Anthropology of the Christian, Volume I: Interdisciplinary Bases

What are the psychological and social motivations that influence people to enter the priestly or religious life? Are these motivations easily changed, or do they tend to persist as they were? What dispositions help people to persevere in their vocation, or push them towards leaving? The first volume of the present study, stressing the indispensible action of God's grace, develops an anthropology of the Christian vocation, that is, a Christian vision of what the human person is and can become in answering God's call. The based in philosophical and theological anthropology of the Christian vocation, is earlier psyco-social theory of vocation are made more explicit. On these bases an anthropology of vocation is built up, which respects tradition and at the same time contains new and original ideas, like the notion of three dimensions or three kinds of habitual dispositions in the Christian person as he travels on the journey of vocation. The influence of these three dimensions on the person's ability to assimilate and internalize the value's of Christ is explored. The limits on human freedom which are to be distinguished from psychopathology are discussed.