Author: Stephanie L. Johnson

Geoffrey Bateman and the Uncommon Good

The most recent episode of Callings features a conversation with Geoffrey Bateman, associate professor of peace and justice studies at Regis University.

The most recent episode of Callings features a conversation with Geoffrey Bateman, professor of peace and justice studies at Regis University. He is also a NetVUE faculty fellow and NetVUE scholar and has written extensively on the topic of supporting LGBTQIA+ students in their vocational journeys. In addition to serving as one of the faculty advisors for the Queer Student Alliance at Regis, he also leads Brave Space Trainings for the Queer Resource Alliance. His recent scholarship includes the essays “Queer Vocation and the Uncommon Good” in Called Beyond Ourselves: Vocation and the Common Good and “Queer Callings: LGBTQ Literature and Vocation” in Cultivating Vocation in Literary Studies.

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick on Joy in the Classroom

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, director of digital humanities and professor of English at Michigan State University.

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, director of digital humanities and professor of English at Michigan State University. She also serves as the project director of Humanities Commons, an open-access, open-source network serving more than 16,000 scholars and practitioners in the humanities. In addition to her extensive blog, her publications include Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University (2019) and the forthcoming Leading Generously: Tools for Transformation (2024).

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Anantanand Rambachan on Considering the Sacred

The most recent episode of Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Anantanand Rambachan, scholar of Hinduism and interreligious studies and professor emeritus of religion, philosophy, and Asian studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

The most recent episode of Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Anantanand Rambachan, scholar of Hinduism and interreligious studies and professor emeritus of religion, philosophy, and Asian studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is also a co-president of the global interfaith network Religions for Peace and is active in the dialogue programs of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican. His numerous books include A Hindu Theology of Liberation and Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue.

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Sarah Bassin on Holy Envy

The latest episode of the Callings podcast features Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Rabbi Sarah Bassin.

The latest episode of the Callings podcast features Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Rabbi Sarah Bassin. She serves as the director of clergy and congregations for the nonprofit HIAS (originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the world’s oldest refugee agency. Previously, she was the associate rabbi at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, focused on congregation-based justice work, as well as the founding executive director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change.

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Miroslav Volf on the Soul’s Landscape

Hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Miroslav Volf on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings.

Hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Miroslav Volf on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings. Miroslav is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, as well as one of the most influential Christian theologians of this generation. His latest book, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (co-authored with Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz), is based on the “Life Worth Living” course that they teach at Yale University.

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Shirley Hoogstra on God’s Economy

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Shirley Hoogstra.

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Shirley Hoogstra. Shirley has been an elementary school teacher, a litigator, a vice president for student life at Calvin University and, since 2014, the president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).

With her belief that there is “nothing wasted in God’s economy,” she encourages us to look for vocational possibilities both by taking heed of our own feelings of “restlessness” and by listening to others. Within classrooms, we can prepare students for multiple vocations and for facing difficult problems and contentious spaces by cultivating in them a “deep moral courage.”

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Katharine Hayhoe on the Practice of Hope

Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast, Callings.

Katharine Hayhoe

Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast, Callings. Katharine is a distinguished professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University, where she is also an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She currently serves as the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy as well. Her most recent book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.

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Parker Palmer on Muddling Through

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Parker Palmer.

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Parker Palmer. Well before vocation and calling developed their current popularity, Parker was recognized as one of the foremost scholars, authors, and speakers on the topic. The author of ten books, including Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, he is also the founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal.

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Norman Wirzba on Agrarian Ways of Being

The fourth season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings is underway as hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton talk with Norman Wirzba, Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School and senior fellow at The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

The fourth season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings is underway as hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton talk with Norman Wirzba, Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School and senior fellow at The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Norman also serves as general editor for the book series Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism (University Press of Kentucky) and is co-founder and executive committee member of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology. In this first episode of the new season of Callings, he shares his ideas about agrarian living, freedom and fidelity, and the importance of the ecological dimension of vocation.

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Article of Note: The Good Life

A recent article in Inside Higher Ed shares research on how “good life courses” can prepare undergraduate students for more productive and meaningful lives.

A recent article in Inside Higher Ed shares research on how “good life courses” can prepare undergraduate students for more productive and meaningful lives.

Kristina Callina, Alicia Lynch, and Michael Murray conducted interviews with and collected survey data from professors and their students from 14 colleges and universities to determine if such courses work and how they work. They report their findings and explore the rising interest in such courses across the country in “Teaching the Good Life” (September 19, 2023). They identify “the essential pedagogical features of good life courses, how they impact students’ sense of purpose and well-being, and what educators can do to optimize successful implementation of good life courses at their postsecondary institutions.”

Not only do the findings show that these courses are valuable for students, but they also suggest that such courses can bring new energy to the humanities disciplines that often house and support them.

One of the institutions mentioned in the article, the University of Notre Dame, is home to a course called “God and the Good Life.” Among its teachers is UND philosophy professor Meghan Sullivan, who will deliver the keynote address at the 2024 NetVUE Conference.

Stephanie L. Johnson is the editor of Vocation Matters.