Sunday.SUNDAY By Craig Harline (Doubleday, 2007) God made the world, but we made Sunday, still a work in progress. The Babylonians discovered seven planets so they packaged their days in sevens. The Greeks matched days with planets: Saturn Day, Sun Day, and so on. The point was to link the heavens with earth--religion. In Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl, history professor Craig Harline takes the scenic route from prehistory prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to to the present. The outcome of enormous research, this book is a comprehensive social history of the Western world. The Jews, Harline believes, were first to single out one day for God. The Sabbath was devoted to worship and rest. Christianity brought a new element: joy. Fasting was left to other days. One bone of contention was whether to work or rest. Gradually the rest lobby won. The author then illustrates the development of Sunday in different places and times. He visits an English village English Villages are language teaching institutions which aim to create a language immersion environment for students of English in their own country. The concept is run as a commercial venture in Spain and Italy. The one in Korea is quasi-governmental (see below). circa 1300. Moral theologians fulminated against "the three great pollutants of Sunday--money, carnal carnal adjective Referring to the flesh, to baser instincts, often referring to sexual “knowledge” pleasure, and spilt spilt v. A past tense and a past participle of spill1. blood." Keeping people holy sometimes demanded extraordinary measures. One was the "Sunday Letter," said to have been written by Christ himself and delivered by angels to Christendom. The gist: what to do on Sundays. The narrative next moves to Holland in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, then to France, where industrialization industrialization Process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and and urbanization had reshaped Sunday. Those who could afford to he decadent turned the Lord's Day into a good time. Hubris Hubris An arrogance due to excessive pride and an insolence toward others. A classic character flaw of a trader or investor. was high. World War I tarnished Sunday's luster. They all fought every day. Eventually the author reaches the United States, which sacralized aspects of life previously considered secular, including business and sport, America's other religions. Norman Vincent Peale Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993) was a Protestant preacher and author (most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking". claimed, "If Jesus Christ were alive today, he would be at the Super Bowl." On Super Bowl Sunday. |
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