In the fourth century, a Christian monk named Evagrius Ponticus wrote down what are known as the “eight evil thoughts”: gluttony, lust, greed, anger, laziness, sadness, vanity, and pride.
Evagrius did not write for general audiences. As an ascetic monk in the Eastern Christian Church, he wrote to other monks about how these eight thoughts could interfere with their spiritual practice. Evagrius’ pupil John Cassian brought these ideas to the Western Church, where they were translated from Greek to Latin. In the sixth century, Saint Gregory the Great – who would become Pope Gregory I – reorganized them in his commentary on the Book of Job, removing “laziness” and adding “envy”. Instead of giving “pride” its own place on the list, he described it as the head of the other seven vices, which became known as the seven deadly sins.
“They are called ‘mortal’ or ‘mortal’ because they lead to the death of the soul,” explains Richard G. Newhauser, professor of English at Arizona State University who has edited books on the seven sins. capital. “To commit one of these mortal sins and not to confess, not to do penance and so on, will result in the death of the soul. And then you will be in hell for eternity, or your soul will be in hell for eternity.
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Thomas Aquinas revisits the list
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
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Fast forward to the 13th century, when the theologian Thomas Aquinas again revisited the list in Summa Theologica (“Summary of theology”). In his list, he brought back “laziness” and eliminated “sadness”. Like Gregory, Thomas Aquinas described “pride” as the supreme master of the seven sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Churchthe current deadly sins are basically the same as Aquinas, except that “pride” replaces “vain glory”.
The Seven Deadly Sins were a popular motif in medieval art and literature, which likely helped them persist as a concept through the centuries, eventually entering film and television. Movies Se7en (1995) and Shazam (2019) both deal with the Seven Deadly Sins. Even on Gilligan Island, the American sitcom that aired from 1965 to 1967, each character was meant to represent a different mortal sin, according to the show’s creator (Gilligan was “lazy”). Here we take a look at the list that has fascinated people for so long.
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Engraving of the Seven Deadly Sins.
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1. Vainglory / Pride
The Lists of the Seven Sins often use vanity and pride interchangeably. But technically it’s not the same, says Kevin M. Clarke, professor of writing and patristics at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University, who has edited a book of historical writings on the Seven Deadly Sins. .
“Vainglory is kind of like that vice that requires us to verify our social media ‘likes’ account,” he says. “Vainglory is where we seek human recognition.” In contrast, “pride is a sin where I essentially take spiritual credit for what I have done”, instead of “attributing one’s good deeds to God”.
2. Greed
“Gregory the Great wrote that avarice is not only a desire for wealth but for honors [and] high positions, ”says Newhauser. “So he was aware that things that we would consider intangible could also be the object of greed.” While some of the sins may vary from list to list, greed or greed appears on each one.
3. Envy
“Evagrius doesn’t have envy on his list,” Clarke said, but Evagrius included sadness. “Sadness is closely related to envy because envy actually concerns two things: one is the joy of the misfortune of others and [the other is] grief over someone else’s fortune.
Gregory articulated this when he added envy to his list of vices, writing that envy bred “the exultation of a neighbor’s woes and the affliction of his prosperity.”
4. Anger
Anger can be a normal reaction to injustice, but anger is more. The Catechism says that “If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously injure a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. Medieval artists represented anger with scenes of fights as well as scenes of suicide.
5. Lust
Lust is so broad that it encompasses sex outside of heterosexual marriage as well as sex inside heterosexual marriage. The Catechism defines lust as “disorderly desire or excessive enjoyment of sexual pleasure.” Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when it is sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unifying goals.
Of all the sins, this is probably the one on which public opinion has changed the most. Although the Catholic Church officially opposes birth control and same-sex marriage, polls from Gallup and the Pew Research Center show the majority of Catholics in the United States believe the church should allow birth control and that same-sex marriage should remain legal.
6. Gluttony
Early Christian theologians understood that gluttony encompassed binge drinking and craving for too much refined food, in addition to overeating.
“If I just have to have the most delicate food, the most expensive food, it can be a form of gluttony,” says Clarke.
7. Lazy
Lazy has come to mean “laziness” today, but for early Christian theologians it meant “a lack of care in the performance of spiritual duties,” Newhauser says. Although Gregory did not include laziness in his list of seven sins, he did mention it when speaking of the sin of sorrow or melancholy, writing that melancholy causes “laziness in fulfilling the commandments.”
When Thomas Aquinas replaced sadness with laziness in his list of deadly sins, he maintained a connection between the two. “Laziness is a kind of sadness,” he wrote, “whereby a man becomes sluggish in spiritual exercises because they tire the body.”
