Hearing God's call one more time: Retrieving calling in theology of work

Calling is a very important concept in Christianity. In the medieval era, calling was restricted
to ecclesiastical work alone, a devotion to the life of contemplation. Ordinary work or physical
labour was not considered qualified to be a calling. Martin Luther was the one who taught
that the ordinary work of the ordinary people was also God’s calling and equally spiritual as
the ecclesiastical work. However, Miroslav Volf, a Croatian theologian, criticised Luther that
his view of calling was too static and irrelevant to the modern context where people often
choose to quit a job because of its negative effects and some people have to do multiple jobs
in order to make ends meet. While recognising the validity of Volf’s critique, this article seeks
to demonstrate that even in the modern context, calling is still a very important theological
concept to reflect upon work. Luther’s vocational view of work could be retrieved in
discussing the theology of work by putting it in dialogue with Calvin, Kuyper, and other
theologians.