The Ethics of Doing Nothing: Rest, Rituals, and the Modern World

“In this thought-provoking volume, Andrew Blosser draws readers into an “odd investigation:” reconsidering our culture’s false equation of “work” with “life;” and re-centering ourselves, personally and collectively, on an opposite conviction: “that the point of life is to observe the goodness around us in charitable communion with others.” In fact, our work and social-economic policies ought to enable and serve the higher values of inoperativity, rest, and Sabbath. Far from promoting sloth or passivity, Blosser shows how a critical, theologically grounded “ethics of doing nothing” is essential for animating the “rest-focused activism” and practical changes that addressing systemic challenges like poverty and climate change will require. Insightful, enlightening, readable; highly recommended.”-- Christine Firer Hinze, Professor of Theological Ethics, Fordham University.

“Blosser's book offers a rich and sophisticated analysis of rituals of rest that couldn't be timelier or more thought-provoking for us exhausted, overwhelmed moderns.”-- Jonathan Schorsch, Universität Potsdam, and Founding Director of the Green Sabbath Project