The following is in part responding to C.S. Lewis' Our English Syllabus. If you are a random passerby, stop for a minute, read the short essay, and feel free to comment, question, discuss, and/or debate.
"Education is essentially for freemen, and vocational training for slaves."
When I think about this quote, things make sense. Many people become educated in order to get a job, which then leads to them being able to spend some of their time relaxing. It is a logical part of our society. We are a powerhouse looking to achieve greater goals every generation, specializing more and more in specific things in order to advance as far and as fast as possible. Because specialization can be so specific, that lets the eye doctor avoid picking potatoes out of the ground for food, and can leave that to the farmer; it lets the farmer avoid selling his potatoes, and can leave that to the business man. Between that capitalistic system, and technological advancements, people can work on something specific that they have been educated for, and relax in the downtime.
When looking at vocational training, however, Christians are taught that there is constant spiritual warfare. Constant spiritual warfare means perpetual work. The backing behind this is plain and simple: to Christians, this physical world is only a temporary place in which they guide both themselves and others to an afterlife in heaven. Some may consider this the "big picture" of life. I would see then, the education as part of our life that we learn in order to earn temporary relief. Work from education is simply a method of sustaining society, while earning time to psychologically relax. When does a vocational worker's work run out?
That would be when either the entire world is Christian, or they pass on from this world. It has become my opinion, that when a vocational worker's work ends, they will be able to relax. When passing to the afterlife through the Christian belief, things become "out of our hands." In a sense, letting the work be passed down to those still alive on earth allows those who have passed on the relax. I believe then this ties in with the desire for God, the only thing that can complete us from my last post. While the world may have ways to allow us to temporarily find relief, only through God can we find eternal tranquility.
3 comments:
What a great way to look at vocational training. I hadn't even thought about our vocation as soldiers at war for the kingdom. That is indeed a lifelong calling and one that we need desperately to be trained for.
Thanks Nate. It comes a lot from the armor of God. I believe when we're told about being soldiers for God it's often seen as childish even, because it's one of the things that is taught so frequently in early Christian sunday schooling. This is so ridiculously backwards though, because it is later in life when we really need to be told that there are serious things going on all around us at all times. If we are not equipped to deal with it, then the world's defense against evil is lost.
I liked your closing comment that only in God can we be eternally tranquil. There are many ways to bring peace and happiness in our lives, work being one of them. But it is naive to say that we can find eternal happiness in our lives without the presence of God in eternity. Things on this earth fade, we cannot sustain jobs forever and our mental capacities shift as we age. Our hands grow tired and we lose the vigor we once had. But God is timeless and He will give us the rest we desire at the end.
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