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For most modern Americans, the idea of rest or leisure sounds more like something to indulge in, or spoil themselves with, rather than a lifestyle. Take a look at the ads in any magazine or newspaper promoting various spa and health products, vacations, or other products meant for relaxation and you will find a reoccurring theme: “Take a break, you deserve it,” or “Indulge yourself with this special treat today, you’ve earned the break,” or “Escape with us on this cruise, leave the pager behind.” Rest and recreation is seen as an escape from reality—it is something we earn in two-weeks-a-year units. Our rest is defined by our work, not the other way around. Productivity is the highest goal, not leisure, not rest.

But as James Schall argues in his recent book, On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs, this modern approach to life is a grave departure from the Classical and Christian views of work, leisure, and rest. In Unseriousness, regarded as worthy successor to Josef Pieper’s classic work, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Schall describes leisure not as the escape from the dreary reality of our work demands, but as the natural extension of work which is the context for the highest duties of man. True leisure is the time for contemplating the highest things and participating in the grand activity of play in a way that expresses that which is truest about both our nature and God’s nature.

Moreover, Schall sees a very close link, both theologically and historically, between the classical idea of leisure and the Christian idea of Sabbath rest. Both are at the heart of man’s life purpose—to rest, to enjoy, to play, to create, to worship. Both express human nature in terms of restful participation and communion, as opposed to the modern ideals of productivity and triumph in man’s supposed “struggle” against nature. For the Christian mind, rest is at the heart of the creational order, as the Creator himself rested from all his works on the seventh day. Man’s relationship to God, himself, his neighbor, and the creational order, when restored in grace, produces joyful participation in the created order under God.

For other reading on this subject, check out Norman Wirzba’s new book Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. For a taste of Wirzba’s work on the subject, see his article published on-line in the New Pantagruel, “The Idea of a Sabbath Economy: A Theological Framework for Economists.”