Awakening Vocation: A Theology of Christian Call

by Edward P Hahnenberg

Overview

Does God have a specific plan for each of us, or is it more like general guidelines for all of us? How do my gifts and abilities, my personality and particular circumstances, impact my vocation? What is the role of the church in this process? What are the needs of the world that call us to respond?

Awakening Vocation explores these questions and breathes new life into an ancient idea - rousing vocation from a centuries-long slumber. Inspired by the broad and inclusive Vision of the Second Vatican Council, the book traces the history of Catholic reflection on vocation and offers a constructive proposal for the present. In plain language, Edward Hahnenberg argues that Catholic thinking on vocation has been frustrated by a deficient theology of grace and that the key to reclaiming the notion of God's call today lies in a Vision of God's self-gift reaching across al of human history and into every human heart. Rethinking vocation in light of a revitalized theology of grace helps move beyond earlier dead ends, opening up new ways of imagining discipleship and discernment within our wonderfully diverse and yet deeply divided world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814653890
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	07/01/2010
Series:	Pauls Social Network
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Edward P. Hahnenberg holds the Jack and Mary Jane Breen Chair in Catholic Systematic Theology at John Carroll University. He is the author of Awakening Vocation: A Theology of Christian Call and Theology for Ministry: An Introduction for Lay Ministers, and coeditor of A Church with Open Doors: Catholic Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium published by Liturgical Press. He is a contributor to Give Us This Day. Dr. Hahnenberg is a past consultant to the US Bishops Subcommittee on Lay Ministry and current delegate to the US Lutheran–Catholic Ecumenical Dialogue.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Part 1 Slipping into Silence

1 The Breadth of the Callings 3

2 The Depth of the Call 47

Part 2 Awakening Vocation

3 God Calls . . . 93

4 Me . . . 125

5 Through Others . . . 159

6 For Others 193

Conclusion 230

Notes 234

Bibliography 276

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

[Awakening Vocation] is in total a marvelous contribution to a vital endeavor: providing serious theological underpinnings for discussion of vocation today.
Maureen O’Brien, Duquesne University


Hahnenberg provides a thorough and readable account of how the notion of vocation has been understood by many of the major theologians since the Reformation. Those of us involved in vocation ministry today find ourselves grappling with the question, ‘How do I recognize an authentic vocation in an enquirer into religious life?’, and it is hugely helpful to have someone map out the historical terrain that is the hinterland of our work. To read this book is to be enriched theologically … but it is also to be drawn into a reflection on one’s own vocation which brings with it its own enrichment.
Matthew Power, SJ, The Way


A comprehensive, clear, and challenging work
Bishop Robert Morneau, Emmanuel Magazine


Edward Hahnenberg has made a significant contribution to the understanding of vocational questions today with his in-depth, scholarly, and thorough work on vocation and Christian call. The text is rich, complex and well worth reading and pondering. The power and mystery of God working in the lives of individuals deserves such a profound effort.
Horizon: Journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference


This book will make for fruitful spiritual reading for the theologically informed reader. It will also provide helpful background for those whose calling is spiritual formation, direction, and leadership in a church ever called to deepen its commitments to, and understanding of, God’s challenge in history.
Emmanuel


I highly recommend this book for liturgical academics and students. It challenges us to think liturgy in a different way.
Liturgical Ministry


I’ve been searching for a theological reflection on ‘call’ for a long time. Your book brings my search to an end.
Don Cozzens
John Carroll University
Author of Freeing Celibacy


As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops discussed and approved its guidebook for the emerging lay ministries titled ‘Coworkers in the Vineyard,’ much was made of the need for a comprehensive study of the use of the term vocation in the life of the Church. Awakening Vocation by Edward Hahnenberg is exactly what was being called for. This extensive study will benefit anyone seeking to understand lay ecclesial ministry and its place in the Church.
Most Rev. Gerald F. Kicanas, DD Bishop of Tucson

From the Publisher