Author: theorthodoxwest

Author: Zach Boston

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. …[A]nd there was not a man to till the ground. …[T]he Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed… and the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ” (Genesis 2: 3, 5-8, 15)

Labor and leisure.

Our modern world has utterly confused the proper places and even meanings of these concepts. The German Roman Catholic and Thomist philosopher Josef Pieper in his “Leisure As The Basis of Culture” points out that – in the exact reverse of the both the classical pagan and pre-Reformation Christian worlds – our world today places labor above leisure and has reduced leisure to mere amusement and relaxation in order to refresh the laborer to better perform his future labors. In his view, we live in a world of “total work” whereby everything is oriented toward work, and any exercise of our capabilities is conceived of in terms of work.

I’m highly sympathetic to the arguments made in Pieper’s book. Yet, the other day I was reading an interesting analysis of the work of both Pieper and of the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han – who presented views in his “Burnout Society” similar to those of Pieper – that offered a sympathetic but thoughtful criticism wherein their arguments, despite being roused in defense of a contemplative Christian life, may too greatly disparage labor in favor of leisure and so run against the brunt of the historic Christian tradition, which highly values labor.

This provoked the question as to in what the proper relationship between, and the place of, labor and leisure in the Christian life consist. Below is my own amateur attempt to answer that question.

Continue reading “On Labor and Leisure in the Christian Life”

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Greetings all! It has been a while since this blog has posted. This is due to a joyous problem: Fr. Peter is quite busy with a growing parish, with his farm work, with discussions surrounding farming, homeschooling, and the Christian life on The Unfading Rose and Orthodox Homesteaders of America video discussion groups, and many other things besides! These are good uses of his time, but it has left precious little to spare for posting on this blog. He does not feel that he can dedicate the time necessary to keep this blog up, running, and posting on a regular basis but he does not wish for it to stop just yet. Therefore, he has asked me to both contribute to and edit this blog. This means that I will be both directly contributing posts to this blog and posting any writings from Fr. Peter whenever he has the time to send them. Additionally, Fr. Peter is hopeful that there will be contributions from other Orthodox Christian writers, homesteaders, and homeschoolers with whom he has made acquaintance. I will post these as well should this come to pass.

A little about myself. My name is Zach Boston. I live in central Kentucky less than an hour west of our beautiful Appalachian Mountains. I stumbled across this blog, was edified by what I read, reached out to Fr. Peter, and a friendship quickly blossomed. My official church affiliation is Anglican, with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). However, I have deeply studied and have been greatly influenced by the Orthodox Church. Consequently, I not only hold it in very high regard, but have come to share many beliefs with it and heavily borrow from it in my private piety. I have also developed a vision of the world with significant overlap. It was on the basis of this shared vision that the friendship and trust between Fr. Peter and myself blossomed. And I have been greatly flattered and humbled that he has entrusted so much of his blog to me. In working with and under his guidance, I hope to see this blog continue to express an Orthodox vision for how to live in the midst of our modern world, a world that in too many ways is at best parasitic upon – and at worst outright hostile to – a traditional, sacramental Christian way of life.

And it is this way of life, this holistic vision that this blog has and will continue to point toward and encourage. Against the wrongheaded divisions and goals of our world, this blog will focus on elucidating a comprehensive, organically unified, and good life. It will seek out the unity of prayer, work, education, and leisure in our lives and how these ought to look given our mandate and goal of theosis. It will speak to the proper unity of the human head, the human heart or nous, and of human hands. It will meditate on the need – and on how – to repair the ruptures between human culture, agriculture, and the natural world under our God-given command to subdue, have dominion over, and steward His good creation by cooperating with Him as He brings about the ultimate transfiguration of all things.

I’m immensely looking forward to what is to come for this blog and pray that it will, by God’s grace, provide some small contribution toward the renewal of Christian life that has been so greatly ravaged over the past half millennium or more, a ravaging which is only accelerating, in the Western world.