A number of theologians and ethicists have remarked on the fact that James Comey’s new book, A Higher Loyalty, opens with a quotation from Reinhold Niebuhr:

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible.

Man’s capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary.

While commentators remain deeply divided on Niebuhr’s legacy (for both theology and politics), it’s interesting to note that his work continues to come back into public view from time to time. He was also the subject of a recent documentary film, directed by Martin Doblmeier, whose film on Dietrich Bonhoeffer received much acclaim few years ago. The new film, An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story, includes comments from President Jimmy Carter, civil rights leader Andrew Young, writer David Brooks, theologian Stanley Hauerwas, Cornel West and many others.

As we engage students about their sense of calling, about the intersection of their “deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger,” the insights of Niebuhr can perhaps help us avoid being too sanguine.

When it come to vocation, social location figures centrally. Several recent posts here at Vocation Matters have addressed the relevance of social location when it comes to vocational discernment. Last week, Younus Mirza described some of the particular obstacles faced by international students, encouraging us to do a better job of understanding and attending to those challenges. John Peterson has addressed social location as well, reminding us that poverty and prejudice can dramatically shape our students’ sense of their future. This theme was taken up in a much earlier post, written by Caryn Riswold, who described vocation as “enmeshed”:

We all live enmeshed, caught up in various systems of privilege and oppression.  Whether it’s white supremacy, misogyny, heteronormativity, or any other way in which we human societies have found to order and stratify our lives, navigating them is a part of discerning vocation.

Caryn has a new essay published in The Cresset that insightfully connects the biblical figure of Hagar with the contemporary #MeToo movement. In her essay, Caryn relays a story shared by Tarana Burke, one of the founders of the movement, in which Tarana laments her inability to say “me, too” to a girl who, in the moment of sharing the monstrous details of abuse at the hands of her stepfather, most needed that act of recognition and solidarity. It’s an honest confession about a moment of failed mentoring, in a sense, and it lends itself to some tough questions about the work we do with students in helping them discern their callings. Are we prepared to handle what might be revealed in our conversations with students? What are the possibilities for—and  limits on—solidarity within the context of mentoring? How does mandatory reporting further complicate those encounters?

Caryn Riswold is the author of “Vocational Discernment: A Pedagogy of Humanization,” in At this Time and In This Place: Vocation and Higher Education, ed David S. Cunningham (Oxford UP, 2015) and is a frequent contributor to Pathos. You can check out Caryn’s essay in The Cresset here.