Book Review
The Slothful Modern
Acedia and Its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire by R. J. Snell
Angelico Press, 2015
(134 pages, $14.95, paperback)
reviewed by Matthew Kemp
When we think of words to describe modern Western culture, "sloth" is not one that usually comes to mind. For one thing, it is a fairly archaic term. But more importantly, we tend to associate it simply with laziness or inactivity. R. J. Snell argues in Acedia and Its Discontents that this is nevertheless a fundamental characteristic of our age. Snell, who was Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University at the time of the book's publication and now serves as the Director of the Center on the University and Intellectual Life at the Witherspoon Institute, prefers to use the untranslated term acedia, which he draws largely from early monastic literature. While the term may be unfamiliar to us, the experience is not. He defines acedia as "a failure of love—an aversion to being, a sadness at the good, and the inability to act well" (111).
Sloth has always been a temptation in human life, but the modern age, with its focus on individual freedom, has made it a cultural phenomenon: "More than indolence, sloth rejects the burden of order, choosing instead the breezy lightness of freedom. Loving self more than relation, and autonomy more than the good, in sloth one rejects the weight and density of living in an ordered creation" (11). Drawing from a wide range of sources in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Snell seeks to get to the heart of the modern malaise of acedia and identify ways to remedy it.
All Reality a Gift
The book is a quick read and is divided into three sections of two chapters each. In the first section Snell frames the issue within the narrative and doctrine of creation, with a focus on work as a human vocation. Chapter 1 considers creation as God's self-communication, which constitutes all reality as gift. Human beings find their worth precisely in their status as creatures, particularly creatures that possess God-given freedom and integrity. The proper response of the human being is freely to receive and welcome the gift of creation in the form of both other creatures and one's own creaturely limits. It is in this context that we can understand the vocation to work as a gift and as the means by which we seek our own proper perfection while lovingly transforming the world in which we live.
Snell expounds on the meaning of work in chapter 2, relying heavily on Jewish and Christian interpretations of biblical themes. He lays out three "tests of good work": it must respect the "integrity of things" ("Remember You are Dust"), respect the "integrity of systemic emergence" ("Build Soil"), and be properly directed ("Fill the Temple"). These tests provide a framework for envisioning tasks that preserve both human agency and subjectivity on the one hand, and a loving and receptive orientation toward the cosmos on the other.
Acedia's Devastation
In stark contrast to this positive vision for creation and work, Snell presents the devastating effects of acedia in the second section of the book. Chapter 3 describes how the modern "disenchanted" world is characterized by sloth on a deep level. Unbounded freedom and autonomy, far from enhancing our lives, have made us bored with everything that we seek to master, so that reality itself becomes tedious. Snell sees this as more than mere "situational boredom." Drawing from the writings of the Desert Fathers and Thomas Aquinas, he argues that acedia manifests itself as a deep internal instability, an aversion to one's place, work, life, even communion with God, ultimately leading to nihilism.
He continues these reflections in chapter 4, focusing on how acedia views the ordinary things of the world. Unlike the medieval perspective, which saw all created things as endowed with their own meaning, the slothful modern mind reduces everything to an object, which can be used or discarded as one chooses. While things remain neutral, bereft of meaning, human beings have defined themselves increasingly in terms of autonomy. Thus our concept of freedom is deeply bound to our ability to use objects as we will. Snell sees this as the foundation of contractual political theories, but he also notes the irony of how this understanding of freedom ultimately threatens itself, as we seek to use technology to control people. He closes the chapter with a discussion on contraception as an example.
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