Leisure in Church History

During the early centuries, some Christians looked at life as good and to be enjoyed. To such Christians, God created the world and everything in it to make man happy during his free time. These included St. Clement.

However, some early Christians had a negative attitude towards life and God's creation. They were influenced by pagan ideas that the world is evil and the body is corrupt. This prevented them from enjoying leisure time. They included Origen.

Early Christians chose to serve God through renunciation. They left their homes, relatives, and wealth and went to the desert. They were following Jesus command to the rich young men "Go sell what you have' and give the money to the poor, then come and follow me",

In the desert, there were many monks and nuns who lived simple but happy lives.

St. Anthony is believed to have lived in the desert and to have enjoyed it fully. He even made friendship with a lion, which he treated of its sickness.

Pagan entertainment in the early Church

Crowds were entertained by being shown pagans sexual plays.

Fights between men and wild animals were staged in order to entertain people during leisure time. These, men were Christians who had refused to worship the pagan gods. In most cases wild animals killed these men.

Imprisoned Christians were forced to fight with pagan prisoners as a way of entertaining people during leisure time. These Christians -were imprisoned because of their faith.

Childish and immoral games were organized by mature people just to kill leisure time. E.g. competing to see who could eat faster than the other to see who had a longer penis than the other and so on.

Plays were staged, which promoted the power of' pagan gods and undermined the power of Jesus.

The songs of the day were very immoral. Obscene words were used and the women used to sing while naked.

All the existing Roman leisure literature was immoral and promoted the glory of pagan gods.

The early Christians looked at a beauty contest during that time as a pagan practise.

How the strong Christians reacted to these pagan entertainment

St. Augustine disapproved of such entertainment and requested his congregation to stop going for such entertainment. Augustine was a Bishop of Hippo.

St. Augustine started preaching for long hours on, Sundays so as to keep Christians busy and prevent them from going to pagan entertainment.

The reason why he condemned the pagan entertainment were:

  • These entertainment were immoral
  • They promoted the worshipping of other gods.
  • They were cruel and promoted killing.
  • They didn't help to create good relationships between human beings
  • These entertainments didn't encourage the expansion of God's Kingdom.

Some Christians started writing good and interesting Christian literature so as to occupy people during leisure time.

Christian artists started painting beautiful pictures, making curving, and weaving which occupied people's free time.

Christian plays based on the Bible were composed.

Christian hymns (songs) were composed to replace the pagan ones. For example the hymns of St. Ambrose- the bishop of Milan were so amusing that St. Augustine feared they would turn his attention away from God .

Middle ages.

Reformers called upon people to enjoy life. Churches were painted in bright colours to make them attractive and to make worship enjoyable.

Pictures of the commemorated saints were painted in Churches.

St. Francis of Assisi enjoyed the presence of all the created things. He saw something worthy of praising God in every created thing. He was humble, simple and poor and so were his followers. But these didn't prevent them from enjoying  life.

Story telling became popular.

Music, dance and drama based on Christian principles were introduced.

Missionaries to Africa in the 19th century

They condemned most of the ways in which Africans enjoyed their leisure time.

They condemned African dances, songs and drama as being pagan.

They interfered with the communal ways of spending leisure time. How?

By converting some Africans and 'preventing them from joining their relatives' leisure activities.

They condemned African seasonal ceremonies calling them pagan. These included harvest ceremonies.

Beer drinking was also condemned as being un-Christian. Hence interfering with African forms of leisure.

African rituals such as birth rites, circumcision ceremonies, rituals of the twins were also interfered with. They condemned them as pagan.

African paintings, sculpture and crafts were also suspected.

Comments

It was wrong for missionaries to condemn African leisure activities without first learning about their values. They are blamed for having destroyed the good old African culture.

Modern preachers should not make the same mistake of' condemning the cultures they don't understand properly. If the missionaries had understood the values of African culture they wouldn't have condemned them. 

They condemned African music, dance and drama and instead introduced foreign music, dance and drama!

They condemned drinking of local beers instead introduced their wines!

They condemned African arts and promoted theirs etc. The above wasn't part of Christianity but was a way of undermining African culture and imposing their own culture on us.

Modem Africa

Today, Christians have read the gospel for themselves and have discovered that Jesus was a lively man who enjoyed leisure time fully. So there is great enjoyment of leisure time by Christians who just follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

The recommended ways of spending leisure time among Christians today have already been given.