Deadly Sins: Seven Ways To Meet Your Demise

The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices in Christian theology. They are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. These sins are thought to be the root of all other sins, and spur further immoral behaviour. Each of these sins warps a fundamental human desire so that it becomes our primary goal in life, and we will do anything to achieve it.

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 and His life-giving presence.

> "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

In the Bible, greed is forbidden by the Ten Commandments, specifically the commandment "You shall not covet". There are also several other admonishments against greed throughout the Old Testament, such as "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). The First Letter of Paul to Timothy also warns against the "love of money" as "a root of all kinds of evil" (6:10).

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, surrounded by examples of avarice. Another of his drawings, Big Fish Eat Little Fish, depicts a grotesque scene of 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. The two groups are guarded by Plutus, possibly the Roman god of the underworld or the god of wealth, as they spend eternity pushing great weights at one another with their chests to symbolise their selfish drive for wealth.

In modern times, greed has been denounced by religious leaders such as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, who linked it to consumerism, the "throwaway culture", and the climate crisis. Greed has also been a theme in popular culture, such as in the film Wall Street (1987), where the character Gordon Gekko declares, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

Lust

In the Bible, lust is mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:22, which says, "Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love [and] peace..." It is also referenced in Job 31:1, Matthew 5:28, Philippians 4:8, James 1:14-15, 1 Peter 2:11, and 1 John 2:16.

The cure for lust is chastity or self-control, which involves controlling passion and leveraging that energy for the good of others.

Envy

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, envy can be understood in three stages. In the first stage, the envious person attempts to lower another person's reputation. In the second stage, the envious person feels either "joy at another's misfortune" or "grief at another's prosperity". The third stage is hatred, as "sorrow causes hatred".

Bertrand Russell is quoted as saying that envy is "one of the most potent causes of unhappiness", bringing sorrow to those who commit it, while also giving them the urge to inflict pain on others.

The antidote to envy is kindness, which involves placing the desire to help others above the need to supersede them.

Gluttony

In the Bible, 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)

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 keep "those who do such things" from inheriting the kingdom of God (Letter of Paul to the Galatians 5:19-21).

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 numerous occasions in his commentary on world hunger, food insecurity, food waste, the obesity epidemic, and materialism.

According to Christian theology, gluttony can be countered with the virtue of temperance. Medieval church leaders such as Thomas Aquinas took an expansive view of gluttony, arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals and overindulgence in delicacies and costly foods. Aquinas listed five forms of gluttony:

• Laute – eating too expensively
• Studiose – eating too daintily
• Nimis – eating too much
• Praepropere – eating too soon
• Ardenter – eating too eagerly

In conclusion, gluttony is a sin of overindulgence, a lack of self-restraint, and a prioritisation of physical pleasures over spiritual well-being. It is considered a deadly sin because it is believed to spur other sins and further immoral behaviour.

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