Leland Ryken, Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work & Leisure (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 301

pages.

Review by Pastor Nathan, June 2008

Leland Ryken is a literature professor at Wheaton College, but the subjects of his over 20 books range from history
(he is well known for his book about the Puritans – Worldly Saints) to theories of Bible translation. This one is a
diagnosis of a social ill and a biblical/theological prescription for remedying it. It’s also curious to me that his books
don’t read at all like you might expect a literature professor to write. He is very methodical and organized. Each
chapter follows a logically tight outline and each section is capped with a succinct summary. It’s very helpful for
communicating information, but I could see how some would say it’s not the most pleasurable read. It can be dense
and somewhat repetitive. I, on the other hand, appreciate this kind of clear thinking and communication.

This book, which is designed to help Christians think Christianly about their work and their play, is very well
researched historically, sociologically, and biblically. Any work that tries to analyze cultural trends and provide
penetrating social commentary will become dated very quickly. The scene has changed quite a bit since 1995,
especially in the realm of entertainment – Netflix, iPods, blogs, etc… But I still found Ryken’s assessment quite
astute and his approach quite applicable to today. Besides, the human heart doesn’t change. We’re all still
discontent idolaters. We all still pursue our identity in either our job or our leisure (or some combination of the two)
instead of in Jesus and his call on our life. We still, to use Ryken’s words, “worship our work, work at our play, and
play at our worship” (12).

Ryken maintains that it’s necessary to look at the topics of work and leisure together since they are so closely related.
So throughout the book he switches back and forth between the two, defining the terms, then diagnosing the current
deficiencies, then assessing how we got to where we are, then surveying the failed solutions that have been put
forward in the past, and then finally investigating the biblical perspective.

When Ryken speaks of work, he calls out both the sluggard and the work glutton. He understands accurately the
workaholic syndrome and helps reveal the “twin streams of an acquisitive culture that wants more and more things
and a success-oriented culture that wants success at any cost” (52) that feed it. Yet he also shows how “the loss of
the sense of vocation… is the dominant element in twentieth-century attitudes toward work” (50). People don’t see
the inherent value and dignity in work any more and certainly don’t view it as a calling whereby they can please God
and serve humanity.

Here Ryken draws largely on the thinking about vocation done by the Reformers and later the Puritans. Martin Luther
has done perhaps more than any other to raise work’s status in the minds of Christians. Luther was a character and
here is a typical kind of humorous quote from him, one that also expresses the value he placed on work:

God does not want to have success come without work…. He does not want me to sit at home, to
loaf, to commit matters to God, and to wait till a fried chicken flies into my mouth. That would be
tempting God. (qtd. on 102)

Ryken also writes with a chastened approval of the Puritans and the original Protestant work ethic, which has been
much maligned and misrepresented by people like Max Weber and more recently Christians like Tony Campolo. He
repudiates their misguided criticism, but has a few of his own – the Puritans tended to underestimate the effects of
the Curse on work and also the full validity of leisure for its own sake. But nonetheless they provide us with a rich
heritage for Christian thinking on work.

When Ryken speaks of leisure, he notes that he is speaking about a topic that has largely been ignored. He
bemoans the fact that not much has been written on the subject of leisure for Christians, but since 1995 I know of at
least two popular books that deal with the topic – Richard Swenson’s Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical,
Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives and Randy Frazee’s Making Room For Life: Trading Chaotic
Lifestyles for Connected Relationships.

Many people worship leisure and have no room for work. Others struggle to make time for leisure or to feel at peace
during leisure because they feel guilty they are not working. “To those who cannot value leisure apart from work or
who feel guilty about time not spent working,” Ryken reminds us, “Christianity affirms the necessity and legitimacy of
leisure. The Bible endorses rest, festivity, and enjoyment, and it encourages us to protect the value of the
nonutilitarian” (291). However, he gives tips (some bordering on legalistic) on how to best use our leisure. “Good
leisure,” he says, “is… more than mere distraction. It is the infusion of positive experience into our life” (222). Too
many people spend their nonwork time unreflectively. I was astounded to learn that “a Gallup poll found that 58
percent of Americans have never finished reading a book” (62). And I found interesting Ryken’s assertion that
“television would never have proven so popular a pastime if it were not for the prevailing physical and mental fatigue
that characterizes a society given to overwork” (63). Ryken does a good job of presenting a more biblical approach
to leisure that appreciates beauty, affirms the body, and “recognizes the Lordship of God over all of life” (213).

The concept of leisure is rooted in the biblical Sabbath. This command to rest deserves to be thought through and
understood more by Christians. I agree with Ryken’s quote of Leonard Doohan that “people who refuse to rest on the
sabbath or reject genuine sabbatical living are those who trust in their own strength rather than God’s grace” (qtd on
208).

In conclusion, Ryken states clearly – “The goal is a thoroughly Christian lifestyle” (292). At the most basic level, a
thoroughly Christian lifestyle is lived in step with the biblical rhythm of work and leisure. I would venture to say that a
vast majority of Christians’ lives today are off beat. May God be gracious to show us this and may he cause us to find
our identity and joy more and more in Christ so that we can work and play to his glory.