The Lay Vocation

(1 Credit Hour) · Undergraduate

The lay vocation in the Church is an ecclesiological and therefore christological reality grounded in the salvation of the human race. Because the Catholic Church has a ministerial priesthood, one can get the sense that the laity, especially those with careers outside of the church, are passive recipients of the active elements (ie the ministerial priesthood) of the Church. This course seeks to challenge such thinking and to come to a fuller vision of lay involvement in the church, especially a laity trained in, though not necessarily having a career in, theology. This course will explore the theological task as part of one’s appropriation and reception of the Catholic faith by reading through the relevant documents on the laity (e.g. Aposotolicam Actuositatem), treatises by lay theologians on what it means to do Catholic theology, and exploring the history of lay involvement in the church. We will ask the question about the responsibility of the laity as something asked of them in and through their baptism.