This insight alone has put me on a path of thinking about how the way we believers in the West view productivity has been shaped by the assumptions that clock-time has created. I found this striking since so much of how I approach productivity is in slavish obedience to specific time. When you pause to reflect on it, much of what differentiates Western culture from other cultures is our view of time. Filipinos have a saying, “Westerners are people with gods on their wrists” and Kenyans, “All Westerners have watches. Guinness noted some humorous sayings that have come from non-Western people who witnessed the obedience Westerners exhibit toward time. Time has chased man since the Fall in Genesis 3, but the mechanical clock transformed time from a shadowy specter to an ever-present ticking tyrant. The mechanical clock brought with it precision, coordination, pressure, and ultimately the Industrial Revolution. Hourglasses and sundials gave us an approximation of time, but nothing came close to the clock.

Called, “the mother of machines” the mechanical clock allowed man, for the first time, to measure time with precision. The invention of the mechanical clock around AD 1400 has had far-reaching consequences for how mankind now views the world. In the first chapter Guinness writes, “There is no surer foundation, no stronger propulsion, and no more soaring vision of carpe diem than within the biblical or covenantal view of time.” 2 – The Invention of the Clock Changed Our View of Time And that makes all the difference in how we live now. We understand that God is sovereignly guiding time toward a meaningful culmination. Time has chased man since the Fall in Genesis 3, but the mechanical clock transformed time from a shadowy specter to an ever-present ticking tyrant.Ĭhristians do not share the ultimate meaninglessness of the Eastern religions, who believe that time is cyclical and ultimately headed nowhere. This unique view has wide-sweeping implications. Christianity espouses the covenantal view of time.

These are cyclical, covenantal, and chronological.

So how should Christians view time? Guinness suggests that there are four dominant views of time and history which have arisen out of three the three major faith families. How we think about time affects how we spend it. 1 – The Christian Perspective on Time Is Unique Here are five key takeaways from the book. But by the time I had finished it, I was glad to have read it. Part history, part philosophy, and part Christian living-I wasn’t sure what to make of this book at first. One of the first books I finished this year was Carpe Diem Redeemed by Os Guinness. Title: Carpe Diem Redeemed: Seizing the Day, Discerning the Times

Carpe diem definition