spiritual. Studies show that many Americans dislike their jobs, long for weekends, and dread Mondays. Could this widespread dissatisfaction stem from the church’s neglect of vocation in its teaching, leaving Christians unsure
In 1953, Robert L. Heilbroner published The Worldly Philosophers, now in its seventh edition, and spoke to a popular audience about the role of economic thinkers and economic thinking in our understanding of the world. What Heilbroner did for economic thought three quarters of a century ago, Nisbet did for social
