Callings, by William Placher, part 1

Placher compiles an anthology on “twenty centuries of Christian wisdom on vocation” and he organizes his book based on four historical periods: 1) Calling to Christian Life in the Early Church; 2) Religious Vocations in the Middle Ages; 3) The Reformation and Seeing Every Job as Vocation and 4) Vocations in a Post-Christian Age. Placher writes, “Any broad categories oversimplify, but there are roughly four broad periods in Christian history when ‘calling’ has had different meanings” (p. 6).

Beginning with the “first period,” the first several centuries of the church’s existence were not easy ones. Christianity began as an “obscure cult” out of the eastern edge of the Roman Empire and most living in the empire heard of it first in “wild rumors” (p. 23). Christians were said to engage in orgies, wanted the world to end, ate flesh, drank blood and were thought to be unfriendly to neighbors since they would not participate in meals involving the sacrificing to one god or another. Plus, they would not sacrifice to the divine emperor, so were thought to be traitors. Even the “Jesus” they worshipped had been executed by a Roman governor (p. 23). Becoming a Christian often meant isolation from family and friends and, while persecution was only occasional, it did carry the threat of torture and death. Still, the church kept growing. By the early 4th century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire, and some Christians began to feel that living as a Christian had become too easy, safe, socially respectable and comfortable. So they sought out monastic lives of great self-deprivation and lived as ascetics. This kind of radical self-denial “proved” that they were truly following Christ. In the early church, the idea of “call” (klesis) was first and foremost about the call to become a Christian (Rom. 1:6,7) and implied was the “forsaking of all worldly riches and pursuits.” Even those from wealthy backgrounds would sometimes choose the same lifestyles as their servants, in order to “follow the call.” “Spiritual athletes” who trained as Christians just as others might train to accomplish great feats of athletic strength and endurance, became the heroes and heroines of Christians everywhere: in a word, self-denial gave moral authority and lives of exemplary cause to follow. Therefore, even after Christianity became more “acceptable” and to live as a Christian, more comfortable, the thought prevailed that the “spirit of the martyrs” was preserved among those who took up the “call” to lives of monasticism and severe asceticism.