ABSTRACT
Nature makes nothing in the mean manner that the metalworkers make the Delphic Knife. Ironmongery is an odd place to commence an exploration of academic vocation in the Church, but Aristotle deserves a hearing, especially in relation to the question of dual vocation. The similarities between Aristotle and Apostle Paul on the topic of social formation are several. Paul's basic intuition seems to suggest that vocation involves the revivification of what is already there, but also its transformation through the addition of something novel. The questions remain as to how this impacts Paul's broadly Aristotelian approach to community and the question of dual vocation. Naming is a helpful metaphor for the discernment of vocation, since it assists in organising the various options faced by scholar-priests. One of the more interesting discussions of the place of theology in the scholarly life of a university is found in John Henry Newman's seminal work The Idea of a University.
