Lay Vocation before the Reformation: Faith, Reason, and Friendship in the Middle Ages

Every Christian man and woman-both clergy and laity-received a special vocation or life calling from God to serve as a priest.2 Accordingly, many scholars have pointed to Luther as the key person who challenged Christians to think about vocation in new ways: For Luther, a vocation to serve as a pastor was important, but so was a calling to be a housewife.3 Luther undoubtedly deserves attention as a fundamental figure in understanding attitudes toward the laity within early modern Christianity,4 and his significance within the Reformation more broadly is undisputed.5 But with all the attention that Luther receives in academic studies of vocation, it is easy to miss the nuanced ways in which some earlier medieval writers thought about the vocation of the laity (whether or not they employed the word vocation). Scholars cite the Ars Magna ("Great Art" in Latin) as his most important work, designed as a method to pursue the truth through dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. With good reason, the medieval Spanish kingdoms have been described as "the geographical and spiritual frontier" between the Abrahamic faiths.8 The encounters among Christians, Jews, and Muslims therefore served as the context for Llull's life and became a fundamental part of his work.