# Historical Context of the term "Recreation"



## Semper Fidelis (Sep 10, 2012)

I've been listening to a very good lecture series on John Calvin by Richard Gamble at itunes.rts.edu. I highly recommend the lecture series if, for no other reason, he does an exquisite job of setting Calvin in his historic context. I tend to lose sight of the hardships and the culture at the time of the Reformation. Couples lost infants to the point that a man was considered blessed if his child lived to the age of three. There was no such thing as teenage rebellion because young men were busy working by the time they were twelve or younger. 

This leads to my question. Nobody had "leisure" in the 16th and 17th centuries unless they were nobles. The Lord's day was the only day of rest for most who toiled endlessly simply to survive. 

Is there a principle of the idea of "recreation" that we sometimes miss? Is there a general equity now since, for all practical purposes, many of us have the means to actually have leisure that only those of noble birth had in the past? Does the Confession speak of recreation in a way differently than what we understand it to be?


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## rbcbob (Sep 10, 2012)

Rich, I don't know if this will help or not but from

Chambers Dictionary of Etymology



> *recreation* n. Before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis,, Middle English_ recreacioun_ refreshment or curing of a person, refreshment by eating food; borrowed from Old French_ recreacion,_ ... recovery from illness, from_ recreare_ to refresh, restore, revive. ... The meaning of the action of refreshing oneself by some pleasant occupation or amusement is first recorded in Middle English about 1400


...


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## VictorBravo (Sep 10, 2012)

I don't know about the term "recreation," but certainly there were diversions. Peasant dances and festivals were around in Calvin's time. He sometimes wrote of game-playing and used allusions to things like juggling and card-playing.

And there's Bunyan's depiction of Vanity Fair, which shows all sorts of people engaging in diversions. No doubt it was largely based on actual observation.

True, people toiled hard, but they also played. The big problem seems to be the same as it is now: finding the proper balance between unwinding and frivolous distraction.


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## py3ak (Sep 10, 2012)

Thanks, Vic. I was going to point out that any lecture that gives an impression that people were entirely nose-to-the-grindstone had to be somewhat incomplete. Latimer's famous sermons "On the Card" show clearly enough that games were used, spring fever overcame Chaucer (and if maypoles are any testament) many others in May. A little later Durham speaks against people tippling and roaming the streets as a way of spending their free time. Bowling, tennis, dice, nineholes, and cards are all mentioned as recreations that civil and decent people could well use by Sir Thomas Rymer, and John Farmer adds dancing to that. 

I wonder if "recreation" wasn't used, as opposed to "pastime" because they wanted people to engage in something restorative. Surely most people have had the experience of finding something that was supposed to be a refreshing change of pace, say a game of Risk, become a nightmare of ennui and despair, which leaves you more drained than you were at the point where you were exhausted enough to agree to such a foolish proposition. A source nearer to the worldview of the Confession than the two already mentioned, William Perkins, specifically says that by recreations he understands exercises and sports, serving to refresh either the body or the mind, and notes that lawful recreations must be concerned with things indifferent, because something prohibited may not be used, and something commanded may not be done sportingly. On these grounds he objects to dancing (a circle whose center is the devil), dicing (casting of lots), and plays (a representation of vices and misdemeanors).


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## J. Dean (Sep 11, 2012)

VictorBravo said:


> The big problem seems to be the same as it is now: finding the proper balance between unwinding and frivolous distraction.


Truth. An extreme in either direction (excessive pursuit of leisure vs an unscriptural and legalistic forbidding of good and proper leisure) is unhealthy. One makes us lazy while the other kills us from overwork. Neither is intended by God.


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## NaphtaliPress (Sep 11, 2012)

Here are two extracts from William Twisse's work on the fourth commandment which touches on the meaning of the word; and he was the moderator (prolocutor) of the Westminster Assembly for the first years before his death. http://www.puritanboard.com/f15/twisse-sabbath-recreations-12873/


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