Calling, Virtue, and the Practice of Medicine
Jason Whitt, PhD., Associate Director, Institute for Faith and Learning, Baylor University
A popular understanding of calling that has developed since the Reformation, imbues the individual’s secular vocation with sacred worth because it is understood as work done in obedience to divine plan. The faithful Christian therefore must discern God’s will for that profession to which he/she is called. In higher education, then, earnest undergraduates declare themselves called to the practice of medicine as sacred work that is God’s intention for their lives.
This presentation will argue that this account of calling, which Max Weber famously traced from Luther and his fellow reformers, stands counter to the biblical witness of calling the New Testament presents. Rather than calling to a particular profession, the biblical account of calling is to a unique way of living that is to exemplify the followers of Christ. This life is clearly evident in language commending followers to holiness, being perfect as the Father is perfect, and in descriptions of the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in the believer. Other than to specific roles in service of the church, calling in the New Testament does not refer to secular professions.
The aim of this presentation, however, is not to abandon the medical profession to the secular realm or to dismiss the idea of the Christian physician. On the contrary, an account of calling emphasizing the formation of persons in Christ-likeness serves to open a deeper understanding of the identity of the Christian health care professional. An embrace of calling as Christ-likeness places moral formation at the forefront of vocation such that what is central is not the individual’s profession but the character of the one who works. In this way, the physician is sustained throughout his/her career as one prepared for the moral and ethical challenges that mark the practice of medicine.
The re-enchantment of the practice of medicine is not accomplished when one makes the work itself sacred simply by imagining it as that which God has ordained for the individual. Rather, the sacredness of the work is rooted in the character of the physician whose daily practice, decisions, and patient interactions are the outcomes of virtues inculcated in worship, prayer, Bible study, and all other practices that mark the life of faith.
The virtue tradition that runs from Aristotle through its pinnacle in the work of Thomas Aquinas exemplifies the idea of calling as formation. This tradition embraces the idea that formation requires the habituation of virtues—qualities of character—that shape one as a particular type of person. It is out of this formation that all of a person’s actions and responses flow. Thus the question becomes not “Am I called to be a physician?” but “How as a physician in the daily practice of medicine might I exemplify my calling to Christ-likeness?”
A popular understanding of calling that has developed since the Reformation, imbues the individual’s secular vocation with sacred worth because it is understood as work done in obedience to divine plan. The faithful Christian therefore must discern God’s will for that profession to which he/she is called. In higher education, then, earnest undergraduates declare themselves called to the practice of medicine as sacred work that is God’s intention for their lives.
This presentation will argue that this account of calling, which Max Weber famously traced from Luther and his fellow reformers, stands counter to the biblical witness of calling the New Testament presents. Rather than calling to a particular profession, the biblical account of calling is to a unique way of living that is to exemplify the followers of Christ. This life is clearly evident in language commending followers to holiness, being perfect as the Father is perfect, and in descriptions of the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in the believer. Other than to specific roles in service of the church, calling in the New Testament does not refer to secular professions.
The aim of this presentation, however, is not to abandon the medical profession to the secular realm or to dismiss the idea of the Christian physician. On the contrary, an account of calling emphasizing the formation of persons in Christ-likeness serves to open a deeper understanding of the identity of the Christian health care professional. An embrace of calling as Christ-likeness places moral formation at the forefront of vocation such that what is central is not the individual’s profession but the character of the one who works. In this way, the physician is sustained throughout his/her career as one prepared for the moral and ethical challenges that mark the practice of medicine.
The re-enchantment of the practice of medicine is not accomplished when one makes the work itself sacred simply by imagining it as that which God has ordained for the individual. Rather, the sacredness of the work is rooted in the character of the physician whose daily practice, decisions, and patient interactions are the outcomes of virtues inculcated in worship, prayer, Bible study, and all other practices that mark the life of faith.
The virtue tradition that runs from Aristotle through its pinnacle in the work of Thomas Aquinas exemplifies the idea of calling as formation. This tradition embraces the idea that formation requires the habituation of virtues—qualities of character—that shape one as a particular type of person. It is out of this formation that all of a person’s actions and responses flow. Thus the question becomes not “Am I called to be a physician?” but “How as a physician in the daily practice of medicine might I exemplify my calling to Christ-likeness?”