The Seven Deadly Sins

1. The Seven Deadly Sins

2. Lust Lust is usually thought of as involving obsessive or excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. In Dante’s view, lust led to “excessive love of others,” which therefore made love and devotion to God secondary.

3. Gluttony Gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. It can refer to over-eating, which is a sin because it withholds food from the needy and also debases the glutton by making him a slave to animal desires, like his appetite. As such, gluttony distracts the sinner from the spiritual life.

4. Greed Like gluttony, Greed is a sin of excess. Its most common form is the excessive love of money, manifested in various forms such as miserliness and unethical business practices. This sin turns the sinner away from God by promoting selfishness, destroying charity, and creating a preoccupation with the acquisition and preservation of material things and possessions. As such, this sin blinds the sinner to the fact that material possessions such as gold are worthless compared to the everlasting rewards of heaven.

5. Sloth This sin has changed throughout the centuries. Originally, Sloth referred to sadness, apathy, and joylessness, which reflected the sinner’s failure to see God’s gifts and goodness. Dante defined Sloth as the failure to love God with all one’s heart, mind, and soul. He felt that this was the only sin characterized by an absence or inadequacy of love. In modern times, Sloth is interpreted as the sin of laziness, or unwillingness to act and care about God and his works.

6. Wrath Wrath/Anger/Hatred leads to other serious sins, including violence, a desire to seek revenge, and a failure to forgive.

7. Envy Sorrow for another’s goods. People who commit this sin desire the qualities or possessions or situation of another person which they perceive as lacking in themselves. Dante defined this sin as “love of one’s own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs.”

8. Pride Considered to be the first and foremost sin – the sin which led to Lucifer’s downfall and which plagues mankind in various forms. Pride is the ultimate sin from which all the others arise. Dante’s definition was “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor.”

9. Seven Deadly Sins of the 21st Century • Polluting • Genetic Engineering • Obscene Riches • Taking drugs • Abortion • Pedophilia • Causing Social Injustice