# meaning of "recreation"?



## Eoghan (Jan 6, 2012)

I would be interested to know the origins of this term and the use of the word during the Puritan era.


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## KMK (Jan 6, 2012)

If I recall correctly, the word 'recreation' in the WS was chosen in order to refute a popular book/movement that specifically encouraged sports and recreation on Sundays. I heard this info in an audio lecture so I cannot provide a citation. Does anyone else know about this?


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## PhilA (Jan 6, 2012)

Ken 

Are you referring to the Book of Sports published in 1617 by James I?


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## rbcbob (Jan 6, 2012)

Before the 14th century “recreation n.” meant “the refreshing or curing of a person, refreshment by eating food.” Also a recovery from illness. The meaning of the action of refreshing oneself by some pleasant occupation or amusement is first recorded in Middle English about 1400, and that of a means of refreshing oneself, a pleasurable pastime in 1410. 
Recreate v. to refresh or revive by recreation about 1425.

Under King James there occurred much political jockeying for position to win favor of the Court between strict sabbatarians and other groups who wanted such pleasures as bear-baiting to continue. It was at this time that the King’s Book Of Sports Came About. Essentially a compromise which pleased no one.

Sources: Chambers Dictionary of Etymology; The Market Day of the Soul by Dennison


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## J. Dean (Jan 6, 2012)

"Bear-baiting"?


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## rbcbob (Jan 6, 2012)

J. Dean said:


> "Bear-baiting"?



Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the "pit", and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. A number of well-trained hunting dogs would then be set on it, being replaced as they got tired or were wounded or killed. In some cases the bear was let loose, allowing it to chase after animals or people. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark. [Wikipaedia]

William Wilberforce championed its demise.


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## PhilA (Jan 6, 2012)

There is a town near nicknamed Beartown. The story goes....

_Congleton became notorious in the 1620s when bear-baiting, as well as cockfighting, were popular sports. The town was unable to attract large crowds to its bear-baiting contests and lacked the money to pay for a new, more aggressive bear. The town used money it had saved to buy a new bible and it replenished the fund with the income from the increased number of spectators. It became legend that Congleton sold its Bible to pay for a new bear. The chorus of 20th century folk song "Congleton Bear", by folk artist John Tams, runs:
Congleton Rare, Congleton Rare
They sold the Bible to buy a bear.
This legend earned Congleton the nickname 'Beartown'. (Wikipedia)​_


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## rbcbob (Jan 6, 2012)

Joshua said:


> To be "recreated." So, refreshment & recovery of sorts. It has come to mean, in these days, more of a sense of leisure. So, the Lord has given us 6 Days to labor and _recreate_, so that we will be better prepared to take up those holy duties on the sabbath day, which are devoid of recreation and are holy happy duties that require time, attention, and effort of the better sort.



Sounds like the meaning morphed through time. So did religious habits!


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## JP Wallace (Jan 6, 2012)

KMK said:


> If I recall correctly, the word 'recreation' in the WS was chosen in order to refute a popular book/movement that specifically encouraged sports and recreation on Sundays. I heard this info in an audio lecture so I cannot provide a citation. Does anyone else know about this?



Ken I know you're only reporting what you heard, so I'm not really responding to you - more just informing about the place of the Book of Sports. I've been hearing this argument a lot recently that the Puritan doctrine of Sabbath-keeping (i.e avoiding worldly recreations on the Sabbath) was an 'over-reaction' against the Book Of Sports.

This is historically incorrect. I paste below information I have placed in another forum elsewhere, with editing of names etc. irrelevant to this forum, which I believe shows that the Puritan Sabbath doctrine was well-founded, explained and practised long before the issue of either the Book of Sports or its reissue under Charles in the Puritan 'heydays'. In other words the Book of Sports was in fact a worldly reaction to the Biblical Sabbath doctrine!

This will also somewhat answer Eoghan's original question.

1. First a point of history; The Book of Sports was first issued in 1618 during the reign James 1 (of England, VI of Scotland) and not Charles 1. As I have quoted above in the introduction to the 1633 reissue of the Book of Sports by Charles 1 (James’s son) he states the raison d’etre for the 1618 Book of Sports. That introduction makes it abundantly clear that the 1618 Book of Sports was issued to combat the Puritan view of the Sabbath. This means that the Puritan Sabbath was widespread already (certainly in Lancashire) by 1618 some 23 years prior to the commencement of the first Civil War in 1642.

2.The reissue of the Book of Sports in 1633 (still 9 years prior to the commencement of the first Civil War must surely have been because of either the remaining existence of that same Puritan theology or, (more likely), an even more widespread acceptance of the Puritan theology of the Sabbath. The subsequent codification of that doctrine into the Westminster Confession and Baptist Confessions would suggest that this assumption is almost certainly correct.

3.Thus in no way is it demonstrable from the evidence that the Puritan view of the Sabbath was ‘forged in the sacral society of the English Civil War period’ as you suggest. Far from that being the case, the evidence appears to me to confirm that the Kings Book of Sports document issued against the pre-existing Puritan theology of the Sabbath. The Book of Sports, if I can put it this way, was forged in the in crucible of a rising acceptance of the Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath.

4. As I have written elsewhere the Puritan Sabbath theology exists in full form as far back as William Perkins’s day. Perkins died in 1602. Here is a extract from his ‘The Order of Salvation and Damnation’ wherein he expounds what is forbidden in the fourth commandment.
“1. The works of our calling, wherein if we do ought it must be altogether in regards of charity and not in regard of our own private commodity.
2. Unnecessary journeys. Exodus 16:29, “See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” By this reason the master of the family must that day remain at home to sanctify the Sabbath with his household.
3. Fairs upon the Sabbath day. Nehemiah 13:19, “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.” (cf. verses 15-18)
4.All kind of husbandry, as plowing, sowing, reaping, mowing, bringing home harvest, and other the like. Exodus 34:21, “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.”
5.To use jests, sports, banqueting, or any other thing whatsoever which is a means to hinder or withdraw the mind from that serious attention which ought to be in God’s service: for if the works of our calling must not be exercised, much less these, whereby the mind is as well distracted from God’s service as by the greatest labor.”
Again it should be noted that Perkins was in his grave some 40 years prior to the beginning of the English Civil Wars, 16 years prior to the issue of the first Book of Sports in 1618.


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## NaphtaliPress (Jan 6, 2012)

On the development and earliest expressions of Puritan Sabbath views, here is a note from an updated version of my article about Calvin:
58. With a few exceptions such as Hooper, writings on the fourth commandment prior to 1583 were generally ambiguous if one is looking for explicit support for the strict Puritan position. Gilfillan traces the English literature back to expressions that in seed form at least, forecast what was to develop into the Puritan view in the later part of the 16th century. Anti-Sabbath and Sabbath writers seem to both agree that Gervase Babington (1551–1610) is the first clearly unambiguous writer to express what became the “Puritan” view. _An Exposition of the Ten Commandments_ (1583). However, remarking on this earlier ambiguity, Dennison, echoing Gilfillan, writes “Yet, I ask, how did it happen that in 1583, Gervase Babington penned a statement on the fourth commandment which could have passed for a summary of Nicolas Bownd? In my opinion, the answer is contained in the underground development of Puritanism via prophesyings, lecturings and the universities. One must not neglect to weigh the almost certain effect of the biblical discussions in these Puritan gatherings—gatherings which undoubtedly touched on the Sabbath discussion…. Consider the fact that the following men, all of whom later expressed sentiments of a Puritan nature upon the fourth commandment, at one time attended Cambridge University—the ‘nursery’ of Puritanism: John Knewstub, Edward Dering, William Perkins, Richard Stubbes, Gervase Babington, William Fulke, Andrew Willet.” _Market Day of the Soul_, p. 15–16. Andrew Willet supports Dennison’s supposition, who credits his exposure to Puritan Sabbath views to his time at Cambridge. Cf. Willet’s Latin preface to the reader appended to Bownd’s _Sabbathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti, _and “_In Translatiōne: _Andrew Willet’s _To the Pious Reader_ From Book One of Nicholas Bownd’s _Sabbathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti_,” _The Confessional Presbyterian_ 1 (2005) 166–167.
​
"Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines, Or, Did Calvin Bowl on the Sabbath?" _The __Confessional Presbyterian_ 6 (2010) fn 58, page 42.


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## JP Wallace (Jan 6, 2012)

See also here the 1633 introduction by Charles to the reissued Book of Sports where he quotes from the 1618 edition (properly the Declaration I believe) - this shows that stricter Sabbath-keeping was already associated with the name 'Puritan' as early as 1618.

Our dear father of blessed memory, in his return from Scotland, coming through Lancashire, found that his subjects were debarred from lawful recreations upon Sundays after evening prayers ended, and upon Holy-days; and he prudently considered that, if these times were taken from them, the meaner sort who labour hard all the week should have no recreations at all to refresh their spirits: and after his return, he further saw that his loyal subjects in all other parts of his kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though perhaps not in the same degree: and did therefore in his princely wisdom publish a Declaration to all his loving subjects concerning lawful sports to be used at such times, which was printed and published by his royal commandment in the year 1618, in the tenor which hereafter followeth:

Whereas upon our return the last year out of Scotland, we did publish our pleasure touching the recreations of our people in those parts under our hand; for some causes us thereunto moving, we have thought good to command these our directions then given in Lancashire, with a few words thereunto added, and most appliable to these parts of our realms, to be published to all our subjects.
Whereas we did justly in our progress through Lancashire rebuke some Puritans and precise people, and took order that the like unlawful carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting and unlawful punishing of our good people for using their lawful recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays, and other Holy-days, after the afternoon sermon or service, we now find that two sorts of people wherewith that country is much infected, we mean Papists and Puritans, have maliciously traduced and calumniated those our just and honourable proceedings: and therefore, lest our reputation might upon the one side (though innocently) have some aspersion laid upon it, and that upon the other part our good people in that country be misled by the mistaking and misinterpretation of our meaning, we have therefore thought good hereby to clear and make our pleasure to be manifested to all our good people in those parts”


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## Tim (Jan 6, 2012)

This is an interesting thread to me. As a sport & exercise scientist, I have a particular interest in understanding these things so that the values I promote in my work are theologically grounded. I hope to be able to do some more thinking in the future as to what is the biblical theology of 'recreation', however it is defined. My basic understanding is along the lines of what Joshua said - that recreation is so that we might take care of our bodies and minds the better to enjoy our weekly sabbath rest. And to that, I might add, to better engage in our labors during the six day work week.


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## KMK (Jan 6, 2012)

JP Wallace said:


> Ken I know you're only reporting what you heard, so I'm not really responding to you - more just informing about the place of the Book of Sports. I've been hearing this argument a lot recently that the Puritan doctrine of Sabbath-keeping (i.e avoiding worldly recreations on the Sabbath) was an 'over-reaction' against the Book Of Sports.



I did not mean to imply that the Divines were 'over-reacting' to the Book of Sports.


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## NaphtaliPress (Jan 6, 2012)

I have posted this before; this extract is from a work by William Twisse (the first moderator of the Westminster Assembly) on the subject of this thread.



> Exerts from _*The Morality of the Fourth Commandment, as Still in Force to Brad Christians*_ (London: 1641). By William Twisse D. D. From _*An Anthology of Presbyterian &amp; Reformed Literature*_ 3.3 (1988) 79.
> 
> [pp. 242-244] As for recreations, which are here said to serve lawfully to the refreshing of our spirits; this appellation is very ambiguous, neither do I know any difference between the recreating of our spirits, and the refreshing of our spirits. Yet here the refreshing of our spirits is made the end of recreation. Again it were good to distinguish between recreation of the body, and recreation of the mind. I think the refreshing of spirits pertains to the recreation of the body. Men's spirits are natural and material things, and they are apt to be wasted (1) naturally; for as life consists in _*calido,*_ in hot matter, so heat is apt to spend and waste the matter wherein it is; and spirits thus wasted are recreated, that is, repaired by eating and drinking. And thus provisions of victuals are commonly called recreates.
> 
> ...


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## Eoghan (Jan 6, 2012)

As a creationist I was hoping for a more spiritual lineage for the term. I was watching a program in which UK teenagers spent some time with the Amish. One of the girls reflected that she was disappointed her brothers did not spend more time on bible study and less on more frivolous matters (one of them drove a car!). It just got me thinking what recreation means.

What do we make of a "recreational vehicle"?
I am also surprised (not) at the number of young women trashing their boyfriends X-boxes and PS3 (for boyfriend you should read common-law wife?) on YouTube. They seem to be very motivated in their acts of vandalism. Suggest you watch with sound off due to profanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4U-iWeLTbc&feature=related German documentary on gaming problems in relationships


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## KMK (Jan 6, 2012)

Eoghan said:


> As a creationist I was hoping for a more spiritual lineage for the term.



I have no idea what this means.


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## Rev. Todd Ruddell (Jan 6, 2012)

Tim said:


> This is an interesting thread to me. As a sport & exercise scientist, I have a particular interest in understanding these things so that the values I promote in my work are theologically grounded. I hope to be able to do some more thinking in the future as to what is the biblical theology of 'recreation', however it is defined. My basic understanding is along the lines of what Joshua said - that recreation is so that we might take care of our bodies and minds the better to enjoy our weekly sabbath rest. And to that, I might add, to better engage in our labors during the six day work week.



Exactly, Tim. Recreations are those things rightly used to set ourselves back in order for our callings and worship. They are means to an end. our society has made them the ends, and not the means.


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## Eoghan (Jan 6, 2012)

Break it down to _*re - creation*_ and it could have a more spiritual meaning.


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## KMK (Jan 6, 2012)

Rev. Todd Ruddell said:


> They are means to an end. our society has made them the ends, and not the means.



Good point! And it might explain why so many of our society have a hard time with the Reformed view of the Sabbath.


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