Christopher J. Lane, Callings and Consequences: The Making of Catholic Vocational Culture in Early Modern France (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021). ISBN paperback: 978-0-2280-0855-2, $34.95; ISBN hardcover 978-0-2280-0854-5; ISBN PDF 978-0-2280-0975-7; ISBN ePub 978-0-2280-0976-4. See below for 20% discount.
The concept of vocation in an early modern Catholic setting calls to mind the priesthood or religious life; we sometimes assume that to be “called” by God meant to leave the lay state. Beginning in the mid-seventeenth century, French Catholic clergy began to promote the innovative idea that everyone, even an ordinary layperson, was called to a vocation or “state of life” and that discerning this call correctly had implications for one’s happiness and salvation, and for the social good.
Callings and Consequences analyzes the origins, growth, and influence of a culture of vocation that became a central component of the Catholic Reformation and its legacy in France. The reformers’ new vision of the choice of a state of life was marked by four characteristics: urgency (the assertion that one’s soul was at stake), inclusiveness (the belief that all Catholics, including lay people, were called to their state), method (the use of proven discernment practices), and liberty (the belief that this choice must be free from coercion, especially by parents). No mere passing phenomena, these vocational reforms engendered enduring beliefs and practices within the repertoire of global Catholic modernity, even to the present day.
An illuminating and sometimes surprising history of pastoral reform, Callings and Consequenceshelps us to understand the history of Catholic vocational culture and its role in the modernizing process, within Christianity and beyond.
Praise:
"It is hard to explain why the striking change in French discourse around vocation in the early modern era has gone almost unstudied, but from the point of view of the faithful, this was one of the biggest innovations of early modern Catholicism. Callings and Consequences provides a crucial introduction to the topic, filling a major gap in our understanding of the early modern Catholic world. All serious scholars of early modern Catholicism should read this book." Jotham Parsons, Duquesne University (author of The Church in the Republic: Gallicanism and Political Ideology in Renaissance France)
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 – Before the Rigorist Turn: The Catholic Reformation of Vocation in the Long Sixteenth Century
2 – Urgency: Vocational Rigorism and the Dangers of Choosing Poorly
3 – Inclusiveness: Lay Vocation in a Rigorist Framework
4 – Method: Systematizing the Discernment Process
5 – Liberty: Parental Involvement without Parental Coercion
Conclusion