On the Seven Deadly Sins
I have written on this theme before, but the point bears repeating.
The Seven Deadly Sins refers to a specific idea in Christian tradition with a specific meaning. They are ‘deadly’ because they lead to other sins.
In order: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust. There is a reason for this order.
Pride is the first and greatest of the seven deadly sins, and the queen and mother of them all, for it replaces God with Self.
The sins of the spirit (Pride, Envy, Wrath) are deadlier than the sin of worldliness (Sloth) which is deadlier than sins of the flesh (Avarice, Gluttony, Lust).
Envy is more self-destructive than Wrath.
Sloth is not laziness, it is indifference to spiritual things, a desire not to be bothered with divines things which inevitably becomes dislike, then hatred of them. (This is why agnostic expressions of indifference to God ring hollow. Atheism is incoming, and then Antichrist.)
Avarice, which cannot be sated, is worse than Gluttony, which can. A glutton can have a full stomach for an hour. A miser cannot have a full coffer.
Note that Avarice denotes lack of generosity, i.e., selfishness, whereas gluttony is lack of self-control, i.e. self-indulgence. (Scrooge, for example, is avaricious, but spartan.) This is another reason why Avarice is worse: it is closer to selfishness. A glutton might throw a feast for his cronies.
Lust is the least, for its a corruption of the virtue of love. It may be the hardest to quell, but it is not, technically speaking, the greatest nor deadliest of the seven.
It is still deadly, of course. In the opera DON GIOVANNI, for example, we have a clear portrayal of how lust leads step by step to gluttony and avarice to pride, where finally the villain, too proud to flee, too proud to fear heaven, would rather be dragged to hell than repent.
Likewise, the Cardinal and Christian virtues have a certain order to them, but, unlike the Seven Deadly Sins, no clear agreement exists in the tradition.
Each virtues depends on the prior: Temperance without Fortitude is impossible, since one cannot bridle the lion of passion without the strength to close his jaws; Fortitude without Justice is foolish brutality; Justice without Prudence is draconian; Prudence is derived from Right Reason, and its absence is folly.
Hence, Wisdom is before Prudence, is before Justice, is before Fortitude is before Temperance.
Of Faith, Hope and Charity, we have it on good authority that the greatest of these is Charity.
But the cardinal and Christian virtues are not the list of the heavenly virtues meant to oppose the deadly sins. St Thomas Aquinas lists these as humility, gratitude, patience, zeal, charity, temperance, and chastity.
Humility is the high virtue that saves one from Pride, and this the first all Christian men must cultivate.
When the Devil says “Non Serviam” (I will not serve!) the Virgin says “Ecce Ancilla Domini” (Behold the handmaiden of the Lord).
St John of Damascus holds that Compassion, which is pain arising from another’s ill fortune, saves one from Envy, which is pleasure arising from another’s ill fortune.
But St Thomas holds that Gratitude is the enemy of Envy, and there is more than a little wisdom here. Myself, I hold gratitude, thanksgiving, as a great cure to very many sins indeed.
The rest are self explanatory: Patience saves one from Wrath, and also Forgiveness. Zeal or Diligence saves one from Sloth; Charity or Generosity saves one from Avarice; Temperance from Gluttony; Chastity from Lust.
Finally, note that each and every deadly sin is a virtue in the progressive political religion: Pride is called Self-Esteem, and has a whole month devoted to its celebration.
Envy is Social Justice, also called Entitlement, the claim that one has a right to health care, or housing, or the fruit of any other man’s talent or effort.
Wrath is Self-Righteous Indignation which cries “No Justice, no peace!” and called murderers martyrs when the die when committing acts of terror and jihad.
Sloth, which is, indifference to heaven, is called Enlightenment, a sacred wall of separation between Church and State. Zeal is denounced as Christian Nationalism, White Supremacy, and Fascism, and traditional Catholics are put on terror watchlists.
Avarice is lauded as enterprise and financial ambition. The Right cloak this as a desire to make oneself wealthy, and Left as a desire to take the wealth of others. Self-control is called ‘sales resistance.’
Gluttony is promoted in every advertisement for foodstuffs imaginable, but an obsession with food and drink, wine and beer, tobacco and marijuana can also manifest when overly nice dieting leads to undereating.
Lust is so well regarded in our society that when a Christian songster writes a droll ditty telling his daughter to be modest, he is hounded from the public square by his fellow Christians, not just by woke perverts. To insist on chastity — no sex before nor outside marriage — provokes scorn and accusations that one is insane, suffers phobias, or Victorian neurosis.
The modern world is more committed and loyal to the Seven Deadly Sins and heaps more contempt on virtue than any prior period of history, bar none.
The Romans are their most hedonist, the Turks and their slave trade, the Mongols trampling cities and rearing piles of skulls, the Aztecs selling cannibal baby-meat in the marketplace, or the Spartans dropping babies into the pit of the Apothetae, the craven Jihadists and their lies, were not as entirely opposed to all virtues as is the modern Progressive Elite.
Pride is the queen of sins. This generation is the most entirely swallowed up and lost in pride.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
