Abstract
In “Christian calling and volunteering”, Johan von Essen and Jacques Haers show how, in various Christian perspectives such as the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions, the invitation to neighbourly love calls the faithful to volunteer and thus, as it were, imposes an understanding of volunteering on the basis of religious adherence. Free will, a crucial concept in the history of ideas in the western world and a key element in all definitions of volunteering, is understood in the Christian tradition as taking responsibility in the common life and requires processes of discernment that clarify the deep bonds and interactions that characterize both creation and the understanding of the future world. The presentation of the Lutheran and Ignatian traditions shows the variety of perspectives that are possible in the Christian faith and its churches, while also illustrating how religious faith offers possibilities to clarify motivations for volunteering even in a highly secularized world in which, more often than not, the idea of free will has come to be equated with individual choice.
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Notes
- 1.
Biblical passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.
- 2.
Meaning the tradition starting with Ignatius of Loyola, in the sixteenth century. It will be used further on in the article to illustrate the Roman Catholic approach to free will.
- 3.
- 4.
The early theology of Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185–254) illustrates this point. See, Crouzel (1989).
- 5.
See, for an analysis of Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of the foundational relationship of creation; Sertillanges (1949).
- 6.
Theological discussions of “nature and grace”, to which also belong in-depth analyses of anthropology and of the sinful condition of human beings, usually harbour substantial chapters on ancient, modern and contemporary history. For an introduction—from a Roman Catholic point of view—see, for example: (Haight 1991).
- 7.
Thoughts of St. Ignatius Loyola for Every Day of the Year. From the Scintillae Ignatianae compiled by Gabriel Hevenesi, S.J. Translated by A.G. McDougall, New York: Fordham University Press, 2006, p. 15 (the quote for 2 January). The original Latin text runs as follows: “Haec prima sit agendorum regula: Sic Deo fide, quasi rerum successus omnis a te, nihil a Deo penderet: ita tamen iis operam omnem admove, quasi tu nihil, Deus Omnia solus sit facturus” (see: Hevenesi, Gabriel, Scintillae Ignatianae, sive Sancti Ignatii de Loyola, Societatis Iesu Fundatoris apophtegmata sacra, per singulos anni dies distribute, Et ulteriori consideration proposita. Viennae, Typis Joannis Georgii Schlegel, 1705).
- 8.
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Haers, J., von Essen, J. (2015). Christian Calling and Volunteering. In: Hustinx, L., von Essen, J., Haers, J., Mels, S. (eds) Religion and Volunteering. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04585-6_2
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