At This Time and In This Place: Vocation and Higher Education

by David S. Cunningham (Editor)

Overview

Seeking to deepen current scholarly engagement with vocational exploration in both theory and practice, At This Time and In This Place champions the themes of calling and vocation as key elements of effective undergraduate education. Growing out of a year-long seminar sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), this book brings together a nationwide group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in order to produce new scholarly writing on this topic. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment and also suggests how these endeavors can be carried out through specific educational practices. Attending both to the current state of higher education and to broader cultural trends, the contributors examine the contours of vocation from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives. They consider the relationship between vocation and virtue, both of which encourage the cultivation of habits that lead to a life marked by flourishing and fulfillment-for oneself and for others. The authors also discuss how to engage students in actively reflecting on questions of meaning and purpose through classroom conversations, co-curricular activities, programs for community engagement, and attention to a campus's physical features. At This Time and In This Place offers a compelling argument for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education and represents a significant contribution to the emerging scholarly literature in this field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190243944
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	532 KB

About the Author

David S. Cunningham is Professor of Religion at Hope College, where he also serves as Director of the CrossRoads Project and of the Klooster Center for Excellence in Writing.

Table of Contents

Foreword - Richard H. Ekman, President, Council of Independent Colleges Preface Vocations of the Contributors Introduction: Time and Place: Why Vocation is Crucial to Undergraduate Education Today - David S. Cunningham Part One: Vocation in the Current Cultural Context Chapter 1: Actually, You Can't Be Anything You Want (And it's a Good Thing, Too) - William T. Cavanaugh Chapter 2: Finding the Center as Things Fly Apart: Vocation and the Common Good - Cynthia A. Wells Chapter 3: Vocational Discernment: A Pedagogy of Humanization - Caryn D. Riswold Part Two: The Contours of Vocation Chapter 4: Places of Responsibility: Educating for Multiple Callings in Multiple Communities - Kathryn A. Kleinhans Chapter 5: Stories of Call: From Dramatic Phenomena to Changed Lives - Charles Pinches Chapter 6: "Who's There?": The Dramatic Role of the "Caller" in Vocational Discernment - David S. Cunningham Chapter 7: Vocation and Story: Narrating Self and World - Douglas V. Henry Part Three: Vocation and Virtue Chapter 8: An Itinerary of Hope: Called to a Magnanimous Way of Life - Paul J. Wadell Chapter 9: Seeing with All Three Eyes: The Virtue of Prudence and Undergraduate Education - Thomas Albert Howard Chapter 10: Commitment and Community: The Virtue of Loyalty and Vocational Discernment - Hannah Schell Part Four: Vocational Discernment Beyond the Classroom Chapter 11: Rituals, Contests, and Images: Vocational Discernment Beyond the Classroom - Quincy D. Brown Chapter 12: Sound and Space: Making Vocation Audible - Stephen H. Webb Chapter 13: Self, World, and the Space Between: Community Engagement as Vocational Discernment - Darby Kathleen Ray Epilogue: In Various Times and Sundry Places / Pedagogies of Vocation, Vocation as Pedagogy - David S. Cunningham

Editorial Reviews

"The idea of a personal calling or vocation has grown increasingly foreign in contemporary culture, at the expense of notions of success, happiness, and consumption. Creative thinkers at small colleges are reconsidering the crucial idea of vocation, however, and this is the first report on that rethinking. I hope it garners widespread attention and stimulates much-needed new reflection and discussion." —Christian Smith, author of Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood

"Essential reading for reminding us of the integrative value of higher education. Toward helping students thrive during college and beyond, Cunningham and colleagues offer critical perspectives on how we can incorporate vocational exploration, reflection, and discernment within the undergraduate experience, and why it is essential that we do so." —Jennifer A. Lindholm, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, University of California, Los Angeles

"What happens when diverse scholars gather to discuss the idea and practice of vocational exploration in undergraduate education? The answer is this brilliant and generative volume. No stone has been left unturned in the analysis of vocation's significance at this cultural moment, its connections to virtue, or its place within and beyond classrooms. The movement to revitalize higher education via vocational exploration will be powerfully strengthened by these fine essays." —Tim Clydesdale, author of The Purposeful Graduate: Why College Must Talk to Students about Vocation

From the Publisher