NetVUE’s podcast Callings has released a new episode, which features an interview with Caryn Riswold, professor of religion and the McCoy Family Distinguished Chair in Lutheran Heritage and Mission at Wartburg College. An accomplished classroom teacher, Caryn is also the author of four books, including Feminism and Christianity: Questions and Answers in the Third Wave (2009), Two Reformers: Martin Luther and Mary Daly as Political Theologians (2007), and her most recent publication, ReEngaging ELCA Social Teaching on Abortion (2024). She is also a NetVUE Scholar, and her essay “Vocational Discernment: A Pedagogy of Humanization” appeared in the first volume of NetVUE’s Scholarly Resources Project, In This Time and at This Place: Vocation and Higher Education (2015).
In this episode, Caryn explores a range of important and timely issues with our hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton. She believes that conversations about vocation should give greater attention to issues of social justice, identity, and culture. Even as she holds her own strong convictions about these topics, she also maintains a generous sense of curiosity and humility in the face of them, especially as they inform our—and our students’—vocational exploration and discernment. “It’s about the questions,” she says, “it’s not about being the person with all the answers. It’s not about knowing the right answers. It’s about the questions.”
In her search for the kinds of answers that embody both generosity and justice, she reminds us that our callings help us to “be human together, better.” As she reflects on her own vocational journey, Caryn describes how her own dual callings as teacher and public theologian have helped her pursue such goals. Ultimately, she suggests that asking good questions is key for discerning whether our words shed “heat or light” on important and difficult topics—like that of her recent publication—in ways that empower others.
Click hereto listen to the episode featuring Caryn Riswold titled “Asking Good Questions.”
Geoffrey W. Bateman is the editor of Vocation Matters.