Mike Smith:
This week, Christian author and scholar Dr. Gene Edward Veith joins me to discuss the concept of vocation. Dr. Veith, what is the historical connection between vocation and apprenticeship?

Dr. Veith:
Well, parents were always concerned with helping their children find their calling. And typically, the pattern would be that children would be given a good, wide-ranging education—so that they learned to read and know the Scriptures and can know the basic elements of all kinds of knowledge—but then at some point, to see what the child seemed really good at. And when that was evident, the child would learn the profession by finding a practitioner of that profession and learning with them on the job.

The way to learn would be to find someone else with that calling, with that vocation, and be sort of ushered into it by practicing it, under guidance, to see if that was the right thing for the person to do. And then, if that young person were skilled in that, the profession, the guild of the profession, would then issue a call to that person and then make them an official member of that guild, of that field.

Mike:
Well, that’s fascinating, Dr. Veith! Thanks for giving us that background. I look forward to talking about the applications of these concepts in our next program. And until then, I’m Mike Smith.