Seven Deadly Sins

• All these sins are venial if they inadvertently cause harm to others or to the natural order. They become mortal if one embraces their effects.

Superbia §

• “The Essence of all Sin”. It contends with supremacy over the divine itself by placing more importance on the Self.

• It is being preoccupied only with the Self; to desire to always be the center of attention no matter what, even when this attention is undue.

• It is to look down on others below with arrogance, rooted in placing an unhealthy amount of value on the Self.

• Pride in this sense means a distorted elevation of the self. The Christian teaching sees man’s Pride as a direct challenge to God.

  • *The proud desire their excellence even at the expense and neglect of all others .
  • Cassian argues that Pride is the root of all vices and the destroyer of all virtues.
  • Aquinas states — “The Proud wants to usurp the role of God”. They overreach in three ways
    • One’s desire is borne to something that exceeds one’s measure.
    • One attributes to oneself or one’s merits, an excellence that one can obtain only through the favor of another.
    • One affects to have something above others that it belongs to the person to have in the same way others do.
  • Aristotle categorizes some form of Pride as a golden mean to other virtues
    • Magnanimity - people worthy of great things and know it. They remember the good they do but not what they receive for the recipient is inferior to the giver.
    • Pusillanimity - people worthy of great things but don’t know it.
    • Foolishness - people thinking they are worthy of great things but aren’t.
    • Temperance - people who know they are not worthy of great things and know it.
  • Dante says — “Pride becomes a love of self perverted to hatred and contempt of others”

• The failure to orient oneself to God results in an inflated sense of self-importance and self-reliance which, in the end, denies the reality of our dependent existence, and which inflates one’s belief in their own moral excellence.

• Taylor contends there are three manifestations of pride

  • Vanity - placing importance on what others think of us. This necessitates the need to keep up appearances and place value on the ephemeral.
  • Conceit - placing no importance on what others think. Here, we compare ourselves to others in ways that favor ourselves.
  • Arrogance - placing no importance to others. The arrogant see themselves as entitled to a privileged place.

• The proud person invariable ‘looks down’ on others. But if one is always looking down, one can never notice what is ‘above’—especially if one assumes that there can be nothing above the self.

  • The proud do not acknowledge the role of others.
  • This view is prone to isolationism and ignores the role of the community in one’s own achievements and growth. As Herdt comments. Magnanimity is self-deception. One denies their dependence on others.

• Pride is rooted in the desire for excellence, honor, and glory. Pride is a refusal to accept one’s place in the world because of a perverse desire for preeminence over others In every kind of pride we see

  • A denial of one’s reality
  • An obsessive focus on the self
  • Alienating others by refusing to acknowledge the good that come from them.

• The counterpart of Pride is Humility which allows one to perceive the genuine value of the world instead of a distorted view. It is to see oneself as how one truly is.

  • Humility supplements Magnanimity. If Magnanimity prevents us to from thinking too little of ourselves, humility prevents us from thinking too much.
  • This is also supplemented by Pity (Misericordia) — we understand the other’s distress as our own. We give to others as we have received from others. Reception entails three things
    • Valuing the other as possessing a quality of excellence
    • An understanding of one’s own lack of excellence
    • A sense of gratitude for the good.

Invidia §

• “The Venomous Sin”. It weeps at those who rejoice and rejoices over those who weep.

• It is to compare, criticize and complain, being ungrateful and hateful of others for what they have.

• It is rooted in twisted desire. The Other has something seemingly valuable, the Self must have it as well.

• Envy can be seen as a moral emotion connected with a concern for justice but misguided

  • To Helmut Schoeck — Envy is a drive which lies at the core of man’s life as a social being, and which occurs as soon as two individuals become capable of mutual comparison
  • Aquinas describes envy as “Sorrow for another’s good. Another’s good may be reckoned as being one’s own evil, in so far as it conduces to the lessening of one’s own good name or excellence. It is in this way that envy grieves for another’s good”. Such sorrow has variants distinct from envy
    • Fear - to fear that other’s fortune may cause harm either to oneself or some other goods.
    • Zeal - to feel sorrow not because the other person has it, but one does not.
    • Righteous Indignation - to feel sorrow because one feels that the other does not deserve what they have.
    • Envy is sorrow in such a way that it damages our Pride by either
      • Causing one to lose sight of one’s own excellence
      • Develop resentment because the other is “more excellent”.

• Envy is rooted in a perception of inferiority. At the root of envy is the notion of a comparative self-worth.

  • Comparative self-worth means that one’s worth is evaluated in terms of the worth of others.
  • The perception of inferiority arises when the comparison results in one’s perception of their own self-worth is seen as inferior compared to others.
  • Sorrow arising from a perception of inferiority regarding another’s good is envy
  • Jealousy is unlike envy in that (1) it need not come with a feeling of inferiority, and (2) it may be rooted in some form of legitimate claim
  • Envy arises partially from a lack of self-love.

• Envy involves the disposition to feel hostility, spite, or ill-will at the perceived superiority of another person in some respect

• Envy gives rise to other evils that involve either of the following

  • Diminishing the superiority of the other in some way so that the envied is at least on par with the envier.
    • Diminishing the actual importance of the other’s accomplishments.
    • Drawing to other faults of the envied.
    • Schadenfreude - finding pleasure in the other’s misfortune.
    • Hatred - wishing ill on another without taking pleasure in their good. The goods of another are a source of pain.
  • The envier increases their position so that they surpass that of the envied.
    • Invidiousness - competitive pride. To feel good about oneself only if someone compares disadvantageously with themselves.

• Envy is rooted in our predisposition to look upward than downward. Thus the success of others (through either individual effort or societal progress) leads to envy.

• One reason why envy is so powerful is because the ultimate desire it aims to satisfy is so powerful, namely having a positive estimation of one’s own self worth.

• Most efforts to minimize envy only end up masking it.

  • Envy can be overcome if we see our own good as being connected to the good of others.

Ira §

• “The Fiery Sin”. It lashes out at a reality deemed unacceptable and unable to be changed.

• It is the explosive power of a flawed affection, Often it comes out as an emotional response when one feels that something they love is threatened.

• It is rooted in many things, but it is mostly out of perceived helplessness and twisted self-centered love.

• There are three dimensions to consider when it comes to delineating Wrath and Anger. These correspond to the functions of anger. Excellence in all three constitutes Patience, otherwise it is either Wrath or Meekness.

  • Appraisal in wrongdoing
    • Anger arises when a situation is illegitimate, wrong, or unfair contrary to what ought to be. Anger comes from a value judgment which elicits an attribution of blame.
    • Wrath comes from anger that is excessive compared to the degree of wrong. Meekness comes from a deficiency of such anger.
  • Motivation
    • Anger that is simply passive and without action is less virtuous than an active one. Virtuous anger moves us to action.
    • Another aspect to virtuous anger is fighting to change or fix the slight that one is angry about.
    • There are two views on the relationship between anger and motivation
      • The Pessimistic view posits that anger as a motive is not virtuous because anger invites aggression, impulsiveness, and spitefulness. ¹
      • The Optimistic view posits that anger can be a driver for virtuous action especially if it carries out proportionate retribution against injustices.
  • Communication
    • It is not enough to have right motive and appraisal, one must also communicate their anger virtuously in such a way that would be received well by equally virtuous interlocutors
      • By accounting for the reception of others, the virtuosity of anger is not necessarily derived from the response of someone’s actual interlocutors (they may be violent or vehemently disagree with their views)
      • We account for cases where external factors make it difficult to a person to normally be excellently angry
    • Virtuous anger typically necessitates, assuming no immediate threat or moral danger, communication with the offending party to bring to attention their perceived wrongdoings and to negotiate. The goal is not to humiliate or vilify but to resolve the injustice and get the other party to understand.

• Considering the three dimensions above, we can characterize variants of Wrath and Meekness ²

  • Insensitivity - failing to be angry at the things for which anger is appropriate.
  • Hypersensitivity - being angry at things for which anger isn’t fitting or displaying anger disproportionate to the magnitude of the offense.
  • Sullenness / Resentment - passive anger. Being angry but not having proper motive and resolving the issue or not communicating it properly . This indicates an excess of self-restraint.
  • Aggression / Fury - aggressive anger. Being angry in such a way that might change the situation but would be appraised as wrongful and would likely be met with aggressive retaliation. This indicates a lack of self-restraint and respect for others.

• The moral danger of wrath is moral overconfidence and moral insensitivity

Acedia §

• “The Apathetic Sin”. It is a soul-decaying apathy and carelessness towards others.

• It manifests not only as idleness to improve oneself but also as indifference in general. It is simply going through the motions of life with a lack of appetite for something more.

• It is rooted in the desire for selfish comfort, for doing anything more compromises the control they have over their lives.

• It is easy to mistake Sloth for being lazy in work, but in the original usage of the word, Sloth is about being restless and discontented with one’s spiritual obligations.

  • To Evagirus, Acedia instills a dislike to one’s commitment to their spiritual identity and vocation. Acedia also involves an inner resistance towards one’s vocation and the practices needed to sustain it.
  • Cassian was the one who pointed out the external manifestations of Sloth — laziness and inertia. In this case, Slothfulness is reflective of one’s spiritual disposition as being resistant and discontentful to one’s spiritual role.
  • To Aquinas, Sloth stands in opposition to doing things out of love.
  • In a more secular context, The slothful person is a psychological puzzle; they are a person who resists their vocation, even though it is the key to their own happiness.

• Sloth’s physical symptoms manifest both as undue rest (laziness) and by restless escapism (busyness).

  • Escapism may also extend to being in active denial or being deluded with fantasy. To this end Aquinas characterizes Sloth by “the wandering of the mind after illicit things”.
  • Such escapism avoids the reality of real life.
  • In this sense, workaholism is also sloth because it is more self-centered, paralleling Pride for its egocentrism.
  • Diligently practicing religious activities might also function as Sloth when they avoid their real purpose — to become closer to God.
  • Sloth is also embodied as resistance to positive change. In this sense, Sloth is also rooted in Pride. Those with sloth object to not being able to stay the way they are.. Sloth is a resistance to a change of heart

• To the slothful — It seems safer to try not to feel anything, when the alternative is to feel the unbearable and inescapable tension that comes with refusing to be who you really are”

• Sloth can only be overcome by Charity — by not resisting the changes necessary to achieve something positive

Avaritia §

• “The Discontented Sin”. It is the excessive, unbounded desire for money and material things

• It manifests subtly. It is hoarding for fear of not having enough. It is valuing the material to the point of doing wrong. It is never finding contentment.

• It is rooted in an unhealthy desire gone wrong. The desire for acquiring things is natural, but greed misdirects this by placing the value solely on the material.

• Dante in his Inferno accounts for two manifestations of Greed - hoarders, who desire more for the sake of having more, and squanderers, who waste what they have.

  • One of the key and most damaging characteristics of avarice is that it inhibits or destroys, culpably, second-person relatedness with others
  • It is plausible that the constant use of money promotes and to some extent requires a reductive outlook on the world.
  • It is also plausible that the habit of financial valuation can also tempt a person to try to value something which cannot properly be measured in this way.

• 1 Timothy 6:10 describes the love of money as the root of all evils.

• The love of money is unlike that of the love of food and drink (Gluttony) because it places value on something abstract (monetary value) and man made.

  • Money alone cannot naturally sustain human life.
  • A corollary to this is that Avarice has no natural stopping point.
  • Another corollary is that because money can be spent on anything, this raises more moral questions — how is it acquired and spent as compared to what is virtuous and appropriate.

• The question of Greed lies in to what extent is the desire for money or material things good / bad?

  • Another issue is reducing things to monetary values even if none exists (i.e., there is no monetary value for divine salvation)

• The counterpart virtue of Greed is liberality — to relate to other people and use money for the betterment of others. Liberality is to be light-hearted about possessions. Greed is about being burdened by them.

  • A liberal person is predisposed to giving.
  • A liberal person does not hoard unnecessary things that does not contribute to cultivating second-person relatedness.
  • A liberal person resists the urge to acquire possessions that harm their relatedness to others, including not looking after their own needs.

Gula §

• “The Wasteful Sin”. It is directing the appetite towards improper ends.

  • It manifests as satiating the appetite in excess, but also as being picky. It is seeing the self-indulgence satisfied as the only end to life even at the expense of someone else.
  • It is rooted in a lack of self-control or stability, being driven only by one’s carnal appetite to fulfill some deeper need

• Gluttony is essentially a deformation within the human self of the nexus of beliefs about and sensory desires for food and drink.

• Aquinas points out there are five species of gluttony. All five arise from intemperance leading to a distorted appetite for sensory pleasures, typically associated with eating and drinking

  • Praepropere / Hasty - those who cannot wait for mealtime.
  • Nimis / Ravenous - those who eat too much with little attention to their fellow diners
  • Ardenter / Excessive - those who keep eating after their natural hunger for food is satisfied.
  • Laute / Sumptuous - those who unreasonably demand the best instances of each type of food.
  • Studiose / Fastidious - those who excessively desire that dishes be prepared in accordance with their wishes (too dainty or elaborately prepared)

• The problem of Gluttony arises from how and when we desire the pleasures associated with satiating hunger.

  • Appetite is a vessel for various pleasures. Gluttony twists the role these pleasures play in moral life.
    • Gluttony can disable us by physiologically debilitating us (i.e., junk food or addiction)
    • Gluttony can distract us when we are captivated by intensely pleasurable food or drink which draws our attention from more important things.
    • Gluttony can disorient us from the “fully good” and significant kinds of pleasurable experiences.
  • In Aquinas’ view, Gluttony can distract us from the true goal of food — to become closer with others and to appreciate the glory of God.
  • The Gluttonous disorder of desire can manifest in thought and action before we eat, while we are eating, and after we have eaten to satiety, and in regard to both the natural properties of foods and their skillful preparation.

• Even being overly concerned with nutrition with neglect to hospitality and caring for others (the “essence” of food) can be considered gluttony.

• Still, there is some Biomedical considerations since appetite is to some extent governed by genetics.

• It is counteracted by temperance — to bridle by abstinence the pleasures which are too alluring to the soul. Fasting allows us to divert attention from food to more pressing concerns because as McKnight puts it “we become more aware of a grievous lack in ourselves or others”.

Luxuria §

• “The Desirous Sin”. It is the inordinate desire for other things, though usually the carnal and sexual.

  • It manifests in seeking an empty self-gratifying pleasure. It is being blinded by desire to the point of defiling nature and dehumanizing others.
  • It is rooted in unrepressed, unhealthy desires. It places value only on the surface-level pleasure of the experience and not on anything deeper.

• Lust is a sin because it invites someone to deviate from the pursuit of spirituality.

  • Evagirus argues that the primary source of Lust is Gluttony which gives rise to the desire for other pleasures.
    • He advocates three countermeasures: do not satiate yourself wit food; avoid women; monitor one’s fantasies vigilantly
    • Chastity is achieved if one can think of a woman without it inviting sexual desire.
  • John Cassian’s view is that lust afflicts body and soul so the remedy is prayer or manual labor.
    • Unlike the other sins, Lust must be conquered by isolating the self.
  • Amma Sarah’s view is that lust is something that distracts one from devotion to God (i.e., passion).
  • To Aquinas, chastity is the proper ordering of the desire for sexual pleasure. Lust clouds reason.
    • Here, sexual acts should only be used for procreation, and so lust is when one is moved by disordered sexual desire and passion for sexual pleasure.
    • It is not the sexual desire that is sinful nor is it the sexual pleasure, but the misdirected desire towards the individual rather than society.
    • Equivalently, in this view, two consenting married adults who do not engage in sexual activity for procreation (unless they are deliberately celibate) are also engaging in sin. This is also considered Lust

• Contemporary, secular work suggests that Lust is the virtue and Chastity is the vice. The explanation is due to shifts in attitudes towards sexual practices, although the issue stems mostly from where to draw the line between what is sexually permissible.

  • Blackburn describes lust as the enthusiastic desire, the desire that infuses the body, for sexual activity and its pleasures for their own sake.
  • Lust is a felt desire. It is also associated with excess in the sense it diverts our attention away from the rest of the world towards ecstasy.
  • In Lust, we don’t want to be in control, we want to be swept away. Lust offers a positive Feedback loop.
  • In this view, however, Lust can still be problematic when it leads one to see the other merely as an object for pleasure.

• At the core of the question of Lust is the sense of objectification of the other and the degree of harm it could cause (or where, even, to draw the line).

• For two individuals who care for one another, sexual experience is not simply the satisfaction of desire, although it is surely that; it is also an expression of love.

Tristitia §

• “The Eternal Sin”. It is the belief that one’s own malice is greater than salvation.

• It challenges the notion of experiencing Absolute Forgiveness in the future in favor of Absolute Damnation.

• It is to abandon all hope.

• Aquinas defines Sorrow as a response of feeling overwhelmed by a present evil. It is a deliberate resistance or aversion of the will not just felt but endorsed or consented to. It is an aversion to the divine good in us

  • Through distraction and denial, we pretend the evil is not there or try not to think about it.
  • If we cannot avoid thinking about it and cannot get rid of it, we become depressed and despondent

Links §

• Killjoys - The Seven Deadly Sins by Segal

• The Six Other Deadly Sins by Dorothy Sayers

• Why Pride is the Worst by Einzelganger

• The Summa Theologica by Aquinas

Footnotes §

1. Anger from a psychological perspective need not manifest as violence, and not all violence is caused by Anger. ↩

2. Meekness would fall under Acedia. ↩