Bored!

September 7th, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Boredom, apparently, is a widespread problem. Even in spiritual practices and institutional rituals. These have now been found to be wanting: They are … boring!

So pronounced social researchers from Europe and Australia in “Spiritual Boredom is Associated with Over- and Underchallenge, Lack of Value, and Reduced Motivation,” published earlier this year in Communications Psychology. They investigated spiritual boredom in five different spiritual contexts: yoga, meditation, silence retreats, Catholic sermons, and pilgrimage, employing 1,267 adult subjects.

Spiritual boredom differs from other types of boredom (e.g., academic boredom) in terms of (a) the population experiencing it, which includes people who seek spiritual development and often search for greater meaning in life; (b) the settings, which typically are “silent” environments where spirituality can be experienced and where visits usually are voluntary; and (c) its consequences in terms of a reduction in motivation for spiritual practice and, consequently, spiritual growth.”

Well, guess what? Catholic sermons ranked as the highest bored-inducing activity of the five they studied (3.56/5; pilgrimages were the least: 1.35/5)!

Woe is me, a preacher (though I’m not Catholic)! We in this business have a responsibility to thwart boredom in our listeners.

The noted homiletician, Haddon Robinson (1931–2017), whose work Biblical Preaching is perhaps the most used preaching textbook in evangelicalism, once declared:

Boredom is like anthrax. It can kill. More people have been bored out of the Christian faith than have been reasoned out of it. Dull, insipid sermons not only cause drooping eyes and nodding heads, they destroy life and hope. What greater damage can we do to people’s faith than to make them feel like God and Jesus Christ and the Bible are as boring as the want ads in the Sunday paper?”

All things are wearisome; a person is not able to describe it. …
That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is not anything [at all] new under the sun. …
I have seen all the doings which have been done under the sun,
and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 1:8–9,14

The ancients in the Middle Ages saw boredom as a spiritual malaise—they called it (in Latin) acedia, listlessness, apathy, stark disinterest, even sloth! Acedia occurs when practices are either too challenging or not challenging enough, and when practitioners don’t see value in what they’re doing and are therefore not motivated to any degree.

Then I—I considered all my doings which my hands had done,
and the labor[ious distress] which I had expended,
and behold all was vanity and striving after wind,
and there was nothing profitable under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:11

The authors concluded:

Spiritual boredom could be alleviated by designing spiritual practices in a way that reduces over- or underchallenge (e.g., through individualized practices) and by increasing the perceived value of the practices (e.g., by emphasizing the importance of the practices for daily life).”

Go, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a good heart;
for God is already pleased with your works.
Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil on your head be lacking.
See life [joyously] with the wife whom you love all the days of your fleeting life
which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life
and in your labor[ious distress] which you have expended under the sun.
All that your hand finds to do, with all your might do it.
Ecclesiastes 9:7–10

Get rid of anthrax! (Especially from those sermons!)

SOURCE: Study Finds; Communications Psychology