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When you start thinking things through from the kingdom perspective, you can end up with some conclusions that are radically different from where you started.

I remember when we were buying our recent home. I wanted a yard, I wanted a driveway, and I wanted a great neighborhood where there were no troubles and I never had to deal with the neighbors if I didn't want to. Maybe I'd invite them over for a cookout or something.

But we didn't have the money to get that kind of house. So we got this house where we live next to a set of apartments that are pretty transient. We're not in the neighborhood we desired, but I found it interesting that we want large, glorious homes with nice yards that separate us from people. I think it should be the opposite in our churches.

You write about Dorothy Sayers' radical re-definition of work That's important for the middle class, who tend to be working stiffs who put a lot of hours in jobs that they may not like.

Sayers thought that our work should be a calling. She criticized the idea that you only can have a calling to church ministry. If the work is good, if it's building up creation, then it is good work. And we human beings, in the image of God, freely put our hand to creation the way that God did at the beginning. She thinks that's how we are God-like, when work serves the worker, you could say.

She talked about developing an idea of work and the economy as the cultivation of human life.

I realized how radical it was that she really thought that almost everything has to change. Her view of the little wheel that hamsters run on is that we have an economy that just goes nowhere. We have to consume more so that we can produce more. She was trying to think about work that brings goodness into our life and serves other people and serves the good of creation.

That's important when talking about middle class asceticism.

It's not a denial of the body as much as a transformation of the body. So denying ourselves, or limiting ourselves is a way to enjoy life more. I think that's the simple point. I teach college students, and it's easy to make analogies to things like drinking. If you drink in excess you have stopped enjoying the drink a long time ago. And I think that's the same thing with money and property and so on, that if we can do it in our limited sense with our eyes to God's kingdom then, in fact, we'll enjoy those things much more.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More information is available from the publisher.

Dick Staub is president of the Center for Faith and Culture, which examines intersections between popular culture and religious belief. Complete transcripts and audio versions of Dick Staub Interviews can be found at dickstaub.com. Recent Dick Staub Interviews for Christianity Today include:

Driving to Paradise | David Brooks, author of On Paradise Drive, says Americans are on a spiritual search for paradise, and Christians need to supply the language for the search. (May 05, 2004)

Jerry Bridges Is Still Pursuing Holiness | After 25 years, The Pursuit of Holiness is a classic (April 27, 2004)

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48