Luther's Challenge: The Power of Greed in Our Common Home

When faced with growing poverty, corrupt business practices, and the power of banking houses and lobbyists, Luther drew on his theological anthropology in order to discern the devastating power of greed in human relationships. And yet, as he admitted, greed was and is a clever master of human ambition, accepted by leaders in church, commerce, and government. His teaching on the power of greed was in continuity with the Christian tradition and yet broke new ground in his recognition that this vice possesses a social, institutional nature.     

使命感概念内涵及践行使命影响因素研究

以人民警察为研究对象,利用质性研究方法探索使命感的概念内涵及践行使命的影响因素.使命感定义为听从党的召唤,愿意为国家和人民的利益奉献与牺牲,主动进取,并在工作中实现自我价值的一种行为动力倾向.使命感概念内涵包括信仰召唤、利他奉献、主动进取、自我实现四个维度.理想、信念、责任、担当、团队氛围等是影响使命践行的主要因素.使...     

Learning as Calling and Responding

According to Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, our being-in-the-world is to be conceived of as an existential dialogue. Elsewhere, I have conceptualized the teacher–student-relation accordingly (see Jons 2008), as a matter of calling and responding. The conceptualization rests on a secularised notion of vocation, paving way for discovering, articulating and discerning pedagogical relations in a new way. In the present article, I take this conceptualization one step further, applying the concept of calling and responding to the pedagogical relation between a learner—might it be a student or a scholar—and the subject studied. The aim of the study is to afford a new way of conceiving the process as well as the outcome of learning. Thinking learning within the framework of calling and responding means understanding the learner and the subject as addressing and responding to each other. This means that predicaments of the subject—such as the truths that the subject holds and the anomalies it suffers from—address the learner in e g lectures, readings, theories, assignments, challenging the knowledge of the learner and in responding to this address, the learner in turn challenges the truths of the subject. By paying heed to, responding responsibly and challenging each other, the outcome of learning becomes a twofold phenomenon, namely both the learner and the subject reconstituting themselves, enlarged by the contribution of each other’s mode of coming-into-presence.     

感召及其相关研究

近些年来, 宗教视角下的感召概念, 即通常描述为带有使命感和意义感的工作角色, 且多以上帝、激情或天赋作为动机激发源, 在西方的心理学文献中频繁出现, 已引起心理学领域诸多分支学科的关注, 被视为个体工作的目的感和意义感的重要来源, 也是个体职业生涯成功的基础以及个体生涯元能力(例如认同与适应力)的促进因素。在系统梳理有关感召的理论与实证研究文献的基础上, 对感召的研究现状进行了总结和分析, 发现感召在概念的界定、评估与衡量、文化适应性上以及它与生活满意度、组织/生涯发展等的关系上都有待进一步探讨与验证。     

Your Strengths are Calling: Preliminary Results of a Web-Based Strengths Intervention to Increase Calling

Cross-sectional research indicated that the application of signature strengths at work seemed to be crucial for perceiving a job as a calling. The present study aimed at testing this assumed causality in a random-assignment, placebo-controlled web-based intervention study. The intervention group (n = 83) was instructed to use their four highest character strengths more often at work for 4 weeks. Meanwhile the control group (n = 69) reflected about four situations (independent from the current workplace) where they excelled. For the evaluation of the effects of the two conditions, participants completed measures on calling and global life satisfaction before (Pretest), directly after the four-week training period (Posttest 1), and 3 (Posttest 2) and 6 months (Posttest 3) later. Calling significantly increased in the intervention group but not in the control group from Pretest to Posttest 1, and remained constant until Posttest 3. Global life satisfaction significantly increased in the intervention group but not in the control group from Pretest to Posttest 2 and from Posttest 1 to Posttest 3. That indicated that the changes on global life satisfaction were less steep than the changes in calling and lagged, but significant long lasting changes were observed likewise. Results supported the assumption that the application of strengths at work impacts calling and life satisfaction. Limitations as well as implications for research and practice are discussed.     

召唤与职业:驳韦伯对基督教职业观的理解——从克尔恺郭尔的基督教思想出发

韦伯在《新教伦理与资本主义精神》中,将职业与天职联系起来,并从这一角度指出,新教伦理促进了资本主义精神的兴起。该文认为这种直接的联系的基础是自然神论。通过引入克尔恺郭尔对西方理性形而上学的批判,笔者将论证,一方面,由自然神论衍生的基督教职业观在克尔恺郭尔的视野下是错误的,因为职业只是一个人生存的偶然性境遇之一,因此不是上帝的“召唤”。根据克尔恺郭尔对基督教的阐释,上帝的召唤是超越性的,这决定了它不可能直接地被人的理性理解,它以一种独特的———我称之为“否定性的”、“间接的”———方式被领会,召唤超越于职业,前者超越了人的理性,而后者是理性分工体系的产物;另一方面,上帝的召唤又与职业有关系。偶然性境遇恰恰是上帝进行召唤以及人作出回应的“场合”(occassion),一个基督徒如果占据某一职业,那么他(她)就必须辛勤劳动,甘愿“受苦”(suffering),韦伯正确地看到了基督徒对职业的重视、在职业上吃苦耐劳的表现,但未能正确地解释其原因。总之,依据克尔恺郭尔的思想,存在着一种有别于韦伯的基督教职业观,从而将基督教与资本主义精神联系起来是值得疑问的。     

Calling and career adaptability among undergraduate students

The present study examined the relation of calling and career adaptability with a sample of 330 undergraduate students. The presence of a calling weakly to moderately correlated with the four components of adaptability — concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. A moderated, multiple mediation model was used to test the potential mediating effects of the four components of career adaptability on career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) and how these relations differed according to strengths use. Using bootstrapping techniques, concern and confidence were found to be significant mediators in the calling–CDSE relation. Additionally, strengths use was found to moderate the relation between curiosity and CDSE, with curiosity being a significant mediator at high levels of strengths use. After including the mediators in the model, the relation of calling to CDSE was weakened, but still significant, indicating partial mediation. These results suggest that calling relates to greater levels of CDSE in part because of increased concern, curiosity (when strengths use is high), and confidence. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Beijing Calling... Mobile Communication in Contemporary China

Subsequently, with the recent wave of industrialization, China has become the “factory” of the globalized world. The modernization of this country, however, is not confined to the provision of production at a low added value: It also entails technological appropriation and innovation. In particular, China represents the biggest world market for mobile phones and will soon dominate the Internet market. In this country, the total number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers exceeds 750 million, and the total number of Internet users is more than 162 million. The present study focuses on how, after a decade of mobile phone use, the inhabitants of Beijing evaluate the changes in the social and communicative sphere as a result of the introduction of the mobile phone. In this paper, we present some results of a quantitative research, specifically focused on mobile communication. Based on face-to-face questionnaires administered to a convenient sample of 487 respondents, this study addresses the following research questions: After a decade of mobile phone use, how do Chinese people perceive the importance of this device? To what extent do the adoption and use of mobile phones increase or decrease social connectivity in contemporary China? To what extent does the use of mobile phones in everyday life enhance or reduce the communications – do they make you feel closer to or more distant from other people? What are the variables that predict users’ attitudes toward mobile phones in China?     

Calling in retirement: A mixed methods study

This mixed methods study aimed to examine the experiences of a calling in retirement with a sample of 196 retired adults. First, a qualitative analysis explored the types of activities participants experienced as a calling as well as the types of barriers that participants perceived as keeping them from living their calling. ‘Helping Others’ emerged as the largest category of calling that participants endorsed and ‘No Resources to Live Calling’ emerged as the most frequently endorsed barrier. Building on our qualitative findings, we conducted a quantitative analysis to examine the relation of perceiving a calling with well-being. Consistent with prior research with working adult populations and in support of our hypotheses, perceiving a calling related to life meaning and life satisfaction, and structural equation modeling demonstrated that life meaning and living a calling (via life meaning) fully mediated the perceiving calling–life satisfaction relation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

An Analysis of Timeout Calling in College Basketball

The Psychological Record - Using data streams from ESPN.com (n.d.), we identified possible contingencies on timeout calling for 594 timeouts in 117 games for four Division 1 NCAA college basketball...