Vocation
The idea of vocation has all but been lost in our contemporary culture. All too often we think of a person's occupation as their "vocation." However, the original sense of vocation (from the latin vocare: to call) is that of a transcendental "calling." The prophets were called by God to serve as his instruments. Krishna states in the Bhagavad-Gita that it is better to pursue your own calling poorly than another very well. This is indeed the essence of karma yoga. Still today people seek to fulfill their particular callings as a way of rising to the maximum of their potential. Sherlock Holmes illustrates this dynamic as he is particularly suited to be the instrument of truth and justice he serves. Heroes are often "called" upon to perform the tasks that only they can do. Hercules is a notable example of heroic vocation. Why does James Bond always save the world? Because he can, and often only he can. That is why he is 007. It is the numeric particularity of his calling as the elite of British secret service agents. Double 001 through 006 have ostensibly failed in their calling, or died trying. Indeed, in typical mythic pattern, a providential element is often displayed as Bond over-and-over-again becomes the instrument of a higher cause and once again by the skin of his teeth is able to save the world, or at least some aspect of its current capitalistic, western empiralistic form.
Ethics, Justice, Truth, and Systemic Evil
Anytime there is a question of right or wrong, good or bad, black and white versus shades of gray, hard choices versus easy ways out, or meaning versus the lack thereof, we are in the presence of the necessity for ethical decision making. Wherever people struggle with fundamental issues they intersect religious categories. Meaning, purpose, and identity are not quantities that can be counted as much as they are qualities that imply values and normative paradigms. The major origins of our sense of the ethical, the good, the true, the pure are religious in their origins, whether they hark back to biblical norms or the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Stories that portray the struggle between good and evil, or plumb the depths of the human psyche and its potential for good deeds or acts of horrific evil cannot help but deal with the deep metaphysical issues so fundamental to the meaning and purpose of human existence.
One of the particularly unique ideas in western culture is the Judeo/Christian perspective of the concern for the victim. The plight of Israel under imperial oppression, the songs of the suffering servant, the psalmic plea for justice and comfort, the lamentations of Jeremiah or Job all reflect a point of view from the eyes of the victim. In the Christian tradition, many of the stories of Jesus ask the reader to look at things from the side of the other person. The story of the Good Samaritan asks you to think about aid to the other from the standpoint of the man in the ditch. Jesus himself becomes the quintessential victim and thus the tradition is irrevocably bound to consider the plight of all victims. One aspect of the western literary tradition has been to carry forth this dynamic.
The Prophetic Dynamic
When we think of prophets
we usually are thinking of the ability to forecast the future. However, first and foremost for the traditional prophets was not so much the task of fore-telling events but rather forth-telling the will of God for God's people. Thus, the prophetic dynamic refers to the social and religious criticism of the Hebrew prophets, their zeal for a proper understanding of God and God's concerns for justice and accountability before the eyes of history. Typical, or rather, quintessential prophetic critiques can be found in Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25. Both passages assume and subsume forms of socially engaged activism as true worship (i.e. helping the widows and orphans). This dynamic flows into western history as a powerful apparatus for challenging systemic evil, that is, the evil which is particular to systems and structures of government, ecclesiastical authority, and all types of vested interests such as multi-national corporations. Seen in this light, Marx is a social prophet as are such movements as Greenpeace and Amnesty International socially prophetic. Can you discern some of the themes and relevance of the prophetic dynamic in modern life, literature, and culture?