Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good (2024)

Steve Garber of The Washington Institute blends his rich life experiences and conversations over the years with insights from music, literature, and public policy to offer an honest account of Christian responsibility in and love for a broken world. The central tension that animates this book is the challenge of both knowing and loving the world--of taking an unflinching look at the gap between the world God intended and the world humans have made of it, and yet to work to invest in it and tend it for love's sake. Certainly this is a helpful book to read alongside college students who need an expansive vision of Christian vocation. The two "it was okay" stars come from a lack of practical application, and a vision of vocation that takes the privilege of travel, education at the highest institutions, and access to influence for granted. The few examples given of people who Garber believes live well into the tension he puts forth are people who can found nonprofits and meet with lawmakers and travel across the globe without much of a challenge; to be sure, we rightly would wish for more Christians in precisely the arenas of culture where long-lasting institutional change can take place. But vocational resources are also needed for Christians who will never reach those arenas, and I'm not sure this book is aware of its own privileged position. Finally, I found myself distracted by the chapter "Vocation as Implication," where Garber introduced several friends who have chosen to love the world. Of 11 stories, 6 are of men, 4 are of couples, and 1 is of a woman. In 2 of the couples' stories, the emphasis is on the husband's work. In the story of the woman, the emphasis is on her wedding day and her home letterpress business. No doubt these life details are not to be minimized, but compared with stories of men who are meeting with UN officials and teaching and founding businesses and nonprofits, the story of the woman seems perfunctory and also a bit silly. When I think of the young college graduate who wonders what her next steps will be, I wonder if she will be able to see herself in this book.

I suppose I went into reading this book expecting it to be a bit more practical about discerning one’s vocational calling(s). Instead of this, Steve Garber’s “Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good” was a collection of narratives of individuals and families (many of them friends and students) doing some remarkable things to change culture for the common good. Garber’s central, driving theme is “Can we know the world, with all of its pain, and yet still love it?” He draws from thinkers like Michael Polanyi and creatives like Walker Percy who help us glimpse what it means to be human. I see Garber writing out of the “Christ transforming culture” paradigm, influential among those formed by Reformed theology and a commitment to the powerful institutions that shape our lives.

Garber writes with flourish, sometimes a bit too flowery (especially as I read this in long stretches). I usually hate reading other people’s reviews of books before reading the book myself because they make critiques that I then focus on, but following Katelyn Beaty’s review I couldn’t help but notice how many of the stories Garber employs are from those who have enjoyed elite educations and who live and work in Washington, D.C., arguably the most powerful city in the world. God can give success, money, and power to politicians and CEOs and call them to steward these gifts wisely, but He also blesses the barista and hair dresser, and I wondered why there was a lack of the “common people” in a book about the common good. Where are the stories from the Rust Belt? Where are the stories of cashiers contributing to the common good?

Wowwww. This book!! Garber put words to many thoughts, questions, convictions I’ve had about vocation and life. In sum: “Knowing what I know about the way the world is, what am I going to do?” Maybe most beautifully, this knowing and doing isn’t always grandiose. In fact, having eyes that see and hearts that know, and having responsibility to care, is often most impactful in our closest spheres. “Greatness was seen in the ordinariness of their lives.” The daily choices we make, big and small, in our vocations and everyday interactions, in knowing the world and still loving it, shape us, “giving us eyes to see the world that is ours as ours to care for”. We will never do this perfectly, often only proximately, but that is enough. This book helps you see vocation as an opportunity to reflect Christ fully seeing, fully knowing, and fully loving his people, through the Gospel, to your proximate community and the global world.

“To pay attention is to see what matters and what does not matter. It is to discern rightly, to choose well. Yes, it is to know as we ought to know, to know in a way that leads us to love... a kind of learning that is born of a love of God for the world.”

The obscure title doesn't do justice to this book, which is full of wisdom about how Christians should be engaging with the world around us, and includes many examples of people who serve as role models.

Steven Garber's begins his magnificent book with the key question in life, "Knowing what you know, will you still love?" Will you still love your spouse, your job, your co-workers, your neighbor, your city? The more you know, the harder it is to love. But as Christians, we believe in covenant epistemology. The essence of our faith is to know and love and if we love, then we must act. We must take responsibility for the way the world is and act for the sake of the world. This is the way of YHWH, the way of Jesus...know, love and act. This is the essence of vocation - to know the world and still love it.

What I like best about Steve's writing is the way he is able to tightly wind narrative into each and every chapter. He tells story after story of men and women in history and known by Steve and others who know, love and act. These stories provide the fuel for the premise of giving common grace for the common good. I highly recommend this book, it is great for pastors, leaders, doctors, engineers, educators, home-school moms, salesman, college students, etc. A life changing book.

Garber challenges us to have a vision for our vocations. We must know and love the world around us, especially the people in our life. He takes it a step further and asks if we will love deeper as we get to know even the difficulty and disturbing. Ultimately we must decide what to do about it. Will we have the posture of a stoic, a cynic or a Christian? He offers many great stories of those who have stepped out in faith to make a lasting impact by extending grace for the common good. Highly recommend to all.

If you have ever known a friend who answers a yes/no question with a story instead, had a more productive walking meeting through the woods than 5 Zoom calls could have been, or known someone who would listen intently for an hour before asking a question, that person is like Steve Garber. With a narrative bent, deeply read imagination, and loads of experience in wrestling in community with tough questions, Garber takes us on a journey to explore calling in an atypical way. Rather than giving a formula, he directs us to some of the right questions to ask and reasons why we can hope in the God who has the answers.

Highly recommend.

I wanted to like this book better than I actually did like it. Garber is erudite and extremely eclectic in his exploration of vocation, which he defines broadly as "that to which I am called as a human being, living my life before the face of God." (11) That would ordinarily be just up my alley, but often it seemed that he brought in far too many examples, and often I wondered just what the heck he was trying to say at any particular time. His mind seems to grasp abstractions extremely well, and so he appears to be exceptional at making connections between things. Example: a somewhat long discussion of painter Francis Bacon's strange portrait of Pope Innocent IX called "Head IV" (and I could never find "Head IV," just "Head VI," since it was a series). Yes, the painter expresses alienation, but it's a very long discussion and if I had to pin down what he was really trying to say I'd be hard pressed to do so.

So what did I like? Well, Garber is sometimes a very interesting interpreter of scripture; in his discussion of Lazarus he implies that Lazarus, even while dead, had the ability to respond or not to Jesus' command to come out of the tomb. Interesting. The main point there was that it's up to us to respond to life, to act responsibly, and also that God doesn't respond to life passively (Jesus cried) and we don't have to either. And also that God knows us and still loves us, with an exhortation for us to love the world even though it's no more perfect than any of us are individually.

I would say that the book's theme is summed up in the title of the first chapter, "To Know the World and Still Love It?" Can we continue in our various vocations, knowing what we do about life, human nature, change, evil . . . and still try to do good where and how we can? And he works that concept really well, with some very fine writing that obviously came out of very fine thinking.

Chapter 8 was probably the best chapter to me; "Learning to Live Proximately" makes a case for continuing to work and to do good even though nothing we ever do will result in perfection or perfect change. It was very interesting, but not all that quotable. Still, I may use his concept of "proximate justice" in the future.

But in looking over my notes, I couldn't find much coherence. Many interesting tidbits, but not anything that, for me, coheres. I was surprised because usually when I look over my notes, the things that really caught me, I can see the thread, and it's exciting.

My biggest complaint: Garber uses as examples all sorts of old friends, but I just didn't find most of the anecdotes interesting or compelling, and I honestly got really tired of hearing story after story about people who have had outrageously good educations and travel all over the world doing good things, or choose to stay in their extremely well-off, well-educated, well-connected lives and do good where they are, perhaps in returning to the family ranch or creating a vibrant local community (as Garber has done in Washington D.C.; but there, the idea that he just suggests to his friends that they come live in his neighborhood -- which I'm assuming must be in NW D.C., , maybe even Capitol Hill -- is really cool when you can assume your friends have the vast quantities of money to buy a house close to yours. Perhaps all those people are doing good things but I found the stories of outrageously overprivileged people tiresome. I don't begrudge the people their privilege, but a book that is presumably for a wide audience featuring people who have far more choices than almost anybody else in the world, including the United States, doesn't appeal to me. It felt like Garber was super impressed with many of his friends, students, colleagues, neighbors, and used them all to make a point. And the people are impressive, certainly, but all seemed to fit in one mold.

I will admit to feeling guilty that I didn't like this book more. People I really respect absolutely love it. For that reason I'd encourage people to give it a shot, because there are many more astute readers than me, and others, including people I know, have been absolutely blown away by this guy.

I randomly picked this up at the battlehouse off a shelf one day, and fortunately, I picked the right book. My worldview was changed as Garber explains how we are responsible- for loves sake- for the way our relationships and communities are around us. It is not enough to be a bystander in a magnificently beautiful and tragically broken world. This book was gas, literal fuel.

“Always and everywhere, this is our challenge as human beings. Can we know and love the world at the very same time? Knowing its glories and shames, can we still choose to love what we know? Is there any task more difficult than that? Think it through. From roommates to parents to siblings to friends, from neighborhoods to cities, from countries to cultures to continents—once you begin to really know what a person or a place is like, can you still love them, can you still love it?”

“What marked them was that they had eyes to see into the complexity of history, understanding that they were responsible, for love’s sake, for the way the world turned out.”

What the heck am I supposed to be doing with my life?

Working with college students I hear that question all the time. It seems like it is a perpetual mystery among college age/post-college age adults. To be honest it seems to be a perpetual mystery for myself as well.

In recent years we have seen a sort of resurgence among books, sermons, and blogs about Christian visions of vocations. What is a vocation? Is a career the same thing as a vocation? What does faith have to do with work? How do our vocations contribute to the missio dei? Tim Keller and the people over at The Center for Faith and Work have done a lot to help Christians answer those questions. Another person who has been contributing answers to these sorts of questions for many years now has been Steven Garber. He heads up the Washington Institute – an institute which exists to help people pursue “a vision of vocation that is fully engaged with the realities of life in the 21st century.” This book, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common God, is birthed out of Garber’s many years of reflection upon the topics of vocation and social engagement.

Summary

Vocation is an ethereal concept – invoking images of a divine calling or a sort of mystical experience where one is called into one’s destiny, a destiny that has been set out for you since before the foundations of the earth. But are we complicating the concept of vocation by making them, for lack of a better word, so epic? Garber seems to think so. According to Garber – our vocations boil down to the different ways “we are responsible, for love’s sake, for the way the world is and ought to be. We are called to be common grace for the common good.” (18) As Christians we are called to many levels of responsibility – we are responsible for our own relationships with God, we are responsible for other’s flourishing as human beings, and we are responsible for the flourishing of creation – these three things are part of the cultural mandate which God gave Adam and Eve in the Garden. All that we do, or don’t do, contributes or detracts from our ability to fulfill those responsibilities.

Sadly though the world is broken, and for most seeing brokenness leads to apathy or stoicism – yet the challenge, as Garber points out, is to live a life of engagement, choosing to step into the mess of the world, understanding it and choosing to serve it.

If we have eyes to see we are forced to make a decision. Will we serve the world or serve ourselves? This is the central theme of Garber’s book – it’s a sort of existential crisis, that shapes one’s entire life:

Knowing what I know what will I do?

The choice is ours, will we chose to serve the world we live in - using our talents, passions, experiences, resources – or will we choose to settle for lives that revolve around ourselves? To do the first, to step into the frailty and brokenness of the world is what vocation is all about. Some people will choose to serve others through education or agriculture. Some will shoes to do the same through the world so business and law, or healthcare and the arts, or butchering, baking, and candlestick making. Some will even choose to serve the world by blogging about books. All these sorts of vocations are answers to the question, “knowing what I know, what will I do?”

Review

This book was timely for me; recently I have been asking a lot of questions about vocation and calling. I have read plenty of books about the integration of faith and work (both for the college students I work with and for myself). I have found myself in a position stuck between two seemingly opposing trajectories – academia and ministry. In fact I was reading this book while sitting on a plane to Fort Worth to deliver a paper at the Evangelical Theological Society regional conference. As I read the book, and thought about my own future – whether I would be spending the rest of my days sitting on planes going to deliver papers or whether I would spend the rest of my days equipping the church for the works of the missio dei – one question kept haunting me:

Knowing what you know, what will you do?

That question - Knowing what you know, what will you do? - Is an extremely powerful question. It’s a question that forces you to make a decision. Everybody knows certain things about the world, everybody has certain conceptions of what the world ought to be like – that question forces everybody who hears it into a point of decision – will I do something about it or will I withdraw? After hearing that question over and over how could I withdraw? How could I fail to step forward into answering the call?

Conclusion

At times the way Garber talks about vocation seems to privilege “world shaping” vocations – educators, teachers, politicians, artists – and seems to neglect more typical vocations – retail worker, mid-level management, service industry workers, homemakers – so I wonder what he thinks about those sorts of callings. Nevertheless, Garber sets out a clear vision of what vocation is – its your answer to the question “knowing what you know, what will you do?” Whatever answer you give to that question will contribute to the common good.

Weaving together personal stories, literature, film, music, and scripture to show us what vocations are all about, Garber has written a book that will certainly inspire you to see your place in the world a bit differently. He not only aims at our heads, he aims at our hearts, drawing us into the story of what God is doing in this world. He invites us into the critical task of coming alongside of God as God himself give grace to a world that is broken and falling apart. Answering that invitation is what vocations are all about.

As a side note - I know its early in the year, but this book is so well written, so theologically powerful, and packs such a powerful devotional punch that it is definitely a frontrunner for my book of the year award.

(Note: I recieved this book courtesy of IVP in exchange for an impartial review.)

This is the best book I have read in the past year. It asks the question, “Knowing what I know, what am I going to do?” It offers a worldview that is coherent. Knowledge means we have responsibility, and responsibility means to care, to act. Garber writes about the capital T truth. “Those who know the most must mourn the deepest” (Lord Byron). Yet we are called to know, and even knowing what the world is really like to still love it, seeking proximate justice, proximate love, proximate care, proximate happiness, knowing that there is pain and suffering in the world, but that we are capable of being actors for good and our mere existence in the world implicates us and calls us to love it, despite the way loving the world can wound us. Garber works out the way in which “ideas have legs” and our worldview matters. This entire book is an encouragement not to let ideas just be ideas, but for them to become incarnate, lived out. I will be recommending this book to literally everyone I know at any stage in their lives.

How do know this world, its evil, corruption, sorrow, yet still love it? How do we respond to knowing it? These are the questions Steven Garber seeks to address. His answer: work through common grace, for the common good. One day at a time we glorify God as we “in proxy” deliver justice, serve the market place, grow our world.

The only lack I found in this book is a practical scenario of when you find yourself in a place that you feel is not helping the common good. What should you do? What if your gifts are not being used?

Regardless, a great book for a 50,000 ft view of work.

Sometimes we read a book that we already understand and agree with, but are challanged to go deeper in our beliefs and thoughts. That is what this book did for me. Steven Garber's style of story telling, with references to many books( that I now want to find and read) is easy to enjoy and yet full of challenging thoughts. Highly recommend!

Wonderful. One I hope to return to.

Steven Garber visited Friends University, and a copy of his book Visions of Vocation was made available to those of us interested in meeting and talking with Steven. Since I was already interested in learning better how to talk with my first-year Honors students about the idea of "vocation," in connection with Rick Ostrander's book Why College Matters to God, I signed up, and I'm glad I did. Not so much for what the book taught me; it's not a deep work of social thought or political theology or anything of the like--it's a book of stories and reflections, as often premised upon pop culture (he sure likes the music of U2!) as upon serious philosophical or religious writings, and all of which revolve around a few core insights into what it means, as a Christian, to attentively care for the world around us. No, I'm glad I did because it further educated me about a particular kind of Christian faith and perspective which, until I came to Friends University, and really not until Friends University joined the Consortium of Christian Colleges and Universities a couple of years ago, I knew very little about. You could call these people "liberal Christians," but that's not really at all accurate, especially since many of them are quite conservative in the Republican party/American social conservative sense. The thing that's "liberal" about them is that their faith does not appear to fundamentally put them at odds with the world around them. These are Christians--and wonderful, pious, good-hearted, decent, hard-working people they all are!--who believe that the gifts of the spirit (community, charity, grace) really can and are found in meetings, in corporate boards, in politics and law and science and film...in the modern liberal democratic capitalist world that Christianity has played such a crucial role in building.

Obviously, there are many Christians, of many different faith traditions, that would dispute the possibility of all of the above. Garber himself speaks very highly of one such individual: Wendell Berry, whom he devotes a significant amount of space in this book talking about the idea that it is "in the relationships and responsibilities of common life" that we become "implicated in the way the world is and ought to be." I actually took him to task on that, saying that I thought Berry would actually argue that attending to our shared common life enables us to be a witness to others in their own places, but doesn't actually "implicate" us in any kind of (slow-bore, procedural, respectful, humanitarian) revolutionary project; for Berry, the radicalness comes in belonging to and knowing one's own, not in turning everything into our own. Garber granted my point, but insisted that, since not everyone as well-grounded place to make their lives, one has to find a way to make Berry's message, and those of other Christians, more universal. (I note he said this in connection with an anecdote he shared about being an advisor to the Mars Corporation.) I almost said "Hillary Clinton couldn't have said it better"--and note that I say that as someone who respects Clinton quite a bit! But I didn't, and the lunch meeting came to an end. Anyway, a good book, if not a deep one.

Visions of Vocation fits in that bizarre category of IVP books that I describe as "very hard to define, yet likely changed my life." Or something like that.

Steven Garber is a man who has lived life. And this book at times feels more like a biography than a book about vocation. Rather than provide us (willing Cartesians that we are) with simple definitions of vocation and how to do it, Garber uses his literary training to evoke vocation in the reader.

He also accomplishes - and this better than James Sire, whom I read beforehand - a stunning Christian critique of the Enlightenment, of Cartesian Rationalism, and objectivity. These two parts - biography and philosophy - coalesce into a functional whole that reminds the reader, centrally, that knowing and doing are intricately interwoven terms that cannot be separated.

That challenge, honestly, was spot-on for me. It also made for a welcome balance as I am reading Jean-Paul Sartre, whose claim of absolute freedom comes with a claim of absolute responsibility. For the Christian, Sartre's claims are not a burden, but, as Garber notes, a blessing.

One gaping issue in a book about Doing was the blatant lack of any specific guidelines for Doing. Garber stays in stories and moments and ideas, but he never tells his reader how to discern Doing. Maybe that's why the title is "Visions."

And maybe, too, I was surprised because... this is an IVP book! At this point in my reading of their work, I am used to what I think of (as an ENFP) as an obnoxious amount of specific, practical tasks and ways to respond. To suddenly have a book about practical response without any practicals presented seemed strange to me.

That being said, I was encouraged. I feel Garber has challenged me at my core challenge (as a 5 - Enneagram): knowing what I know, what do I do?

Awhile back I read Fabric of Faithfulness by Steven Garber. Many of my friends and colleagues love Garber and his understanding on life and meaning. I, as much as I tried, simply did not connect with Garber’s work. There was little I disagreed with, though I found some of his perspectives about modern culture to be a little outdated, but I would not call that a faulty characteristic.

I picked up Visions of Vocation, hoping to finally see the error of my ways and witness the light my friends and colleagues have seen. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed again.

Again, I am not opposed to Garber’s thoughts or understandings. I simply did not connect with the work. Like his previous work, I felt like the book was outdated I read this book the year it was published. I feel like Garber has a Generation X mentality towards students. He makes several references (again) to the Smashing Pumpkins, a U2 album from 1993 (Zooropa), and studies from the early 1990’s. All of these items still have value to a conversation, but Garber seems to push the notion that most young adults still have this ambiguous, pluralistic, apathy mindset. I have a more optimistic view, though I would admit passionate emerging adults can be somewhat entitled and idle.

I am probably going to receive a lot of flak for this review, but I just could not get myself into the groove of the book. It felt like a really bumpy ride the entire time.

These are the three statements which I think summarize the book that I did like:

Know the world and still love the world.

Know rightly against do rightly.

Living with what is and longing for what will be.

Once again Garber will make you think about living out faith in whatever your field of work.

This needs to be read slowly and taking the time to think through what he written is worth the effort. Taking the time to ask the right questions might be one of the most important things we can learn. Posing questions and pushing into thinking differently you will be challenged to reflect on how your faith can be lived out.

Living and working in Washington DC in the midst of the power while guiding students to think through the impact they can have on the work there is tack of integrating God with life. The idea that we might make decisions differently because the goal is to honor God with whatever or work is.

It is valuable to work your way through the text and ask how you can make a difference.

This was both less and more than I expected. It felt kind of scattered with thoughts and stories coming from many directions and people, but all circle that question, "Can you know the world as it is and still love it?" and still find a place to take responsibility for what it is and is becoming? His trio of 'r's, relationship, revelation, responsibility, reflecting God's interaction with His creations, leave us with much to reflect on and to get up and do.

This book generally relies on a lot of elite name-dropping and artistic summaries rather than extended reflection on the meaning of abs search for vocational calling. It felt written to a Yale graduate student or DC policy elite who wants some confirmation that he (or she) has responsibility to do good; what I wanted was some insight on finding vocation in the everyday and serving God where I am (which the book's subtitle: "common grace for the common good" led me to hope for).

I really disliked the book. I found this book incredibly difficult to follow due not to its depth but more for its disunity. It felt as if I was reading a book by a man who wanted to know more about vocation than he actually did. That while you will find some jewels here and there. I would say largely the book has nothing to offer except the encouragement to see the world as it is and love it as such.

⭐️⭐️Felt like name dropping the entire book...I know this person who knows someone famous and this is how that supporting person understood his/her vocation and influenced the famous person. Also so many academic or literature references it wasn’t clear to me what the end goal of all of it was.

Courage and Calling was so much better with the question of “How do I live my life aligned with God’s will?”

Wow. Garber addresses reality head on. If you've ever been convicted about "I mean should I give that homeless guy cash?" Or simply "is my doing good really effective?", then read this. He gets into how a proper individual response to travesty is of penultimate importance to healthy culture

Wise and encouraging. Especially liked his discussion of 'pxoximate' good/ 'proximate' justice as what we should strive for. This world is too broken for naive, utopian ideals to survive long, but we can't give in to cynicism or despair. "Knowing what I know, what will I do?"

This book articulated concepts about seeing and being in the world that I’ve been searching to words for for so long. What a gift to receive these stories and challenges of life lived in bold and beautiful reality. A bit repetitive, but important nonetheless.

Can we know the world and love it? That’s the question that Steven Garber asks in this book, “Visions of Vocation.”

When I picked up this book, I thought it would have some good answers on what I should do with my life. Not that I need a ton of help on this question. But I’m pulled to the left and right of two extremes: my life’s purpose, I feel, is to enter into ministry but practically, the Marines make a lot of sense for now. This book wasn’t what I expected, but it was helpful.

Garber starts out with describing what pain and loss is. He makes clear that we are coddled here in the United States. We live very good lives and we are most of the time protected from how harsh the reality of life can be. When we do experience this reality, it can be a lot to take in. Knowledge in this way informs us about the world. And those with the greatest knowledge of what the world is truly like experience a greater degree of anguish and pain over its condition.

But those with the greatest knowledge also have a harder time in answering the question, “can we know the world and love it?” If you live in a box and have never experienced the hardships of the world, you can easily love it. It’s only when you break out of this that loving the world becomes problematic.

But there is some hope. We are naturally unlovable creatures. We hurt people and we are incredibly selfish. In our sinful condition, we are very unlovable. But Jesus Christ loved us even in this state. This was a bombshell for me, not because I didn’t know it: but because it became very real. If Jesus could love us in all our brokeness and sin, then why can’t we similarly love the world?

This isn’t a love of the world and what it can offer. Jesus spoke vociferously on this point, that he who loves the world cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. No, this love is having compassion and grace on others; a type of love that is not centered on the things of the world, but on the people.

Having first built this edifice, Garber turns to how we should respond to it. If you love the world, then you must do everything you can to help. And this is where vocation comes into play. There are those who are called to exotic places to love on people and spread the Gospel. Others are called to live on a farm and do well in this capacity. People are complex and there are a myriad of reasons why they chose certain occupations. Garber’s main thrust in the second half of the book is that if you know the world and can love it, do something meaningful with your life to help. The subtitle of this book was recited over and over and it is significant in understanding the latter half of the book: common grace for the common good.

This was a very interesting book and I don’t think I agree with everything that Steven Garber lays out, but it was a good reminder that wherever we are in life, we can make an impact for the kingdom.

"We commit ourselves to living certain ways - because we want to - and then we explain the universe in a way that makes sense of that choice."

This is true of everyone even those who buy into the Enlightenment Project and postmodernism. Garber does a good job of painting with words the distinctions between postmodernism and Christianity. He brings out the tragedy of looking at the world "through dead man's eyes" - the idea that we can look at facts without impact from anything else. This leads people to "evolutionary materialism - that is, the most prized and trusted knowledge comes to us from science, as it alone can prove what is true. It offers facts and the most basic fact is that everything and everyone is a complex result of time working upon matter in the framework of chance." The Enlightenment turns us into machines. People then respond "whatever" toward the question of "what is your world view?" because in postmodernism there is no metanarrative to life - there is not absolute truth.

In contrast to this Garber points out that Jesus invites people to "come and see". To come and see how love looks when word becomes flesh. When people move from their own postmodern view of the world and themselves and instead view the world and themselves through God's eyes. He explains the weight of the Hebrew word "Yada" which teaches that knowledge of means responsible to means to care for. This then compels us to consider vocation: that to which I am called as a human being, living my life before the face of God.

After reading the book, I have a greater appreciation that I must step forward by God's grace into life even as I learn harder truths about the world. Knowing what I know, what will I do? What will I do for His glory?

I wrote this endorsem*nt for Visions of Vocation prior to the publication of the book in 2014. This book is even more important today as we see so much lostness in our world and a deep hunger for meaning in our lives. Its sound theology and rich, tender story telling draws us in and gives us hope.

"Visions of Vocation calls its readers to make a commitment to a journey, one of calling and courage that will challenge not just your mind but also your heart and your soul. This remarkable book will cause you to desire a whole new way of knowing and seeing. Steve Garber is a scholar, a teacher, and a man who thinks and speaks with rich visual imagery. In the last fifteen years the conversation on calling has been animated by many voices, and never far from these important dialogues you will find Steve Garber, asking the questions that have shaped and informed the trajectory of his work: What does it mean to be human? How are we to live? What truly matters? God calls us to engage this world in all its brokenness. We engage the world through our vocations, unique in many ways and yet common as well. Vocation, as Steve teaches us, is not less than our jobs, our careers, our craft. But so much more as we trace it back to the Creation narrative-the Imago Dei. How then do we embark on this journey of not just our heads, but our hearts. Visions of Vocation is a gracious and faithful companion for this journey, much like its author. Having known Steve for many years, I count myself privileged to have learned from him, been mentored by him and to call him friend."
Lisa Pratt Slayton, CEO, Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation

This is an excellent book written to give both a grande vision and grounded reality of vocation in the economy of God. I greatly appreciated the consistent reality checks that our vocations are a part of our call to make a difference in a broken and bent world. "Can you serve the world and continue to love the world?" even though the results of sin will flood over you and fight against you? The book is full of both meaningful stories of triumph and tragedy as people from a wide variety of backgrounds have pressed into life to make a difference, by the grace of God and within accountable community, to live out meaningful vocation.