A study of the relation of the Christian (post-Reformation) concept of vocation to the modern development of state-controlled vocational guidance

Forces working toward the integration of human society are creating many serious problems for traditionally voluntary or¬ ganizations such as the Christian Church. During the ten years of the writer's ministry he has become increasingly aware of one particular issue: when controlled guidance becomes a universal feature of state education, what influence will be left the Church in its guidance of youth in the world?The present investigation points toward the conclusion that the Church can only rise adequately to the challenge, now so obvious in lands dominated by Marxist ideology, by reviving its own Reformation doctrine of Vocation. Christian vocational guidance, properly taught and administered, may provide that additional counsel that will interpret the world to Christian young people, and give them a solid basis on which to choose their life work. Further, in many cases it may give to that work lifelong meaning and significance.In order to arrive at such a position it became necessary to trace the primitive sources of the doctrine of Vocation and the vocational guidance movement, and to study their develop¬ ment and mutual relationship. In the final chapters a recon¬ struction and adaptation is then attempted, with a particular view to conditions in Great Britain and America