Labor and Leisure in a Fragmented World

On this episode, Chris hosts Dr. Michael Naughton professor of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and author of Getting Work Right: Labor and Leisure in a Fragmented World. They discuss 'leisure'....and no, they're not talking about polyester wide-lapeled suits from the 70's. Drawing from the definition articulated by the 20th century German Thomist Josef Pieper, leisure is "an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world" as it truly is. Mischaracterized as "wasting time," it is fundamentally about being, not doing, in a way that our hearts and minds become more open to the good. At the core of leisure is Sunday, the Lord's Day. In order to get Monday right, Dr. Naughton argues, we must first get Sunday right. The conversation draws on Pieper's famous 1947 book, Leisure, the Basis of Culture.