The Orders of Vocation: A Brunnerian Proposal

This article draws on the idea of the ‘orders of creation’ as developed in Emil Brunner’s The Divine Imperative (1932) and shows that Brunner’s understanding of the orders provides a fruitful theological foundation for conceptualizing Christian vocation and for framing the process of discernment therein. However, the concept of orders of creation is a mistrusted doctrine with problematic historical baggage. A few attempts have been made to rehabilitate the concept of the orders, but a successful revival requires a more thorough reimagining of the doctrine than has been previously attempted. Examining Christian vocation within the framework of the orders of creation, I undertake to reimagine the doctrine of orders as orders of vocation, supplying a definition of vocation as the unifying principle of those tasks which emerge where the will of God intersects with one’s familial, economic, political, cultural and ecclesial responsibilities. The orders of vocation serve as a heuristic device that relativizes vocation in light of the particularities of concrete life. All activity within the orders of vocation is inevitably moral activity. Also, the orders of vocation, as opposed to orders of creation, emphasize the perennial necessity of reformation within the spheres of communal life.