Acedia

Acedia often shows up as apathy, a comfortable indifference to duty and neglect of others’ needs (89). Acedia comes from a Greek word that means ‘the lack of care’ and can also be seen as a failure to love God and others with our whole self.

• How does this definition of sloth compare with your own?

“Not only can acedia and ordinary diligence exist very well together; it is even true that the senselessly exaggerated workaholism of our age is directly traceable to acedia.” It turns out that both the apathetic inertia of the lazy person and the perpetual motion of the busy person can stem from a heart afflicted by this vice, according to the traditional conception.(90)

• When looking at DeYoung’s definition of acedia, how does simply working harder and being busier fail to be the remedy to the sin of acedia?
• What reasons are typically given to the ‘lazy person’ to encourage them to cease in their laziness and work harder?
• The earliest descriptions of acedia call it the noonday demon because it was at the heat of the day that early monks felt distracted from their calling and duty in prayer. They would comment that acedia comes with a listlessness, a discontent with where they were and what they were doing. How has this aspect of acedia impacted our culture? Have you seen this part of acedia in your life?

Thomas Aquinas, one of the great thinkers in Christian history who wrote a lot about vices and virtues in the 1200s, begins with the cryptic definition of acedia as “aversion to the divine good in us.” (94)

• What do you think this means?

“The divine good in us,” in Aquinas’s medieval-ish way of talking, means the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts—God’s life in us. Paul puts it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:19–20). (95)

• Why might we resist the work of the Holy Spirit in us (either by doing nothing or by busying ourselves with our own tasks)?
• Why do we prefer to do our own things (or nothing at all)?

The Remedy to Acedia:

Acedia’s resistance targets nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit and our new identity in Christ.(96)

• Before turning to scripture, work as a group to list the characteristics define the Christian life?
• Look at 2 Peter, to see what characteristics mark the Christian life.

2 Peter 1:3-7 “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”

Note: Peter calls his readers to make every effort in the cultivation of the life transformed by the work of the Spirit. Acedia is not opposed to effort, but rather opposed to putting effort into the right things, as DeYoung says, “Whether through laziness or busyness, when we have acedia, we avoid changing, stretching, or giving ourselves”.(100-101)

• Looking at Peter’s list of characteristics of the Christian life – which ones challenge acedia?
• What practices and rhythms help you nurture a healthy spiritual life? What might you need to change to resist acedia (either as laziness or busyness)?
• DeYoung suggests Sabbath as a healing practice for those with acedia. How might our resting well actually lead to healing us from our distracted and disordered loves?