My dissertation addresses a gap in religious ethical literature by surveying four approaches to the concept of vocation and evaluating their ethical implications. The four types are: vocation as divine command, which understands the “call” as a discreet divine action; vocation as natural order, which considers calling as one's position within a divinely-ordained social order; vocation as self-actualization, which links calling to divinely-given personal gifts or talents; and vocation as election, which sees vocation as a response to God's saving work. To focus my inquiry, I draw on the works of four thinkers, Søren Kierkegaard, Emil Brunner, Max Scheler and Karl Barth, whose writings on vocation exemplify the four types. I examine the theological and ethical commitments that lie behind each of them, paying particular attention to the place of suffering in vocation and criteria for vocational discernment. I conclude in the end by evaluating the four types and raising the question whether an integrated approach to vocation is possible.