Changes in Sabbath-Keeping and Mental Health Over Time: Evaluation Findings From the Sabbath Living Study

Work-related stress is experienced at a high level in the United States. Clergy are particularly likely to over-extend themselves to act on their sacred call. Sabbath-keeping may offer a practice that is beneficial for mental health, yet many Protestant clergy do not keep a regular Sabbath. We examined whether United Methodist clergy who attended informative Sabbath-keeping workshops reported changes in spiritual well-being and mental health post-workshop. Compared to baseline, at 3 and 9 months post-workshop, participants reported an increase in Sabbath-keeping. In adjusted random effects and Poisson models, compared to not changing Sabbath-keeping frequency, increasing Sabbath-keeping was related to only one outcome: greater feelings of personal accomplishment at work. Decreasing Sabbath-keeping was related to worse anxiety symptoms, lower spiritual well-being in ministry scores, and a higher probability of having less than flourishing mental health. For four outcomes, there were no significant associations with changes in Sabbath-keeping over time. Although lacking a control group, this study adds to cross-sectional Sabbath-keeping studies by correlating changes in Sabbath-keeping with changes in mental health outcomes over time.

Sabbath-keeping in the Bible from the perspective of biblical spirituality

This article responds to the renewed interest in the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping by investigating its nature and meaning in the Judeo-Christian traditions. After briefly analysing the reasons for the contemporary neglect of Sabbath-keeping and indications of its renaissance, this article will analyse biblical pronouncements about the Sabbath, mainly from Hebrew Scriptures, but with brief attention to Christian Scriptures that provide various insights of decisive importance to understand and explain its prominent place for faith communities, but that are vitally important for reinvigorating Sabbath-keeping in a contemporary context. It analyses pronouncements in the Bible in Genesis 2:1–3 that highlights the Sabbath as joyful resting; the need for Sabbath-keeping as commandment in Exodus 20:9–11 and in Deuteronomy 5:12–15, and, finally Sabbath-keeping as trust in God as the provider in Exodus 16:1–30. Various spiritual insights and implications of these passages will be discussed. The article assumes historical critical insights as developed in biblical studies but develops a theological analysis that explains the spiritual dynamics in these texts. These spiritual insights explain the prominence of Sabbath-keeping in the Bible and its practice in the Judeo-Christian religious discourse.Contribution: This article contributes to scholarship on spiritual practices, by analysing the nature and meaning of Sabbath-keeping in Genesis 2:1–3, Exodus 20:9–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15 and Exodus 16:1–30, stressing their spiritual dynamics in terms of joyful resting, as commandment, as trust in divine provision and as a reflection of their covenantal nature.

Guidelines for the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping

The commandment not to work and to rest on the Sabbath became a major spiritual practice in Judeo-Christian history. This article will spell out, in a concrete manner, the key spiritual contents of Sabbath-keeping that are relevant for and that determine an authentic, liberating and joyful celebration of the Sabbath. It, thus, contributes to the debate by Christians about the shape and form of what the practice of Sabbath-keeping practice might look like today. This article firstly explains how and why the practice by times became oppressive and abusive, losing its popularity because of a legalistic moralism. It then analyses how the practice in reality is about sanctifying work that reflects its true nature and that contributes meaningfully to human existence. It will focus on how commitment is a necessary beginning to practise the Sabbath before it analyses the dynamic and inspirational nature of Sabbath-keeping as a practice about resting. The article will anchor theological and theoretic reflections concretely in the life experience of faith communities concluding with a discussion about the lightness of the practice that is enjoyed in liturgy, in community, in play and in joyful celebration. The very last part will spell out ecological implications of Sabbath-keeping as one of the latest, exciting forms of Sabbath-keeping.Contribution: This article responds to the renewed interest in the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping. It analyses how the practice lost its popularity because of a legalistic moralism. It will then analyse the lightness of the practice as it is enjoyed in liturgy, in community, in play and in joyful celebration.

Time for Solidarity: Liturgical Time in Disaster Capitalism

This article identifies the upheaval of many people’s experience of time during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a larger phenomenon of the 24/7 temporality that can be seen to contribute to the environmental destruction and social fragmentation typical of disaster capitalism. It then proposes liturgical temporality as an alternative to 24/7 temporality, framing it as a fitting context for the cultivation of solidarity between human beings and between human beings and the natural world. It argues that modern Jewish and Christian theologies of Sabbath-keeping as a mode of liturgical and ethical praxis have articulated a liberative vision for shared liturgical temporality but have not paid sufficient attention to concrete, collective modes of liturgical time keeping that could contend with the all-encompassing reality of 24/7 life. It concludes by discussing three ways that a more robust spirituality and praxis of liturgical time could support the cultivation of solidarity: a sense of the present that is mindful of the past and future, the invitation of practitioners into a shared story, and meaningful repetition toward the appropriation of a vision of redemption and liberation for human and non-human life.

Sabbath Keeping and Sunday Observance as Spiritual Practice

This article investigates recent interest in the spiritual practice of Sabbath keeping in the light of its history in Judaism and Christianity. It will focus, firstly, on the spiritual nature of Sabbath keeping in Biblical texts and its reception in Judeo-Christian traditions. It will spell out comprehensive, multifaceted approaches to Sabbath keeping and Sunday observance in these traditions and how dynamically these approaches were developed in terms of later contexts. The article will then analyse the positive impact of this spiritual practice on human relationships, but more importantly, its role in creating awareness of the divine presence which represents its most essential dimension. This will reveal how transformative Sabbath keeping as a spiritual practice can be in the spiritual journey, even and also in contemporary contexts. The aim of the article is to investigate insights that spirituality authors can gain from past history in order to meaningfully respond to challenges in their own context and to empower them to counter the serious consequences for the spiritual health of those who are victims of a consumerist culture. The article is by necessity merely an overview, without in-depth discussion of the detail of Sabbath in various historical phases. Important is a general trend that reflects the ebb and flow of Sabbath keeping in the course of history, its tenacity as a spiritual practice and its deeper meaning in the life of faith communities.