The
Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the
Capital Vices or
Cardinal Sins, is a classification of the most objectionable vices which has been used since early
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
times to educate and instruct followers concerning (
immoralMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
) fallen man's tendency to
sinSin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule, or the state of having committed such a violation. Commonly, the moral code of conduct is decreed by a divine entity, i.e...
. It consists of "
LustLust is a craving for sexual intercourse, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent or violent character. Lust, or a desire for the flesh of another, is considered a sin, or impure act, in the three major Abrahamic religions, although rarely criticized and even encouraged in other...
", "
GluttonyGluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste...
", "
GreedGreed in psychology is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.-Theology:...
", "
SlothIn the Christian moral tradition, sloth is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins; these sins are called the capital sins because they destroy charity in the person's heart and thus may lead to final impenitence and eternal death.-Definition:Sloth is defined as spiritual...
", "Wrath", "
EnvyEnvy may be defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it." The Catholic definition of Envy is to wish you had another man's tangible or intagible blessings...
", and "
PridePride is, depending on the context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self or one's own or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things...
".
The Catholic Church divided sin into two principal categories: "
Venial sinAccording to Roman Catholicism, a venial sin is a lesser sin that does not result in a complete separation from God and eternal damnation in Hell...
s", which are relatively minor, and could be forgiven through any
SacramentalsSacramentals are material objects, things or actions set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Churches, and Old Catholic Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these...
or Sacraments of the church, and the more severe "Capital" or
Mortal sinMortal sin, according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church is a sin that, unless confessed and absolved , condemns a person's soul to Hell after death...
s. Mortal sins destroyed the life of
graceIn Christianity, grace is "unmerited favor" from God. Divine grace is a description of the character of God, which is displayed by God's gifts to humanity. Grace describes the means by which humans are granted salvation...
, and created the threat of eternal damnation unless either absolved through the sacrament of Confession, or forgiven through perfect
contritionContrition or contriteness is sincere and complete remorse for sins one has committed...
on the part of the penitent.
Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Christian culture and Christian consciousness in general throughout the world. One means of such ingraining was the creation of the
mnemonicA mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be...
"SALIGIA" based on the first letters in Latin of the seven deadly sins:
superbia,
avaritia,
luxuria,
invidia,
gula,
ira,
acedia.
Biblical Lists
In the
Book of ProverbsThe Book of Proverbs is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Title:...
, it is stated that "the Lord" specifically regards "six things the Lord hateth, and the seventh His soul detesteth." namely:
- Haughty eyes
- A lying tongue
- Hands that shed innocent blood
- A heart that devises wicked plots
- Feet that are swift to run into mischief
- A deceitful witness that uttereth lies
- Him that soweth discord among brethren
While there are seven of them, this list is considerably different from the traditional one, the only sin on both lists being pride. Another list of bad things, given this time by the
Epistle to the GalatiansThe Epistle to the Galatians, also known as Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
, includes more of the traditional seven sins, although the list is substantially longer: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, "and such like".
Development of the Traditional Seven Sins
The modern concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is linked to the works of the 4th century
monkA monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
Evagrius PonticusEvagrius Ponticus , or Evagrius the Solitary was a Christian monk and ascetic. One of the rising stars in the late fourth century church, he was well-known as a keen thinker, a polished speaker, and a gifted writer...
, who listed eight
evil thoughts in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
as follows :
(gastrimargia) (porneia) (philargyria) (lype) (orge) (akedia) (kenodoxia) (hyperephania)
They were translated into
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
, as follows: (
gluttonyGluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste...
) (fornication,
lustLust is a craving for sexual intercourse, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent or violent character. Lust, or a desire for the flesh of another, is considered a sin, or impure act, in the three major Abrahamic religions, although rarely criticized and even encouraged in other...
) (avarice/
greedGreed in psychology is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.-Theology:...
) (sorrow/
despairDespair or hopelessness is the loss of hope. It can also refer to:* Despair , a 1936 novel by Vladimir Nabokov* Despair , a 1978 film adapted by Tom Stoppard from the above and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder...
) (wrath) (
acediaAcedia is a word from ancient Greece describing a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct...
) (vainglory) (
PridePride is, depending on the context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self or one's own or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things...
)
These 'evil thoughts' can be broken down into three groups:
- lustful appetite (Gluttony, Fornication, and Avarice)
- irascibility (Anger)
- intellect (Vainglory, Sorrow, Pride, and Discouragement)
In 590 AD, some years after Ponticus,
Pope Gregory IPope St. Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
revised this list to form the more common
Seven Deadly Sins, by folding
sorrow into
despair,
vainglory into
pride, and adding
extravaganceExtravagance is unrestrained excess. Extravagant behaviour includes the frequent purchase of luxury goods, and was once considered one of the seven deadly sins ; as a result of semantic change in the Romance languages, lust later replaced it in the list.However, when the adjectival form -...
and
envyEnvy may be defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it." The Catholic definition of Envy is to wish you had another man's tangible or intagible blessings...
, while removing
fornication from the list. In the order used by both Pope Gregory and by
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
in his epic poem
The Divine ComedyThe Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a...
, the seven deadly sins are as follows:
- (extravagance)
- (gluttony)
- (avarice/greed)
- (acedia/discouragement)
- (wrath)
- (envy)
- (pride)
The identification and definition of the seven deadly sins over their history has been a fluid process and the idea of what each of the seven actually encompasses has evolved over time. Additionally, as a result of
semantic changeSemantic change, also known as semantic shift or semantic progression describes the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word...
:
- Lust
Lust is a craving for sexual intercourse, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent or violent character. Lust, or a desire for the flesh of another, is considered a sin, or impure act, in the three major Abrahamic religions, although rarely criticized and even encouraged in other...
was substituted for luxuria in all but name
- socordia (sloth
In the Christian moral tradition, sloth is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins; these sins are called the capital sins because they destroy charity in the person's heart and thus may lead to final impenitence and eternal death.-Definition:Sloth is defined as spiritual...
) was substituted for acedia
This process of change has been aided by the fact that the personality traits are not collectively referred to, in either a cohesive or codified manner, by the Bible itself; other literary and ecclesiastical works were instead consulted, as sources from which definitions might be drawn. Part II of Dante's
Divine Comedy,
PurgatorioPurgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil...
, has almost certainly been the best known source since the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
.
The modern Roman Catholic Catechism lists the sins as: "
pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth/acedia".. Each of the seven deadly sins now also has an opposite among corresponding
seven holy virtuesIn Catholic catechism, the seven virtues refers to one of two lists of virtues, most commonly referring to the 4 Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Restraint or Temperance, and Courage or Fortitude, and the 3 Theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity; these were adopted by the...
(sometimes also referred to as the
contrary virtues). In parallel order to the sins they oppose, the seven holy virtues are
humilityThe term "humility" is derived from the Latin word "humilitas", a noun related to the adjective "humilis", translated not only as "humble", but also alternatively as "low", or "from the earth", and "humus", humid...
,
charityIn Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving....
,
kindnessKindness is the act or the state of being kind and marked by charitable behaviour, marked by mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others...
,
patiencePatience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. It is also used to refer to the...
,
chastityChastity is sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the ethical norms and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion.In the western world, the term has become closely associated with sexual abstinence, especially before marriage...
,
temperanceTemperance is the practice of moderation. It was one of the four "cardinal" virtues held to be vital to society in Hellenic culture...
, and
diligenceDiligence is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work. Decisive work ethic. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Putting forth full concentration in one's work. Diligence is usually promoted in work places...
.
Extravagance
Extravagance (Latin, ) is
unrestrainedRestraint may refer to:* Physical restraint, the practice of rendering people helpless or keeping them in captivity by means such as handcuffs, ropes, straps, etc.** Medical restraint, a subset of general physical restraint used for medical purposes...
excessExcess is a state of something being present beyond a requisite amount. In certain contexts, it has a more specialized meaning:* In insurance, similar to deductible.* In chemistry, describing any reagent that is not the limiting reagent....
. Extravagant behaviour includes the frequent purchase of luxury goods, and forms of
debauchery.
In the
Romance languagesThe Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, the
cognateCognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymological origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt, the former from Old English scyrte, the latter loaned from Old Norse skyrta, both from the same Common Germanic *skurtjōn-. Words with this type...
s of
luxuria (the Latin name of the sin)
evolvedSemantic change, also known as semantic shift or semantic progression describes the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word...
to have an exclusively sexual meaning; the
Old FrenchOld French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 900 to 1300...
cognate was adopted into English as
luxury, but this lost its sexual meaning by the 14th century. The church found it more practical and politically expedient to allow this more restricted interpretation to become dominant, resulting in
lust replacing
extravagance in the list.
Lust
Lust or
lechery, is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a
sexualHuman sexuality is how people experience the erotic and express themselves as sexual beings. Frequently driven by the desire for sexual pleasure, human sexuality has biological, physical and emotional aspects...
nature. Aristotle's criterion was
excessive love of others, which therefore rendered love and devotion to God as secondary.
Giving in to lusts can lead to sexual or sociological compulsions and/or transgressions including (but not limited to)
sexual addictionSexual addiction refers to a phenomenon in which individuals report being unable to manage their sexual behavior. It has also been called "sexual dependency," and "sexual compulsivity." The existence of the condition is not universally accepted by sexologists and its etiology, nature, and...
,
fornicationFornication is a term which typically refers to voluntary, illicit sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other. The origin of the word derives from Latin. The word fornix means "an archway" or "vault" and it became a common euphemism for a brothel as prostitutes could be solicited...
,
adulteryAdultery is referred to as extramarital sex, philandery, or infidelity, but does not include fornication. The term "adultery" for many people carries a moral or religious association, while the term "extramarital sex" is morally or judgmentally neutral....
, bestiality,
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
,
perversionPerversion is a concept describing those types of human behavior that are perceived to be a serious deviation from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although it can refer to varying forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are seen as abnormal or...
, and
incestIncest is any sexual activity between close relatives irrespective of the ages of the participants and irrespective of their consent, that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo...
. In Dante's
PurgatorioPurgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil...
, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante's "Inferno" unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life.
Gluttony
Derived from the Latin
gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow,
gluttony (Latin, ) is the over-indulgence and
over-consumptionOver-consumption is a theory related to overpopulation, referring to situations where per capita consumption is so high that even in spite of a moderate population density, sustainability is not achieved....
of anything to the point of waste. In the Christian religions, it is considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food, or its withholding from the needy.
Depending on the culture, it can be seen as either a vice or a sign of status. Where food is relatively scarce, being able to eat well might be something to take pride in (although this can also result in a moral backlash when confronted with the reality of those less fortunate). Where food is routinely plentiful, it may be considered a sign of self-control to resist the temptation to over-indulge.
Medieval church leaders (e.g.,
Thomas AquinasSaint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis...
) took a more expansive view of gluttony, arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. Aquinas went so far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony, including:
- Praepropere - eating too soon.
- Laute - eating too expensively.
- Nimis - eating too much.
- Ardenter - eating too eagerly (burningly).
- Studiose - eating too daintily (keenly).
- Forente - eating wildly (boringly).
Greed
Greed (Latin, ), also known as
avarice or
covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of
wealthWealth is an abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
in particular. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. "Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior. These include disloyalty, deliberate
betrayalBetrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive social contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations...
, or
treasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife...
, especially for personal gain, for example through
briberyBribery, a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an...
. Scavenging and
hoardIn archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
ing of materials or objects,
theftIn criminal law, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, fraud and sometimes...
and
robberyRobbery is the crime of seizing property through violence or intimidation. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear. Precise definitions of the offence may vary between...
, especially by means of
violenceViolence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects . Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern...
, trickery, or
manipulationAccording to Simon, successful psychological manipulation primarily involves concealing aggressive intentions and behaviors and knowing the psychological vulnerabilities of your opponent to determine what tactics are likely to be the most effective...
of
authorityIn government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power". However, their meanings differ: while "power" is defined as "the ability to influence somebody to do something that he could not have done", "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justification and right to...
are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include
simonySimony is the ecclesiastical crime of paying for holy offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:18-24. Simon Magus offers the disciples of Jesus, Peter and John payment so that anyone he would place his hands on would...
, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.
Acedia
Acedia (Latin, ) (from Greek ακηδία = neglect to take care of something - and in this case neglect to do whatever one should do in order to be saved) is
apatheticImage:Challenge_vs_skill.jpg|250px|Apathy in terms of challenge level and skill level. Clickable.|thumbpoly 66 7 211 9 285 189 254 234 67 152 Anxietypoly 221 7 428 7 351 188 296 187 294 188 Arousalpoly 439 7 583 7 584 149 388 236 360 194 Flow...
listlessness; depression without joy. It is similar to melancholy, although
acedia describes the behaviour, while
melancholy suggests the emotion producing it. In early Christian thought, the lack of joy was regarded as a wilful refusal to enjoy the goodness of God and the world God created; by contrast, the apathy was regarded as a spiritual affliction that discouraged people from their religious work.
When
Thomas AquinasSaint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis...
described
acedia in his interpretation of the list, he described it as an
uneasiness of the mind, being a progenitor for lesser sins such as restlessness and instability. Dante refined this definition further, describing acedia as the
failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul; to him it was the
middle sin, the only one characterised by an absence or insufficiency of love.
Despair
Despair (Latin, ) describes a feeling of dissatisfaction or discontent, which causes unhappiness with one's current situation, especially involving thoughts of hopelessness. Since unhappiness inherently results from the sin, the sin was sometimes referred to as
sadness. Since sadness often results in acedia, Pope Gregory's revision of the list subsumed
Despair into
Acedia.
Sloth
Gradually, the focus came to be on the consequences of acedia, rather than the cause, and so, by the 17th century, the exact
deadly sin referred to was believed to be the failure to utilize one's talents and gifts. In practice, it came to be closer to
sloth (Latin, ) than acedia. Even in Dante's time there were signs of this change; in his
Purgatorio he had portrayed the penance for acedia as running continuously at top speed.
The modern view goes further, regarding laziness and indifference as the
sin at the heart of the matter. Since this contrasts with a more wilful failure to, for example, love God and his works, sloth is often seen as being considerably less serious than the other sins, more a sin of omission than of commission.
Wrath
Wrath (Latin, ), also known as
anger or "rage", may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. These feelings can manifest as vehement
denialDenial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.The subject may use:...
of the
truthTruth can have a variety of meanings, from the state of being the case, being in accord with a particular fact or reality, being in accord with the body of real things, events, actuality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard. In archaic usage it could be fidelity, constancy or sincerity in...
, both to others and in the form of
self-denialSelf-denial may refer to:* Asceticism* Anatta, the Buddhist concept of "no self"* Abstinence...
, impatience with the procedure of law, and the desire to seek revenge outside of the workings of the justice system (such as engaging in
vigilantismA vigilante is someone who unlawfully punishes a criminal, or participates in a mob or conspiracy to mete out unlawful punishment to a criminal or criminals....
) and generally wishing to do evil or harm to others. The transgressions born of vengeance are among the most serious, including
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
,
assaultAssault is a crime of violence against another person. In some jurisdictions, including Australia and New Zealand, assault refers to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, while in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, assault may refer only to the threat...
, and in extreme cases,
genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
. Wrath is the only sin not necessarily associated with selfishness or self-interest (although one can of course be wrathful for selfish reasons, such as jealousy, closely related to the sin of envy). Dante described vengeance as "love of
justiceJustice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness, or equity.-Concept of justice:Justice... concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and...
perverted to
revengeRevenge is a harmful action against a person or group as a response to a grievance. Although many aspects of revenge resemble the concept of justice, revenge connotes a more injurious and punitive focus as opposed to a harmonious and restorative one...
and
spiteSpite is to intentionally annoy, hurt, or upset. Spiteful words or actions are delivered in such a way in which it's clear that the person is delivering them just to annoy, hurt, or upset...
". In its original form, the sin of wrath also encompassed anger pointed internally rather than externally. Thus
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
was deemed as the ultimate, albeit tragic, expression of wrath directed inwardly, a final rejection of God's gifts.
Envy
Like greed,
Envy (Latin, ) may be characterized by an insatiable desire; they differ, however, for two main reasons. First, greed is largely associated with material goods, where as envy may apply more generally. Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it. Dante defined this as "love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs." In Dante's Purgatory, the punishment for the envious is to have their eyes sewn shut with wire because they have gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low. Aquinas described envy as "sorrow for another's good".
Pride
In almost every list
Pride (Latin, ), or
hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God). Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor." In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play,
CenodoxusCenodoxus is one of several medieval miracle plays by Jacob Bidermann, an early 17th century German Jesuit and prolific playwright. Jacob Bidermann's treatment of the Legend of the Doctor of Paris is generally regarded as the primary source of inspiration for Goethe's Faust.-Performance...
, pride is the deadliest of all the sins and leads directly to the damnation of the titulary famed Parisian doctor. In perhaps the best-known example, the story of
LuciferLucifer is a Latin word, literally meaning "light-bearer", that was used as a name for the "day star" or "Morning Star" that precedes the rising of the sun. The name is frequently given to the Devil in Christian convention...
, pride (his desire to compete with God) was what caused his fall from Heaven, and his resultant transformation into
SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
. In Dante's
Divine Comedy, the penitents were forced to walk with stone slabs bearing down on their backs in order to induce feelings of humility.
Vainglory
Vainglory (Latin, ) is unjustified boasting. Pope Gregory viewed it as a form of pride, so he folded
vainglory into pride for his listing of sins.
The Latin term
gloria roughly means
boasting, although its English cognate -
glory - has come to have an exclusively positive meaning; historically,
vain roughly meant
futile, but by the 14th century had come to have the strong
narcissisticSee also narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism.The term narcissism refers to the personality trait of self-esteem, which includes the set of character traits concerned with self-image or ego. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, and narcissist are often used as pejoratives,...
undertones, of irrelevant accuracy, that it retains today. As a result of these semantic changes,
vainglory has become a rarely used word in itself, and is now commonly interpreted as referring to
vanity (in its modern narcissistic sense).
Catholic virtues
The
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
also recognizes
Seven virtuesIn Catholic catechism, the seven virtues refers to one of two lists of virtues, most commonly referring to the 4 Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Restraint or Temperance, and Courage or Fortitude, and the 3 Theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity; these were adopted by the...
which correspond inversely to each of the seven deadly sins.
| Vice |
Virtue |
| Lust Lust is a craving for sexual intercourse, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent or violent character. Lust, or a desire for the flesh of another, is considered a sin, or impure act, in the three major Abrahamic religions, although rarely criticized and even encouraged in other...
|
ChastityChastity is sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the ethical norms and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion.In the western world, the term has become closely associated with sexual abstinence, especially before marriage...
|
GluttonyGluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste...
|
Temperance Temperance is the practice of moderation. It was one of the four "cardinal" virtues held to be vital to society in Hellenic culture...
|
GreedGreed in psychology is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.-Theology:...
|
CharityIn Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving....
|
| Sloth In the Christian moral tradition, sloth is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins; these sins are called the capital sins because they destroy charity in the person's heart and thus may lead to final impenitence and eternal death.-Definition:Sloth is defined as spiritual...
|
Diligence Diligence is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work. Decisive work ethic. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Putting forth full concentration in one's work. Diligence is usually promoted in work places...
|
| Wrath |
PatiencePatience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. It is also used to refer to the...
|
| Envy Envy may be defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it." The Catholic definition of Envy is to wish you had another man's tangible or intagible blessings...
|
Kindness Kindness is the act or the state of being kind and marked by charitable behaviour, marked by mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others...
|
PridePride is, depending on the context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self or one's own or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things...
|
HumilityThe term "humility" is derived from the Latin word "humilitas", a noun related to the adjective "humilis", translated not only as "humble", but also alternatively as "low", or "from the earth", and "humus", humid...
|
Associations with demons
In 1589,
Peter BinsfeldPeter Binsfeld was a German bishop and theologian....
paired each of the deadly sins with a
demonIn religion, folklore, and mythology a demon is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit. In Christian terms demons are generally understood as fallen angels, formerly of God. A demon is frequently depicted as a force that may be conjured and insecurely controlled...
, who tempted people by means of the associated sin. According to Binsfeld's classification of demons, the pairings are as follows
- Lucifer
Lucifer is a Latin word, literally meaning "light-bearer", that was used as a name for the "day star" or "Morning Star" that precedes the rising of the sun. The name is frequently given to the Devil in Christian convention...
: Pride (superbia)
- Mammon
Mammon is a term, derived from the Christian Bible, used to describe material wealth or greed, most often personified as a deity. The word itself is a transliteration from the Hebrew word "mammon" , which means "money."-Definition:...
: Greed (avaritia)
- Asmodeus
Asmodeus or Asmodai is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit. The demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. He was supposed by some Renaissance Christians to be the King of the Nine...
: Lust (luxuria)
- Leviathan
Leviathan , is a sea monster referred to in the Hebrew Bible .The word leviathan has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature...
: Envy (invidia)
- Beelzebub
Beelzebub is the name of a demon derived from Ba‘al Zebûb, Ba‘al Z
əbûb or Ba‘al Z
əvûv , a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron....
: Gluttony (gula or gullia)
- Satan
Satan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
/AmonIn demonology, Amon is a Marquis of Hell. He is the seventh of the 72 Goetic demons who governs forty infernal legions. His appearance is that of a wolf with a serpent's tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire. At the command of a mage, Amon may take the shape of man with a raven's head,...
/Azzarox: Wrath (ira)
- Belphegor
In demonology, Belphegor is a demon who helps people to make discoveries. He seduces people by suggesting to them ingenious inventions that will make them rich. According to some 16th century demonologists, his power is stronger in April. Bishop and witch-hunter Peter Binsfeld believed that...
: Sloth (acedia)
There are also other demons who invoke sin, for instance
LilithLilith is a female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of disease, illness, and death. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu, in Sumer, circa 4000 BC...
and her offspring, the incubi and succubi, invoke lust. The succubi sleep with men in order to impregnate themselves, so that they can spawn demons. The incubi sleep with women to lead them astray and to impregnate them with demon spawn.
Cultural references
The seven deadly sins have long been a source of inspiration for writers and artists, from morality tales of the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
to modern
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
series and video games.
Enneagram Integration
The Enneagram of Personality integrates the seven with two additional sins,
deceit and
fear. The Enneagram descriptions are broader than the traditional Christian interpretation and are presented in a comprehensive map.
Literary works inspired by the seven deadly sins
- John Climacus
Saint John Climacus , also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox , Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches.St...
(7th century) in The Ladder of Divine AscentThe Ladder of Divine Ascent, or Ladder of Paradise , is an important ascetical treatise for monasticism in Eastern Christianity written by John Climacus in ca...
places victory over the eight thoughts as individual steps of the thirty-step ladder: wrath (8), vainglory (10, 22), sadness (13), gluttony (14), lust (15), greed (16, 17), acedia (18), and pride (23).
- Dante
DANTE is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various National Research and Education Networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's (1265–1321) The Divine Comedy is a three-part work composed of "Inferno", "Purgatorio", and "Paradiso". "Inferno" divides Hell into nine concentric circles, four of which directly correspond to some of the deadly sins (Circle 2 to lust, 3 to gluttony, 4 to greed, and 5 to wrath, as well as sloth). The punishment of these two sins take place in the Stygian lake, the wrathful being punished atop the lake, attacking one another with the various members of their person, including fangs.. The slothful are punished underneath the lake breathing sighs in bubbles, singing a dolorous song, as told by Virgil in Canto VII. The remaining circles do not neatly map onto the seven sins. In "Purgatorio", Mount Purgatory is scaled in seven levels and follows the sin sequence of Aquinas (starting with pride).
- William Langland
William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.- Life : The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin...
's (c. 1332–1386) Vision of Piers PlowmanPiers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...
is structured around a series of dreams that are critical of contemporary errors while encouraging godly living. The sins are mentioned in this order: proud (pride; Passus V, lines 62–71), lechour (lecherousness; V. 71–74), envye (envy; V. 75–132), wrathe (wrath; V. 133–185), coveitise (covetousness; V. 186–306), glutton (gluttony; V. 307–385), sleuthe (sloth; V. 386–453) (using the B-text).http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=TEI.2&byte=21030211
- John Gower
John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
's (1330-1408) Confessio AmantisConfessio Amantis is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. According to its prologue, it was composed at the request of Richard II...
centres on a confession by Amans ("the Lover") to Genius, the chaplain of the goddess Venus. Following confessional practice of the time, the confession is structured around the seven deadly sins, though focuses on his sins against the rules of courtly loveCourtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
.http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/266
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales...
's (c. 1340–1400) Canterbury Tales features the seven deadly sins in The Parson's Tale: pride (paragraphs 24–29), envy (30–31), wrath (32–54), sloth (55–63), greed (64–70), gluttony (71–74), lust (75–84).http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales/The_Parson's_Prologue_and_Tale
- Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious and untimely death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest...
's (1564–1593) The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusThe Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, normally known simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge...
shows LuciferLucifer is a Latin word, literally meaning "light-bearer", that was used as a name for the "day star" or "Morning Star" that precedes the rising of the sun. The name is frequently given to the Devil in Christian convention...
, BeelzebubBeelzebub is the name of a demon derived from Ba‘al Zebûb, Ba‘al Z
əbûb or Ba‘al Z
əvûv , a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron....
, and Mephistophiles coming from hell to show Dr. Fastus "some pastime" (Act II, Scene 2). The sins present themselves in order: pride, greed, envy, wrath, gluttony, sloth, lust. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0011&query=scene%3D%236&layout.norm=compare
- Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.-Life:Edmund Spenser was born in London around 1552...
's (1552–1599), The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
addresses the seven deadly sins in "Book I (The Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross, Holiness)": vanity/pride (Canto IV, stanzas 4–17), idleness/sloth (IV. 18-20), gluttony (IV. 21-23), lechery/lust (IV. 24-26), avarice/greed (IV. 27-29), envy (IV. 30-32), wrath (IV. 33-35). http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/queene1.html
- Garth Nix
Garth Nix is an Australian author of young adult fantasy novels, most notably the Old Kingdom series, The Seventh Tower series, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. Garth Nix is not a pseudonym. He has frequently been asked this question and said, "I guess people ask me because it sounds like the...
's "The Keys to the KingdomThe Keys to the Kingdom is a fantasy–adventure book series, written by Garth Nix; having started in 2003 with plans to span seven books, six books have been published thus far, with the final one yet to be released...
" is a seven-book children's series in which the main nemesis of each book is afflicted by one of the seven deadly sins.
Art and music
- Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries...
, The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last ThingsThe Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, completed in 1485. The painting is oil on wood panels. The painting is presented in a series of circular images...
(1485).
- Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill , was a German, and in his later years American, composer active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the stage...
and Bertolt Brecht' was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner...
, The Seven Deadly SinsThe Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chanté in seven scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman...
(Die sieben Todsünden) (1933)
- Modern artist Paul Cadmus
Paul Cadmus was an American artist. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism...
painted a series of graphically disturbing, anthropomorphic depictions of the seven deadly sins, in the style of comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
s. After his death, this series was willed to the Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
.
- The album Heaven and Hell by Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer–songwriter, now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...
is a modern musical interpretation of the seven deadly sins.
- The Tiger Lillies
The Tiger Lillies are a three-piece band, formed in 1989 and based in London. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter....
's new album and stage show 7 Deadly Sins is based on the sins being experienced by a modernized version of Punch and JudyPunch and Judy is a traditional, popular English puppet show featuring the characters of Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character...
(in itself a reworking of Adam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Book of Genesis of the Bible, the first man and woman created by God...
) called "Punch and Jude".
- The album Melankolia / XXX Couture by Danish
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
rapper L.O.C. focuses on how the artist came into contact with each of the sins, and then how these sins have come to be culturally accepted.
- Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers is an artist, performance artist, musician and film-maker. In 1993, at the Venice Biennial, Kendell Geers changed his date of birth to May 1968. That same year, in Venice, Geers rose to international notoriety when he urinated in Marcel Duchamp's Fountain...
, "The Seven Deadly Sins" 2006: Series of 7 Ultra Violet neons exhibited at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent Belgium, DA2 in Salamanca Spain and the 2007 Venice Biennial
Film, television, radio, comic books and video games
- The film The Devil's Nightmare is about a succubus who kills a group of tourists who are each guilty of one of the seven sins.
- The original version of the film Bedazzled
Bedazzled is a 1967 film written by and starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, retelling the Faust legend in the Swinging London of the 1960s. It was remade in 2000 under the same name.-Plot:...
(1967) (remade in 2000Bedazzled is a motion picture remake of the film Bedazzled, originally written by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It was directed by Harold Ramis and stars Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. The movie won the 2001 Golden Trailer award for Best Title Sequence...
) includes all seven sins, most notably Raquel Welch-Early life:Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children and the daughter of Josephine Sarah and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo...
as lust, Barry HumphriesJohn Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist and character actor perhaps best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
as envy, and Peter CookPeter Edward Cook was a British satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s...
as Lucifer, representing pride.
- In the film Se7en (1995), directed by David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American filmmaker and music video director known for his dark and stylish movies such as Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.- Early life and career :...
and starring Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men, a label that entices the media to report on his off-screen life...
and Morgan FreemanMorgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. is an American actor, film director, and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice....
, a mysterious serial killerA serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings...
punishes transgressors of each of the deadly sins through his crimes.
- The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is a 1971 comedy film directed and produced by Graham Stark. Its title is a conflation of The Magnificent Seven and the seven deadly sins. It comprises a sequence of seven sketches, each representing a sin and written by an array of British comedy-writing talent....
(1971) is a British film built around a series of comedy sketches on the seven deadly sins, and referencing the classic Western film The Magnificent SevenThe Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American western film directed by John Sturges about a group of hired gunmen protecting a Mexican village from bandits. It is a resetting of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai.-Plot:...
.
- In the video game Overlord
Overlord is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Triumph Studios and published by Codemasters for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Playstation 3...
, the seven heroes that the protagonist must defeat are based on the seven sins.
- In the second pilot of The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show was a television program featuring a cast of Muppets, which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from Sesame Street. The show stars Kermit the Frog as a showrunner who tries to keep control of the antics of the other Muppet characters , as well as keep the human guest stars happy...
, "Sex and Violence", The Muppets host a Seven Deadly Sins Paegant, with each of the sins personified in Muppet form. (http://www.muppetcentral.com/guides/episodes/tms/pilots/2_sex_and_violence.shtml)
- The Seven Deadly Sins (traditionally given as "The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man") figure prominently in the mythos of Fawcett
Fawcett Comics, a subsidiary of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comics publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
/DC ComicsDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
superhero Captain MarvelCaptain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
, and have appeared several times as supervillainA supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various mediums.They are often used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
s in recent DC Comics publicationsThe DC Universe is the shared universe where most of the comic stories published by DC Comics take place. The fictional characters Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are well-known superheroes from this universe. Note that in context, "DC Universe" is usually used to refer to the main DC continuity...
.
- In the manga and anime Digimon
, short for , is a popular Japanese series of media and merchandise, including anime, manga, toys, video games, trading card games and other media. Digimon are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication...
, the Seven Great Demon Lords, each of whom represent one of the sins, are a major group of antagonists.
- In the visual novel computer game series Umineko no Naku Koro ni
is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the golden witch, was first released at Comiket 72 on August 17, 2007 playable on the PC; the game sold out in thirty minutes...
, the seven deadly sins are represented by the seven Stakes of Purgatory and each of them are named after the devils corresponding to the sin.
- In the manga and anime Reborn!
Reborn!, known in Japan as , is an ongoing Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akira Amano. The plot revolves around the life of a young boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada, who finds out that he is the next in line to become the boss of the most powerful Mafia organization, the Vongola Family...
the members of the group of assassins Varia are named after each one of the seven deadly sins (such as Superbia Squalo, Superbia meaning pride in Latin; Lussuria, meaning Lust in Italian) or after the demons that represent the sins (such as Mammon and Belphegor)
- In the manga and anime Fullmetal Alchemist
, is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after the European Industrial Revolution...
, each sin is used as the name of each member of a group of powerful false humans called "homunculi", with each homunculi's personality being based on the sin he or she is named after.
- In the videogame Devil May Cry 3, the seven deadly sins are represented by a group of common enemies, as well as by seven infernal bells. Fallen angels that personify the sins also feature heavily in the prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel .-History:Though the word "Prequel" is of...
manga, in which they are important in summoning the bell-containing tower in the first place.
- In the Philippines
The Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
TV series Lastikman each major villain represents one of the deadly sins.
- In the Norwegian
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
TV show De syv dødssyndene (The Seven Deadly Sins), Christopher Schau attempts to invoke the wrath of God by carrying out each of the seven deadly sins. When Schau was talking about the show on the talk show Senkveld (Late Night), he said "If I don't end up in Hell, then there is no Hell." The program caused a great deal of public debate surrounding the issue of censorship.
- In Matt Fraction
Matt Fraction is an Eisner Award winning American comic book writer, known for his work for Marvel Comics as the writer for The Invincible Iron Man and Uncanny X-Men.-Career:...
's comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
CasanovaCasanova is an American creator-owned comic book series by writer Matt Fraction and artists Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. It is published by Image Comics and premiered in June 2006 in the Slimline format of 16 pages of story per issue, sold at the reduced price of $1.99.The series centers upon...
, the series' issues are named, in Latin, for each of the seven sins, beginning with Luxuria.
- In the game Rengoku II: The Stairway to Heaven, you go through eight levels of a tower, seven of them being named after each of the Seven Deadly Sins (the other tower is Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
).
- In the webcomic Jack, the seven sins are personified by anthropomorphs.
- Comedian Mark Watson
Mark Andrew Watson is a British stand-up comedian and novelist. He was born in Bristol of a Welsh family.-Early life:...
examined the seven sins in the first series of the BBC radio show Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially BetterMark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better is a radio comedy programme starring Mark Watson. It started on BBC Radio 4 on 13 February 2007...
. In order to fit the sins into a six part series Greed and Gluttony were combined as the 'similar sins'.
- The Land of the Seven Deadly Sins(Bifrost) in Knight Online, the Fragments received as rewards are named after the seven deadly sins.
- D. Gray Man, The the main villains The Noahs have an individual deadly sin that relates to their powers
Science
- Kansas State geography research associate Thomas Vought presented his study “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada”. In addition, the study covers some 3,000 counties across the country, and includes the interactive maps of sin distribution across the US.
Further reading
- The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a...
("Inferno", "Purgatorio", and "Paradiso"), by Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
- Summa Theologica
The Summa Theologica is the most famous work of Thomas Aquinas , although it was never finished. It was intended as a manual for beginners as a compilation of all of the main theological teachings of the time...
, by Thomas AquinasSaint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis...
- The Concept of Sin, by Josef Pieper
Josef Pieper was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, The Philosophical Act, and Guide to Thomas Aquinas...
- The Traveller's Guide to Hell, by Michael Pauls & Dana Facaros
- Sacred Origins of Profound Things, by Charles Panati
- The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
, by Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.-Life:Edmund Spenser was born in London around 1552...
- The Seven Deadly Sins Series, Oxford University Press
Oxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
(7 vols.)
External links