The 7 Deadly Sins: A Catholic Classification

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. The seven deadly sins in Roman Catholic Church theology are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. The concept of the seven deadly sins originated with the Christian monk Evagrius Ponticus, who identified eight or nine evils in the 4th century. This was later revised to the seven deadly sins by Pope Gregory I in the 6th century.

Pride

The seven deadly sins are a classification of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. According to the standard list, the seven deadly sins in the Roman Catholic Church are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

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. Lewis also states that pride leads to every other vice and is the "complete anti-God state of mind".

Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9–14 to illustrate the dangers of pride. The Pharisee, who is a religious leader, thanks God that he is "not like other men" and lists their sins, while the tax collector asks for mercy because he knows his sin is great. Jesus applauds the tax collector because he did not let pride get in the way of acknowledging his sin.

Envy

The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices within the teachings of Christianity, specifically Roman Catholic theology. The seven deadly sins are behaviours or feelings that inspire further sin. They are: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the struggle of envy occurs in three stages. In the first stage, the envious person tries to lower the other person's reputation. In the second stage, the envious person feels either joy at the other person's misfortune (if they succeeded in defaming them) or grief at their prosperity (if they failed). In the third stage, the envious person feels hatred because "sorrow causes hatred". Aquinas considered envy to be a capital sin as it is the head and form of other sins.

Gluttony

The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices within the teachings of Christianity. They are also known as the capital or cardinal sins. The seven deadly sins of the Roman Catholic Church are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

In the 13th century, St. Thomas 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 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.

Lust

The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices within the teachings of Christianity. The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital or cardinal sins, are: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, written in the 13th century, lust is depicted as one of the seven terraces of Purgatory. Lust is overcome by the virtue of chastity.

Greed

The seven deadly sins are a classification of vices within the teachings of Christianity. They are also known as the capital or cardinal sins. The seven deadly sins are: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

The seven deadly sins were first enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century. They were later elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century.

In the Bible, greed is forbidden by the Ten Commandments, which prohibit coveting the goods of another. 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, saying, "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 propensity of greed to lead to other vices and sins is also called out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says that coveting the goods of another is the root of theft, robbery, and fraud. In Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas writes that covetousness exceeds a natural desire for external or material things in its immoderate desire to acquire things and is, therefore, a sin. He also names other vices that arise from greed, including treachery, fraud, falsehood, perjury, restlessness, violence, and insensibility to mercy.

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 who sits with coins piled in her lap and a toad at her feet. Another of his drawings, Big Fish Eat Little Fish, 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. The two groups are guarded by Plutus (possibly Pluto, 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 symbolize 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 famously says, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

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