Kaethe Schwehn and L. DeAne Lagerquist offer perspectives from fourteen professors at St. Olaf College on the value of vocation, showing how a focus on one's calling rather than on success or credentials paves the way for the civic good sought by defenders of liberal arts education. The essays in this volume exemplify the reflective practices at the heart of liberal arts, for faculty and students alike. Martin E. Marty once said that "The vocation of St. Olaf is vocation," and the contributors draw on their experiences teaching in a range of departments-from biology and economics to history and religion-to reflect on both their calling as professors and their practices for fostering students' ability to identify their own vocations. These scholars' varied notions of how vocation is best understood and cultivated reveal the differing religious commitments and pedagogical practices present within their college community. Together they demonstrate how the purposes of their own lives intersect creatively with the purposes of higher education and the needs of their students and the world.

ContributorsAcknowledgmentsForeword - Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt JacobsenIntroduction - Kaethe Schwehn1. ''Getting a Vocation'': Variations on a Lutheran Theme - L. DeAne Lagerquist2. Good Work and the Good Life: Vocation as What We Do - James J. Farrell3. Work in Progress - Diane LeBlanc4. On Teaching Politics as a Vocation - Douglas Casson5. Vocation, Psychologically Speaking - Donna K. McMillan6. Forty-Three and Out: On the Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards of a Vocation - Mark Pernecky7. Meaningful Lives, Religious Pluralism, and the Case of the Bodhisattva - Barbara E. Reed8. Professing Vocation by Caring for the Land - Kathleen L. Shea9. Vocation and Liberal Learning: The Case for the Exploration of Vocation across the Curriculum - Jo Michelle Beld10. To Practice What We Teach: Action and Reflection - Mary S. Carlsen11. The Power of Example: Anthropology and Vocation - Thomas Williamson12. Coming Into Being: Buddhist Meditation and the Practice of Teaching - Carol Holly13. Professing Religion - John D. BarbourAfterword - James J. Farrell and L. DeAne LagerquistIndex