Ideas on a philosophy/apologetics vocation

[Dranu]

I just returned from a very brief weekend at a monastery to do discernment, and I now** believe I am being called to engage in applying philosophy and critical thinking to combating false ideas in the culture and counseling individuals**. I am also contemplating priesthood and holy orders, but I am not hearing a strong call to ordination or orders and those would probably be more a vehicle for the former. I suppose, like most men, marriage sounds appealing, but it is as vague as the religious call if not more so.

I cannot think of any secular way to make this a practical reality besides being a philosophy professor, and I do like the idea of constant study, prayer, and community to fuel that end of philosophy. I was thinking perhaps Dominicans, Holy Cross Fathers, or Jesuits.

Anyhow, I was hoping others might have some (name removed by moderator)ut or suggestions as to how one might respond to a calling in applied philosophy. To give you some idea of who I am, I am a fairly recent convert and a young lawyer with a philosophy degree.

 

[MattofTexas]

Look at what professional philosophers and apologists are doing. Many write books, record talks, write for magazines, etc. You can also engage with philosophy and apologetics through the arts and various mediums in a cultural sense (think Tolkien, Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, etc.).

 

[ccmnxc]

Do you have any areas of philosophy/apologetics you think you might specialize in?

 

[Dranu]

Do you have any areas of philosophy/apologetics you think you might specialize in?

I hadn’t a particular interest in specializing. I think that was a somewhat foolish thing the moderns have done as I think philosophy is primarily for living well, not simply knowing some narrow and particular aspect of life. I am more interested in using it practically in counseling and in refutation of false beliefs.

The best I can narrow it would be to say my greatest interest lies in philosophy of ethics and religion, but even those intermingle with epistemology and ontology. Also (which somewhat speaks against a Dominican calling) I am probably more a Platonist than an Aristotelian.

 

[Dranu]

Look at what professional philosophers and apologists are doing. Many write books, record talks, write for magazines, etc. You can also engage with philosophy and apologetics through the arts and various mediums in a cultural sense (think Tolkien, Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, etc.).

I thought of that as well, but such an avenue seems impractical and unlikely to happen. It also seems more like a side hobby than something to do as a primary vocation.