General Description:

To the ears of ceaselessly busy and ambitious modern Westerners, it will come as a shock, and perhaps as an insult, to be told that human affairs are "unserious." But this fundamental truth is exactly what James Schall, following Plato, has to teach us in this wise and witty book. Schall cites Charlie Brown, Aristotle, and Samuel Johnson with the same sobriety-the sobriety that sees the truth in what is delightful and even amusing. Schall contends that singing, dancing, playing, contemplating, and other "useless" human activities are not merely forms of escape from more important things-politics, work, social activism, etc.-but an indication of the freedom in and for which men and women were created.

Echoing philosophers such as Josef Pieper, Schall explains how the modern world has inverted the rational order of human affairs, devaluing the activities of leisure and placing an exaggerated emphasis on utilitarian concerns.  Though he does not deny the importance of those necesarry and prosaic activities that take up the bulk of our daily lives, Schall puts these pursuits in perspective by asking, what do we do when everything we have to do is done?

Defending the impotance of simply wasting time, losing ourselves in play, and Chesterton's claim that "a thing worth doing is worth doing badly," Schall contends that the joy that accompanies leisure, festivity, and conviviality gives us a glimpse of the eternal.  Such activities also enable us to get beyond ourselves - indeed call us beyond ourselves - and are therefore essential if we are to rightly order our worldly concerns.  For as Schall reminds us, neither man nor his projects are the highest things in the universe, and it is only by understanding this fact that man can attain to his true dignity.

Citing Aristotle, Samuel Johnson, Charlie Brown, and New Yorker cartoons with equal sobriety, Schall unfolds a defense of both Being and being, of the radical contingency and therefore goodness of existence itself.  On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs is an instructive volume with an important countercultural message is of vital importance.

"Recruiting philosophy and literary theory into an inspirational narrative, Father Schall will appeal to fans of C. S. Lewis, Chesterton, and Peter Kreeft. "
-Publishers Weekly

"Schall has some important things to say. He urges letting the world go by, realizing that it will all vanish some day and there are things more important than the daily hustle...."
- Philadelphia Inquirer

"One would expect that an author, having written a book entitled On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs, might wish to revise the title of his work to reflect the unrelenting seriousness of events in our post-September 11 world. Not so in this case. For these are essays that, at a time when we would rather ponder anything else, call us to consider both the insignificance of what we deem critical, and the significance of what we deem 'unserious.' As such, they make for good reading in these straitened circumstances. "
-Washington Times

James V. Schall, S.J. is Professor of Government at Georgetown University. He is the author of numerous books, including: Reason, Revelation, and the Foundations of Political Philosophy, Idylls and Rambles, and At the Limits of Political Philosophy.

 

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