Deadly Sins: Understanding The Seven Forms Of Evil

The seven deadly sins are a classification of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. They are also known as the capital or cardinal sins. According to the standard list, the seven deadly sins are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. These sins are believed to inspire further sin and immoral behaviour.

Pride

C.S. Lewis writes in 'Mere Christianity' that pride is the "anti-God" state, where the ego and the self are directly opposed to God. Pride is understood to sever the spirit from God, as well as His life-and-grace-giving Presence.

Author Ichabod Spencer states that "spiritual pride is the worst kind of pride, if not the worst snare of the devil". Jonathan Edwards said:

> Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul's peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was and lies lowest in the foundation of Lucifer's whole building and is the most difficultly rooted out and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility.

Greed

> Those who are greedy for unjust gain make trouble for their households, but those who hate bribes will live. (Proverbs 15:27)

In the New Testament, Jesus uses the parable of the rich fool to caution against amassing wealth, prefacing the story with the warning:

> Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. (Gospel According to Luke 12:15)

In art, the 16th-century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder made allegorical drawings of the seven deadly sins. In Avaritia, greed is portrayed as a well-dressed woman with coins piled in her lap and a toad at her feet. Another of Bruegel's allegorical drawings of greed is Big Fish Eat Little Fish, which depicts a grotesque scene that includes smaller fish falling out of the mouth and stomach of a giant beached fish.

In Dante's 14th-century work Inferno, the sin of greed is assigned to the fourth circle of hell, where those who hoarded wealth on earth joust with those who spent it lavishly.

In modern times, greed has been represented in popular culture, such as in Oliver Stone's film Wall Street (1987). In one of its most famous scenes, the character Gordon Gekko, a ruthless corporate raider, tells a room of shareholders, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI called greed the root of the global economic crisis of 2008. Pope Francis frequently denounced greed throughout his papacy, linking it to consumerism and the "throwaway culture," and describing it as an addiction that drives many of the world's wars and conflicts and contributes to the climate crisis.

Lust

The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas described lust as:

> "...wherever there occurs a special kind of deformity whereby the venereal act is rendered unbecoming, there is a determinate species of lust. This may occur in two ways: First, through being contrary to right reason, and this is common to all lustful vices; secondly, because, in addition, it is contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race: and this is called 'the unnatural vice.'"

Envy

The Bible speaks about envy in Proverbs 14:30, "A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones." Other biblical texts that mention envy include Job 5:2, Psalm 37:1, Proverbs 24:19-20, Ecclesiastes 4:4, Galatians 5:26, and James 3:14-16. Envy is also one of the Ten Commandments – "Thou shalt not covet".

The first recorded instance of envy in history is in Genesis 4, where Cain envies his brother Abel because God favours Abel's sacrifice. Cain's envy leads to murderous intent, and he kills Abel. Another example of envy in the Bible is when Jacob's sons sell their brother Joseph into slavery out of jealousy.

The concept of the seven deadly sins was first compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600. The standard list of the seven deadly sins in the Roman Catholic Church is pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Envy is considered a powerful motivator, and psychologists suggest that there are two kinds of envy: benign and malicious. Benign envy is non-hostile and can motivate a person to work harder and improve themselves. On the other hand, malicious envy leads to sin and can cause a person to want the object of their envy to suffer.

In Dante's "Purgatory", sinners guilty of envy have their eyes sewn shut with wire because they have received pleasure from another's misfortune. Similarly, in Shakespeare's "Othello", Iago warns Othello not to trust his wife out of jealousy, when in fact, it is Iago who cannot be trusted.

Unchecked, envy can lead to rivalry, conflict, hatred, and even murder. A real-life example of this is the case of Wanda Holloway, the Texas cheerleader mom. Holloway's daughter lost out on a spot on the junior high cheerleading squad to another girl, and in her envy, Holloway contacted her ex-brother-in-law to hire a hitman to kill the other girl's mother. Fortunately, the ex-brother-in-law went to the police, and Holloway was arrested and served 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder.

Gluttony

The Bible repeatedly warns against gluttony in the Old Testament. The Book of Proverbs advises: "Do not join with wine bibbers, nor with those who glut themselves on meat. For drunkards and gluttons come to poverty, and lazing about clothes one in rags" (Proverbs 23:20–21). Gluttony is also one of the sins named in God's judgment upon the wicked city of Sodom, whose inhabitants were "proud, sated with food, complacent in prosperity. They did not give any help to the poor and needy" (Book of Ezekiel 16:49).

In the New Testament, St. Paul the Apostle includes "drinking bouts, orgies, and the like" in his list of "works of the flesh" that will prevent "those who do such things" from inheriting the kingdom of God (Letter of Paul to the Galatians 5:19–21). Paul also likens gluttony to idolatry, as in his description of the "enemies of the cross of Christ" in the Letter of Paul to the Philippians: "Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their 'shame.' Their minds are occupied with earthly things" (Philippians 3:18–19).

In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas specified five ways in which gluttony can present itself:

• Hastily: eating or drinking too rapidly or at the inappropriate time.
• Sumptuously: eating or drinking rich or expensive fare over healthier or more moderate options.
• Excessively: eating or drinking too much.
• Greedily: eating or drinking too eagerly and refusing to share.
• Daintily: eating food that is dainty in quality or excessively prepared.

In Dante's 14th-century Inferno, gluttons are punished in the third circle of hell, where they are guarded and tortured by Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed beast, while lying face down in icy mud and slush.

In the modern era, Pope Francis has referenced the sin of gluttony on several occasions in his commentary on world hunger, food insecurity, food waste, the obesity epidemic, and materialism.

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