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Vocation: The Setting of Human Flourishing
How shall we live? What is the good life? What is the value of a person? What is my place in this world? Is God active in this world? These are questions that have been asked in every culture and in every era. From the Hebrew concept of Shalom (wholeness/well-being) to the Greek concept of Eudaimonia (happiness) and even to the American notion that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, great thinkers have pondered what it means for humans to flourish.
The doctrine of vocation uniquely answers these questions. A certain level of security, prosperity, and freedom are essential components of human flourishing. God provides these components by working through humans in their stations in life such as parents and police (security), farmers and bankers (prosperity), and soldiers and governments (freedom).
And yet there is more for which we strive. We are the type of beings whose wonderment drives us to the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and achievement. In short, we desire to be justified. We want to be valued. We want to be right or just. We strive for epic-ness. But no mere human adulation will satisfy. Nor can we justify ourselves before God with our broken lives.
God justifies Christians through Christ and then uses them. God adds another component to human purpose. He uses Christians in his economy of love to take care of the world. He lifts us from the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, even as we pursue ordinary tasks. For the Christian, these stations become callings or vocations.
This can only be fully appreciated if the Christian knows that he or she is free from pleasing God through works. Once the Christian is freed from this burden the whole of the Christian life is reoriented to the free exercise of love towards neighbor. It is the highest calling, the truly good, flourishing, and happy life.
The doctrine of vocation uniquely answers these questions. A certain level of security, prosperity, and freedom are essential components of human flourishing. God provides these components by working through humans in their stations in life such as parents and police (security), farmers and bankers (prosperity), and soldiers and governments (freedom).
And yet there is more for which we strive. We are the type of beings whose wonderment drives us to the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and achievement. In short, we desire to be justified. We want to be valued. We want to be right or just. We strive for epic-ness. But no mere human adulation will satisfy. Nor can we justify ourselves before God with our broken lives.
God justifies Christians through Christ and then uses them. God adds another component to human purpose. He uses Christians in his economy of love to take care of the world. He lifts us from the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, even as we pursue ordinary tasks. For the Christian, these stations become callings or vocations.
This can only be fully appreciated if the Christian knows that he or she is free from pleasing God through works. Once the Christian is freed from this burden the whole of the Christian life is reoriented to the free exercise of love towards neighbor. It is the highest calling, the truly good, flourishing, and happy life.
135 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 6, 2022
Hands down one of the best books on vocation I've read. Berg admits that he stands on the shoulders of proverbial giants on the subject of vocation like Martin Luther, Gustav Wingren, and Gene Veith. Yet Berg's contribution to the discussion of vocation provides a pastoral and experiential clarity that makes this Scriptural teaching truly accessible. I look forward to reading this book again in the future.
September 19, 2021
Vocation is love
Loving your neighbor is the center of vocation. This book teaches us that once we realize our freedom is Christ we can fully engage our vocation.
Loving your neighbor is the center of vocation. This book teaches us that once we realize our freedom is Christ we can fully engage our vocation.
June 16, 2021
An excellent primer on Vocation for laypeople but also a good read for pastors and theologians. Berg presents a thoroughly Lutheran account of vocation flowing out of the commendable work of Gene Veith, Gustaf Wingren, and John Pless. He focuses heavily on the relationship between justification and vocation and on Luther's threefold rule for how one becomes a theologian. My only complaint is that the editors used end notes as opposed to footnotes, which especially for this book was sad because the notes were extremely valuable, but buried in the back
June 1, 2025
Some other reviewers seem to have really enjoyed this book, so you can judge for yourself whether my less-then-stellar rating is uncharitable. And don’t get me wrong, I took some good things away from this book. Nevertheless, here’s my basic take: If you want to learn more about vocation, your time would be better spent going to the Issues, Etc. archives and listening to the 2025 series with Rev. David Petersen on the Table of Duties in Luther’s Small Catechism.
I mention Petersen’s interview series because I happened to listen to it while I was reading Rev. Berg’s book, and the interviews helped put into words what I was sensing was amiss in the book. Petersen critiques the way in which the concept of vocation has been “broadened to the point of absurdity” to include essentially any job or function a Christian engages in. In contrast, Petersen puts it this way: A vocation is something God has called you to that’s true of you even while you’re asleep. In other words, it has more to do with relations (husband/wife, parent/child, pastor/hearer, governor/governed, employer/employee) than functions (changer of diapers, mower of lawns, lawyer, accountant, etc.). Mowing the lawn may be an aspect of how my son’s filial vocation plays out, but that function doesn’t balloon into its own unique vocation. He’ll still be my son even when the lawn mowing is done and when he goes to sleep for the night.
Unfortunately, Berg’s book continues the trend of broadening “vocation” to mean just about anything a Christian does. For example, the last section of the book is titled: “Choosing a Vocation.” If that makes you wonder if “vocation” is basically being identified with “career path” (i.e., functions rather than relations), your intuitions would be correct. This section on “choosing a vocation” concludes with a list of seven different jobs (nurse, road construction worker, chef, electrical line worker, factory worker, lawyer, and truck driver), a few words about each, and a (juvenile?) refrain that ends each paragraph: “It’s not always easy to be a ________, but it is good work.” Why are seven jobs randomly selected for comment? Why these seven and not others? And why was it thought that readers really needed an explanation of how being a nurse or truck driver can be both difficult and rewarding? Your guesses are as good as mine.
The title “Choosing a Vocation” brings another question to mind. Is a vocation something that one “chooses” for one’s self, or something into which someone is “called,” as the word “vocation” (“calling”) implies? In one place, Berg is clear that “vocation” implies one who calls (God) and one who is called (a Christian). Yet later, he says that life is full of tough choices, such as whether or not to go to college, which school to attend, whether to stay in a job or seek another, and whether to “focus on my family or my career” (119). If the reader can get past the fact that focus on family or career is presented as a “tough choice,” Berg goes on to describe how a person can make these tough choices: “God will narrow it down for you. He will make the choice for you.” Great, right? Well, not so fast: “You won’t know it until years later, maybe not until heaven, but he will make the choice for you.” Oh. So, what about right now? “Until then, the choice is yours; at least, that is how we should look at it” (119). So, what is a vocation? A calling or a choice, God’s choice or yours? Again, your guess is as good as mine.
For such a brief book, it is unfortunately heavy on radical Lutheran shibboleths but short on substance. If the shibboleths are your thing, then knock yourself out. You’ll find the usual suspects here: a quotation from Stephen Paulson, pages and pages on “the hidden God,” the obligatory quotation from the Heidelberg Disputation. The only thing missing is a reference to being “weak on sanctification,” but you do get the next best thing—the repeated refrain, “To hell with my piety.” Speaking of the “hidden God,” about 8% of the book is diverted to a Bible study on the topic, the only purpose of which is to set the stage to say that our vocations are ways that God “hides himself” in order to work through us for the good of our neighbors. That’s great, but why not say it in one paragraph and stay on the topic of vocation?
Perhaps just as revealing as what is said in this book is what is left unsaid. For a Lutheran book on vocation, one is surprised to find barely a hat tip to the “Table of Duties,” much less the Bible passages upon which they are founded. For my money, a deep dive into the Table of Duties, Ephesians 5–6, Titus 2, 1 Peter 3, and so on would have been much more edifying than another book about the hidden God. But perhaps this lack of attention to the Table of Duties shouldn’t be surprising, given the broad and career-oriented definition of “vocation” assumed throughout the book. For when one turns to the Table of Duties, one finds not a list of jobs or career paths, but paired relations. How do a husband/wife, pastor/hearer, employer/employee (in any line of work), etc. relate to one another?
This neglect of the Table of Duties plays out as a consistent downplaying of household relations. We have already noted the strange statement about the “tough choice” of whether to focus on family or career. Another argument runs like this: God wants children taught, and he uses principals, teachers, parents, and school staff (in that order) to do it (34). Principal, teacher, parent, and staff are all treated equally as “vocations” because God is using each one as a means towards the same end of serving the neighbor. Obviously that can be true in a sense, but the flat equalization of all these jobs/roles results in the negligence of parents’ unique relations to their children and their primary calling to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord, an insight apparent to Luther both in the Table of Duties and in the fourth commandment.
Household relations are again downplayed when, as he lists options for consideration of which vocation a person might choose, Berg merely lists different jobs. Glaringly absent are any relations, such as father or mother, pastor or hearer. This, despite the fact that when Luther speaks of “stations in life” in the catechism, he speaks of relations: “father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker.” Berg’s book is dead silent on significant matters like the relations of husbands and wives or parents and children to one another. Finally, household relations are almost hilariously downplayed in a bizarre argument that runs like this: Imagine you’re part of a typical family—both parents work, and you lead such a busy lifestyle running around to practices, lessons, and meetings that your family is always stressed, and no one has time to do the chores or make a decent meal. Wouldn’t it be better for your marriage and family if some of those stresses were gone, at least some of the time? You bet! So, what’s Berg’s answer to this dilemma? Looking at the situation through the lens of vocation shows us that you should hire a maid. And what’s the reason you haven’t hired a maid already? (Get your radical Lutheran shibboleth sensors ready!) You’re a prideful, self-justifying person who just wants to do it all yourself. How did we go from what sounded like it would be an argument for stay-at-home moms and a re-evaluation of overly-busy lifestyles to getting berated for not hiring maids? Read it for yourself if you want to try to figure that one out, but instead, I suggest saving the time and using it rather to give your wife a kiss, listen to what’s on her mind, and play with your kids for a while.
I mention Petersen’s interview series because I happened to listen to it while I was reading Rev. Berg’s book, and the interviews helped put into words what I was sensing was amiss in the book. Petersen critiques the way in which the concept of vocation has been “broadened to the point of absurdity” to include essentially any job or function a Christian engages in. In contrast, Petersen puts it this way: A vocation is something God has called you to that’s true of you even while you’re asleep. In other words, it has more to do with relations (husband/wife, parent/child, pastor/hearer, governor/governed, employer/employee) than functions (changer of diapers, mower of lawns, lawyer, accountant, etc.). Mowing the lawn may be an aspect of how my son’s filial vocation plays out, but that function doesn’t balloon into its own unique vocation. He’ll still be my son even when the lawn mowing is done and when he goes to sleep for the night.
Unfortunately, Berg’s book continues the trend of broadening “vocation” to mean just about anything a Christian does. For example, the last section of the book is titled: “Choosing a Vocation.” If that makes you wonder if “vocation” is basically being identified with “career path” (i.e., functions rather than relations), your intuitions would be correct. This section on “choosing a vocation” concludes with a list of seven different jobs (nurse, road construction worker, chef, electrical line worker, factory worker, lawyer, and truck driver), a few words about each, and a (juvenile?) refrain that ends each paragraph: “It’s not always easy to be a ________, but it is good work.” Why are seven jobs randomly selected for comment? Why these seven and not others? And why was it thought that readers really needed an explanation of how being a nurse or truck driver can be both difficult and rewarding? Your guesses are as good as mine.
The title “Choosing a Vocation” brings another question to mind. Is a vocation something that one “chooses” for one’s self, or something into which someone is “called,” as the word “vocation” (“calling”) implies? In one place, Berg is clear that “vocation” implies one who calls (God) and one who is called (a Christian). Yet later, he says that life is full of tough choices, such as whether or not to go to college, which school to attend, whether to stay in a job or seek another, and whether to “focus on my family or my career” (119). If the reader can get past the fact that focus on family or career is presented as a “tough choice,” Berg goes on to describe how a person can make these tough choices: “God will narrow it down for you. He will make the choice for you.” Great, right? Well, not so fast: “You won’t know it until years later, maybe not until heaven, but he will make the choice for you.” Oh. So, what about right now? “Until then, the choice is yours; at least, that is how we should look at it” (119). So, what is a vocation? A calling or a choice, God’s choice or yours? Again, your guess is as good as mine.
For such a brief book, it is unfortunately heavy on radical Lutheran shibboleths but short on substance. If the shibboleths are your thing, then knock yourself out. You’ll find the usual suspects here: a quotation from Stephen Paulson, pages and pages on “the hidden God,” the obligatory quotation from the Heidelberg Disputation. The only thing missing is a reference to being “weak on sanctification,” but you do get the next best thing—the repeated refrain, “To hell with my piety.” Speaking of the “hidden God,” about 8% of the book is diverted to a Bible study on the topic, the only purpose of which is to set the stage to say that our vocations are ways that God “hides himself” in order to work through us for the good of our neighbors. That’s great, but why not say it in one paragraph and stay on the topic of vocation?
Perhaps just as revealing as what is said in this book is what is left unsaid. For a Lutheran book on vocation, one is surprised to find barely a hat tip to the “Table of Duties,” much less the Bible passages upon which they are founded. For my money, a deep dive into the Table of Duties, Ephesians 5–6, Titus 2, 1 Peter 3, and so on would have been much more edifying than another book about the hidden God. But perhaps this lack of attention to the Table of Duties shouldn’t be surprising, given the broad and career-oriented definition of “vocation” assumed throughout the book. For when one turns to the Table of Duties, one finds not a list of jobs or career paths, but paired relations. How do a husband/wife, pastor/hearer, employer/employee (in any line of work), etc. relate to one another?
This neglect of the Table of Duties plays out as a consistent downplaying of household relations. We have already noted the strange statement about the “tough choice” of whether to focus on family or career. Another argument runs like this: God wants children taught, and he uses principals, teachers, parents, and school staff (in that order) to do it (34). Principal, teacher, parent, and staff are all treated equally as “vocations” because God is using each one as a means towards the same end of serving the neighbor. Obviously that can be true in a sense, but the flat equalization of all these jobs/roles results in the negligence of parents’ unique relations to their children and their primary calling to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord, an insight apparent to Luther both in the Table of Duties and in the fourth commandment.
Household relations are again downplayed when, as he lists options for consideration of which vocation a person might choose, Berg merely lists different jobs. Glaringly absent are any relations, such as father or mother, pastor or hearer. This, despite the fact that when Luther speaks of “stations in life” in the catechism, he speaks of relations: “father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker.” Berg’s book is dead silent on significant matters like the relations of husbands and wives or parents and children to one another. Finally, household relations are almost hilariously downplayed in a bizarre argument that runs like this: Imagine you’re part of a typical family—both parents work, and you lead such a busy lifestyle running around to practices, lessons, and meetings that your family is always stressed, and no one has time to do the chores or make a decent meal. Wouldn’t it be better for your marriage and family if some of those stresses were gone, at least some of the time? You bet! So, what’s Berg’s answer to this dilemma? Looking at the situation through the lens of vocation shows us that you should hire a maid. And what’s the reason you haven’t hired a maid already? (Get your radical Lutheran shibboleth sensors ready!) You’re a prideful, self-justifying person who just wants to do it all yourself. How did we go from what sounded like it would be an argument for stay-at-home moms and a re-evaluation of overly-busy lifestyles to getting berated for not hiring maids? Read it for yourself if you want to try to figure that one out, but instead, I suggest saving the time and using it rather to give your wife a kiss, listen to what’s on her mind, and play with your kids for a while.
August 23, 2025
Excellent! In a world trying to figure out what’s best for the self, Berg points us outside of ourselves to seeing Christ in our neighbor. Wonderful writing, points, and presentation of human flourishment. I also felt convicted many times and found myself applying Berg’s writing to my daily living. Will read again.
June 8, 2025
A wonderful book that encourages the reader to be mindful. Be mindful of God's grace that sets you free. Be mindful that your purpose is outside of you. Be mindful that your identity is evident in your vocation.
December 23, 2024
Written from the Lutheran perspective, the author describes the Christological endeavor of vocation as the setting for God’s work in the world, spiritual warfare, and human flourishing. God provides purpose, freedom, security, and prosperity through vocations. Vocation covers many stations of life: church, civic, family, and career. All are avenues for His divine purpose because God cares about the physical aspects of life just as much as the spiritual. God wants children to learn, so he uses principals, teachers, and parents. God desires protection for His people, so he uses firefighters, police officers, and government officials. God wants diseases to be controlled, so he uses doctors, nurses, and researchers. God is at work everywhere: behind the ones you serve, and the ones who serve you. Some who carry out these vocations may hinder God's love, but Christ still works through them. He keeps His promise to take care of creation.
God hides in order to be revealed. Hidden behind your neighbor, God is teaching you, feeding you, and protecting you. God carries out His love while people build roads, clean teeth, and fix plumbing. The Heavenly Father is present in our lives in an intimate way. If you feel your work does not make a difference, God is making a difference. Hear it from His Word, take Him at His Word. Through our identity in Christ, we are justified, and through our purpose in Christ, we are sanctified. Our value is found first in our baptismal identity as one redeemed by Christ crucified, and second as coworker with God, serving our neighbor in love. We are freed from working to please God for our salvation so that we can work for the benefit of our neighbor. Vocation, including evangelism, is the setting where meaningful relationships are formed and trust is earned. Observe the gifts God has blessed you with; God is preparing you for the future and for your neighbor who will soon be in front of you.
God hides in order to be revealed. Hidden behind your neighbor, God is teaching you, feeding you, and protecting you. God carries out His love while people build roads, clean teeth, and fix plumbing. The Heavenly Father is present in our lives in an intimate way. If you feel your work does not make a difference, God is making a difference. Hear it from His Word, take Him at His Word. Through our identity in Christ, we are justified, and through our purpose in Christ, we are sanctified. Our value is found first in our baptismal identity as one redeemed by Christ crucified, and second as coworker with God, serving our neighbor in love. We are freed from working to please God for our salvation so that we can work for the benefit of our neighbor. Vocation, including evangelism, is the setting where meaningful relationships are formed and trust is earned. Observe the gifts God has blessed you with; God is preparing you for the future and for your neighbor who will soon be in front of you.
August 4, 2022
“God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does.“ (Gustaf Wingren)
this approach (on vocation) was new to me and therefore quite lifechanging. it makes so much sense and gives me plenty of peace, which i’ve been needing in this topic and in my faith in general.
it was so much more than just the topic of vocation. though vocation, as explained in this book, is perhaps the most important part of a christian’s life. it taught me so much about faith in general, forgiveness, “good deeds”, relationsship, etc. i am a lutheran, but i feel like this book has made me appreciate luther so much more. truly lifechanging, and exactly what i needed.
this approach (on vocation) was new to me and therefore quite lifechanging. it makes so much sense and gives me plenty of peace, which i’ve been needing in this topic and in my faith in general.
it was so much more than just the topic of vocation. though vocation, as explained in this book, is perhaps the most important part of a christian’s life. it taught me so much about faith in general, forgiveness, “good deeds”, relationsship, etc. i am a lutheran, but i feel like this book has made me appreciate luther so much more. truly lifechanging, and exactly what i needed.
September 29, 2022
It’s a great shorter book (audiobook also available) providing a Christian perspective on work, jobs, careers, and vocational choices. This book will not tell you what to do but will provide a very good foundational perspective. One star off for being a bit repetitive and idealistic at times. Still, I highly recommend it.
October 10, 2024
Every high school senior should read this book. Berg does a wonderful job explaining how God works through Christian vocation for the benefit of humanity. It’s not about self. It’s about neighbor. A different mindset and approach to life than modern society teaches.
December 24, 2024
Un libro que sin duda volveré a leer. Qué belleza de librito. Habla mucho de Lutero, en mi caso llegó a ser tedioso leer una y otra vez citas de él, pero de ahí en fuera, su contenido ha sido una bendición. ¡Chulada de libro!
May 28, 2022
Some good content here, but I left feeling it was more a summary of Luther’s ideas on vocation than it was a discussion of the topic itself.
December 12, 2021
A few years ago, the author Michael Berg gave a presentation on vocation at our church. It was one of the best Bible studies I've been to. I'm so glad that he wrote a book to go along with it, so I can pull out this short book to re-read whenever I feel like I'm not sure where my life is heading.
Because it's not about me - it's about living for my neighbor. I can do that no matter what job I have. Plus, how better to show God's love than to serve others?
This book is highly recommended.
Because it's not about me - it's about living for my neighbor. I can do that no matter what job I have. Plus, how better to show God's love than to serve others?
This book is highly recommended.
December 21, 2021
I read every book on calling and vocation I can get my hands on. This one is a good introduction with more explicitly Lutheran emphasis.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews