WOF 475: How to Balance Work and Leisure

The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Brandon Vogt

God, Vogt, Catholicism, Catholic, Faith, Christianity, Barron, Religion & Spirituality, Christian, Church

4.9 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A debate has been raging on social media recently about the role work should play both in our individual and communal lives. One side argues that Americans are not only spending too few hours at work, but at a deeper cultural level, they believe the United States and much of the West has become lazy and prone to immediate gratification that undermines efficiency, personal wealth, and national power and prosperity. The other side maintains that, although work is good and necessary for individual and societal wellbeing, time spent at work also compromises individuals’ creativity and ingenuity. This debate is not only rhetorical; how we conceive of the relationship between work and leisure has very real cultural, economic, and even political consequences. What principles should we appeal to to get the balance right?

A listener asks: Does Jesus have a last name?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Matthew Petrusick, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire show. Thank you for joining us.
0:07.9	A debate has been raging on social media recently about the role work should play both on our individual and our communal lives.
0:15.6	One side argues that Americans on the whole are not only spending too few hours at work, at a deeper cultural level,
0:22.6	they believe the United States and much of the West has become lazy and prone to immediate gratification,
0:29.2	a moral failure that undermines efficiency, personal wealth, and national power and prosperity.
0:35.5	The other side maintains that although work is good and necessary
0:39.3	for individual and societal well-being, pedestaling time spent at a desk or on the road or on a
0:45.5	factory floor, away from one's family, friends, and activities that you find most fulfilling,
0:51.3	is not only to miss what makes life most valuable and enjoyable, but also compromises
0:56.8	individuals' creativity and ingenuity.
0:59.8	This debate is not only rhetorical.
1:02.7	How we conceive of the relationship between work and leisure has a very real cultural, economic,
1:08.1	and even political consequences.
1:10.7	So who has the upper hand? Should we live to work
1:13.6	or work to live? And if both, what principles should we appeal to to get that balance right?
1:19.9	Here to help us see how the Catholic intellectual tradition can constructively address these questions
1:24.4	is Bishop Robert Barron.
1:38.5	Well, welcome back to the studio, Bishop.
1:39.5	Thanks, Matt.
1:40.3	Always good to be with you.
1:45.3	Today we're looking at getting the relationship right between work and leisure,
1:49.7	kind of based on a debate that's been raging online on social media. But before we get started,
	...

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