Friday, January 10, 2014

New book on Vocation: 'The Disciples' Call' edited by Christopher Jamison OSB

A new book on theologies of vocation from scripture to the present day has recently been published. Entitled "The Disciples' Call", it is edited by Fr Christopher Jamison OSB and includes contributions from well known writers on vocation including Sr Gemma Simmonds, Fr Joseph Bolin and Fr Stephen Wang.

The new book, which should be of interest to anyone involved in vocations ministry, traces the theology of vocation from the scriptures, tradition and the task of discerning a vocation in the modern world.

Two areas of interest to this blogger are (1) the understanding of vocation from the point of view of Saint Thomas Aquinas and (2) the distinctive nature of vocations to the religious life. The contributors who have a keen interest in the theology and nature of vocation have given an excellent exposition of all the major themes that will help vocations directors and promoters in the exercise of their ministry.

The assistance that psychologists offer to vocations personnel and their teams are covered in one of the concluding chapters of the book. This piece, authored by Dr Peter Tyler, is quite simply essential reading for vocation ministers. It is by far the best exposition of this topic that I have seen in some years.

While this is not a book review, I would heartily recommend this contribution to the much underdeveloped corpus of material on vocations and will be a most useful resource.

"The Disciples' Call", edited by Fr Christopher Jamison OSB is published by Bloomsbury - ISBN-978-0-567-31099-6

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