Acedia and student life: Ancient Christian wisdom for addressing boredom, distraction, and over-commitment in undergraduates

Although the deadly vice of acedia is prevalent in contemporary student culture, it is often misunderstood as mere carelessness. This article reconstructs the ancient meaning of acedia, highlighting its outward markers and arguing for a complex account of its internal motivations grounded in the work of John Cassian. These insights are then applied to the experience of contemporary educators with students who are listless or distracted. Students who manifest acedia ought to be understood as not merely careless, but possibly suffering from a kind of paralysis brought on by anxiety or despair. Finally, Cassian suggests some remedies available to educators.