This course examines the concept of “vocation,” in both theory and practice. We will seek to understand what Christians through the ages thought about “being called” to a state of life (especially marriage, religious life, and Holy Orders); and how social, cultural, and legal circumstances affected one’s entry into and living in a state of life. In pursuing these questions, we will explore both classic theological texts and social realities (such as coercion in marriage and religious vocations; dowries and laws of marriage; the proliferation of new religious orders; and the relationship between vocational choice and the growth of individualism). Studying vocational choices ultimately helps us to understand the nature of modernity and the embeddedness of individuals in larger communities of family, Church, and society. Although this course is primarily historical in method, its subject matter is of deep theological import. In thinking historically about vocation—that is, by examining its place in the lives of past people—we can better understand vocation as a fundamental Christian mystery, one that affects the Church at large and all its individual members.