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[German Version] I. Terminology No term equivalent to vocation is found in classical Greek and Latin. An officium was exercised by virtue of a preexisting status, usually by birth. Trades (including medicine) fulfilled the conditions of a regular vocation (τέχνη/ téchnē), but had no self-awareness reflected in terminology. In the New Testament, κλῆσις/ klḗsis mostly refers to the “calling” of a Christian (1 Cor 7:20); in the national church of Late Antiquity, it referred primarily to the call to the religious life ( …

Concepts and Contexts 1. Since the Second World War, the concept of the industrial society has become a broadly accepted earmark of that technologically and economically highly developed society that has replaced the primarily agricultural and laboring ‘pre-industrial' society in North America and Europe, just as, increasingly, in the countries of the ‘Third World’ as well. The denomination indicates, first and foremost, the dominant importance of the industrial method of production. In this method, a technic…

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