Creaturely Labor and the Problem of Christian Vocation

The concept of Christian vocation has long centered around work. This narrow concept of vocation conflating “call” and “career” is problematic for both humans and all creatures. I examine how problematic interpretations of vocation are oppressive for humans and nonhuman animals. If nonhuman animals are laborers, then the theo-ethical systems that protect human workers should also include nonhuman animal workers. However, simple support for nonhuman laborers is insufficient as a just theo-ethic. I explore attitudes towards labor in Christianity, and how a persistent rhetoric of “call as career” denigrates the concept of vocation for all creatures. I also explore how intersecting concepts of animality, class, ability, and race coalesce to maintain the forced labor of creaturekind. I argue for the delinking of labor and vocation, and a repudiation of the idea that the purpose of existence is work, calling out Christianity’s complicity in the oppression of human and nonhuman workers.