Robert A. Muthiah, professor of Practical Theology at Azusa Pacific Seminary and member of the Pasadena Mennonite Church, has written a delightful little book about practical Sabbath observance. It provides valuable insights into the riches and blessings the Sabbath has in store for busy Christians. The book is written in an inviting way and helps to put into practice what it means to keep the Sabbath. As such it is an experiment and exercise in spiritual formation. In seven engaging chapters, each followed by a short postscript on “slowing down” that ends with several practical questions to help reflect the content of the chapter, Muthiah unfolds his understanding of the Sabbath and its blessing for modern human beings.

He starts capturing the Sabbath spirit by exploring the Sabbath as divine gift and picturing the Sabbath as a queen that invites us to make deliberate choices to celebrate the holiness of the Sabbath. He draws his insights from Jewish authors like Abraham Heschel and Samuel Dresner, but also is conversant with recent Christian authors like Walter Brueggemann and Marva Dawn, who have written on the Sabbath. Muthiah focuses on what it means for modern people to slow down. He points out the blessings the Sabbath has in store for us in an age of digital connectedness and suggests ways to connect with God by deliberately disconnecting from digital gadgets on the Sabbath (pp. 29–42). He aptly shows that in our hectic lifestyle “we can’t simply add Sabbath rest on top of everything else. It needs its own space in time” (p. 19). Thus, we need to make a deliberate decision to keep that time holy.

He also widens our horizon for ethical implications of Sabbath rest when he discusses how the Sabbath changes the way we relate to our work, to consumerism that captivates much of our attention, and to justice for others. In a very insightful discussion on how our brains work he points out a blessing of the Sabbath that we often do not think about: “By entering into Sabbath time and by making choices that encourage the spirit of Sabbath, we may strengthen certain parts of our brains in ways that allow us to be more focused, think more deeply, and be more compassionate at other times of the week too” (p. 39). Indeed, the Sabbath is “freeing us for a counter-cultural way of living as followers of Christ” (p. 63).

There is much to be learned (even for Seventh-day Adventists) from what Muthiah writes. He can help us to gain a new love for the Sabbath and a mindset that delights in the Sabbath rather than seeing it as a mere fulfillment of duty. Throughout the book there are short testimonies of people who have started with the experiment to have Sabbath in their lives and recount new insights and blessings they have received. For this Muthiah is to be congratulated and the book will be appreciated by all who have lost the beauty of the Sabbath blessing or who want to regain it.

While Muthiah promotes the Sabbath in beautiful, important, and very practical ways, there is something significant missing in the book that will make Sabbath observance even more rewarding and meaningful. There is a biblical-prophetic aspect to the Sabbath that goes far beyond what Muthiah so eloquently describes. Contrary to Muthiah, who thinks that “through historical and theological development, the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, and Sunday have become one” (p. 4) the Bible is clear that there is a particular day of the week that is designated as God’s holy Sabbath-day. Thus, the Sabbath is not just a Sabbath principle of rest that can be moved to others days of the week, but a specific day of the week that is designated by God to be the Sabbath-day. The biblical importance of this insight is missing in Muthiah’s description of the Sabbath. In fact, he tells of people and pastors who keep their “Sabbath” on Monday or on other days (pp. 24, 93) as their work schedule permits. His understanding of what constitutes work on the Sabbath seems equally flexible. In doing so Muthiah misses a biblical dimension of the Sabbath that is prophetically very meaningful: in the Bible, the Sabbath is depicted as a special sign and seal that indicates our commitment and loyalty to God, who is our redeemer and creator, when competing powers court for our allegiance during the end time. That the Sabbath plays a special role in this final conflict of allegiance makes the particular Sabbath-day even more special and meaningful to the believer. Of course, this is connected to a certain historical and biblical understanding of the Sabbath that is absent in this book. Despite this deficiency the book is to be recommended for anyone interested in keeping the Sabbath more deliberately, meaningfully, and joyfully and who wants to experience the blessing of the Sabbath in new areas of life.