VOCATION AND THE “ONE BEST WAY”: The Christian notion of vocation means that there is no “one best way” to reach God. This is played out really clearly at the end of Book One of The Faerie Queene, when Arthur and the Redcrosse Knight go their separate ways. Throughout Book One “duality,” doubleness, was associated with duplicity and speaking with forked tongue–check out the names of the villainess Duessa and the heroine Una. Yet at the end of the book, there’s a forking of the paths, a parting of the ways, and we’re clearly meant to see this as right and justified–because Arthur and the Knight have different roles to play in the one drama of life. (Yes, I wrote a paper on this, too!) There can be no contradiction in the object of our love–we must love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. But the paths we take to fulfill that goal, attain that object, are as wildly varied as the lives of the saints. (Cf. “How One Becomes What One Is,” below….)