Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl

by Craig Harline

The mere mention of “Sunday” will immediately conjure up a rich mix of memories, associations, and ideas for most anyone of any age. Whatever we think of—be it attending church, reading a bulky newspaper, eating brunch, or watching football— Sunday occupies a unique place in Western civilization. But how did we come to have a day with such a singular set of traditions?

Here, historian Craig Harline examines Sunday from its ancient beginnings to recent America in a fascinating blend of facts and anecdotes. For early Christians, the first day of the week was a time to celebrate the liturgy and observe the Resurrection. But over time, Sunday in the Western world took on still other meanings and rituals, especially in the addition of both rest and recreation to the day’s activities. Harline illuminates these changes in enlightening profiles of Sunday in medieval Catholic England, Sunday in the Reformation, and Sunday in nineteenth-century France—home of the most envied and sometimes despised Sunday of the modern world. He continues with moving portraits of soldiers and civilians observing Sunday during World War I, examines the quiet Sunday of England in the 1930s, and concludes with the convergence of various European traditions in the American Sunday, which also adds some distinctly original habits of its own, including in the realms of commerce and professional sports.

With engaging prose and scholarly integrity, Sunday is an entertaining and long-overdue look at a significant hallmark of Western culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Religion, Christian, Cultural

450 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2007

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter was most interesting to me--how we got the idea of a week and keeping a day holy. The rest was a history of worship in Western Europe and the US. Interesting case studies from random places and times and a nice education regarding the how people spent their "weekends."

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty satisfied with this book...
My preferred area of study being religion and ancient culture, I was more and only truly interested in the first chapters.
There were some interesting things portrayed through out the book, but mostly it was as interesting as history gets.
Idk...
It was a good book for me to practice speed reading.

[Kylie Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very engaging and interesting read which explores the social/historical/religious practices of Sunday. I skimmed some chapters that I personally found less-interesting, but overall, a fascinating look into why Sundays are what they are today.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Craig Harline, a professor of history at Brigham Young University, first came to my attention through this video of his lecture "What Happened to My Bellbottoms?" given at BYU as the 20th Annual Martin B. Hickman Lecture last year. (It's about 50 minutes long, though if you want to skip all the introductory stuff you can start at 9:00 and just hear the lecture itself.)

The lecture is fascinating. Professor Harline addresses change, how successive generations adapt or expand the previous generations' values into new areas, and the conflict or consternation that causes in the older generations. He uses very effective examples, from society at large and from religion specifically, on how attitudes and beliefs have changed. For example, he points out that first century Christians would be either dumbfounded or horrified at many modern Christian stances including on slavery, the place and abilities of women, borrowing money, even what we call the first day of the week and when we worship. In one brilliant paradigm-busting bit, Professor Harline defines a hero as one who is willing to reconsider his or her own stance when changes occur, rather than retrenching and "doubling down" on the old way of doing things. Seriously fascinating stuff. I need to go listen to it again.

Anyway, in Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl he narrows his topic to the changes that have occurred regarding this day of the week and the social and other influences that have affected those changes. In each of the seven chapters he focuses on a particularly pivotal time period for Sunday that illustrates how attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors were adapting. Starting with the ancient Middle East, where the seven-day week was first established, he brings us on a tour of the Jewish Sabbath (starting at sundown on Friday and continuing until sundown on Saturday) and the Hellenistic naming of days of the week by planets and celestial objects, including the sun, and then on to the Christian "Lord's Day" commemorating Christ's Resurrection on the first day of the week.

Early on there were various ideas about what was appropriate activity for the Lord's Day, with some viewing it as a "transplanted Sabbath" demanding a very narrow definition of rest and others believing that as long as one worshiped on that day, anything else was fair game. The Council of Rouen in 650 was "the first church council explicitly to require a twenty-four-hour Sabbath-like Lord's Day, to make rest and worship obligatory, and to fix a list of penalties for violating rest." This strict interpretation gained popularity across the Christian world and became the expectation throughout the Middle Ages. The "prescribed mood was no longer one of outward joy, as in the ancient Sunday, but of inward joy. The outward mood, however, was one of somberness."

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[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was not quite what I expected. I was looking for a book which tracked the evolution of Sunday activities and the reasons for those shifts, particularly the tension between secular and religious activity. I had also assumed, rather ethnocentrically, that the work would focus on the history of Sundays in the US once the North American continent had begun to be colonized.

Instead, the book is largely presented a series of snapshots (metaphorically) of Sundays over a wide range of time and throughout the "Christian world." Harline does briefly discuss some of the context which lead to the customs in the given snapshot, but he primarily describes a given Sunday at a time and place for which he has access to primary sources.

The main exception is the first couple chapters, in which he does present a broader history of the origins of the Jewish Sabbath, other ancient religions which involved regular sacred days which influenced both Judaism and Christianity, and the adoption of the concept by early Christianity.

For me, it was a nice change of pace; still a meaningful subject, but diverting, and a rather easy read.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I only made it 3/4 through before my life fell victim to finishing graduate school this quarter. All in all, I loved the information this book provided, but at times it was slow going. I enjoyed more the early chapters that explained the origins of a once-a-week holy day and how the early Christian movement did not uphold that tradition. The chapter that traced the no-work/no-fun Sundays to Puritan roots made me question the somewhat arbitrary Sunday rules I grew up with. However, the French cultural roots of the lets-have-as-much-fun-as-possible-before-Monday attitude were also laid bare in the following chapter.

In the end, I appreciate having a sacred time set aside each week to focus on the spiritual, but I dislike making Sunday a day of "don'ts". My Sundays will not be as black-and-white defined as they used to be, rather I plan to evaluate activities as they come up and will encourage my kids to do the same.

[Katie]

I heard an interview on NPR that really made me want to read this book. It is supposed to be an historical account of Sunday and how it has been observed throughout history. I gave it a couple of tries. The suthor says he can't decide whether the jewish 7 day week was first or the Babylonian dated to 60BC. Certainly there is enough extra-biblical history to show the Jews keeping the 7 day week thousnabds of years before. since he has shown his anti-religious bias to the point that he can't even acknowledge its impact on his subject...I saw no reason to continue.

[Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting topic for a book, but I had a harder time getting through it. The author talks about various stages of history and how the naure of the day has changed over time in different places. The book is longer and I felt that it dragged out too long. It is written more from a Christian perspective.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a historian I found some aspects of the book frustrating (i.e. lack of footnotes), but as a general reader I loved the flow and accessibility of the writing style. One could picture the inside of the church and imagine what life would be like for various people. Very engaging read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Every once in a while a random pick at the library throws some light on things that puzzle me. Our Holdeman sunday observance owes more to Puritan influence than early Christianity or Anabaptist.IMHO.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig's book is worth the read. I loved looking at one day of the week and see how it changed and stayed the same in the past.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok ... but I couldn't finish it. I got his main point early on, and then it just seemed repetative. I was hoping for better.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tasty nugget of social history.

[Marianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring; more about religion than Sunday

[Tamsin Barlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially interesting but overlong.