Book Review
Lighten Up!
On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs
by James V. Schall
Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2001
(189 pages; $24.95, cloth)
Shortly before he was martyred with others in 203, St. Saturus related a vision he had had of heaven. He said he and the other martyrs were carried eastward to a garden, where a handful of angels started exclaiming, “Here they are! Here they are!” They were taken to a group of elders and an aged man with a youthful face. The martyrs kissed the aged man, and he touched their faces with his hand. Then the elders told them, “Go and play.”
Fr. James Schall understands why the martyrs were told to go and play.
On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs explores the unseriousness of serious human affairs and the seriousness of unserious human affairs. Yes, it is a paradoxical book, but that’s only to be expected from Schall—a devoted reader of G. K. Chesterton.
Schall’s book is a series of loosely connected essays that revolve around a very basic question: How ought we to live our lives? He never tries to offer a direct answer to the question, but he provides guidance in an array of areas, as evidenced by the book’s subtitle: “Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, Lecturing, Philosophizing, Singing, Dancing.” To these I would add Writing and Receiving Letters, Watching Sporting Events, and Spending Time with Friends.
It is a book lightly written, laced with references to Charlie Brown and other cartoons, but deceptively heavy. I found myself inclined—almost forced—to pause after every section and think about Schall’s words. He never belabors a point and often makes statements without going forward and offering conclusions. Rather, he points to the truth and invites the reader to think about implications (a trait, I suspect, Schall takes from one of his heroes, the German philosopher Josef Pieper, whose love of laconism forces readers constantly to stop and ponder).
Consider Schall’s observation about wasting time. Amusement, he says, might be the great and ultimate end of mankind. Amusement, after all, is a short distance from joy, which is our ultimate lot. And we are only amused when wasting time. “In wasted time, in amusement, in laughter, we find breaking into our lives intimations that perhaps the sadness we experience is deceptive, however genuine it may be.” Schall could then have continued the essay, talking about any number of related things, like the sin of sadness or how people who take themselves seriously are the ones really wasting their lives, but he doesn’t. He leaves such thoughts for the reader to mull over. Schall keeps his points brief, and he rarely preaches or condemns.
It is a light and fun book.
A condensation of everything Schall teaches us in this book is impossible, so I’ve prepared the following Top Ten List of Schallian Points. If this seems trite, I would respond that such an approach fits Schall’s lighthearted style and the loosely connected nature of the book’s chapters. I would also point out that Schall himself is a fan of lists, as evidenced by the top twenty-five list of “These-People-Tell-the-Truth Books” that he sets forth in the appendix (if you’re curious, Pieper’s Anthology and Chesterton’s Orthodoxy rank one and two) and numerous lists that he set forth in his earlier book, Another Sort of Learning (a book that ought to be given to every young adult as a graduation present).
So, listed in reverse order, here is my Top Ten List of Schallian Points:
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