According to
Henry Edward Manning, a
Catholic prelate, the seven deadly sins are seven ways to
eternal death (or Hell). The Lutheran divine
Martin Chemnitz, who contributed to the development of Lutheran systematic theology, implored clergy to remind faithful congregations about the seven deadly sins. In order of increasing severity according to Pope Gregory I, the seven deadly sins are as follows:
Lust Lust or lechery is intense longing. It is usually viewed as intense or unbridled
sexual desire, which may lead to
adultery,
rape,
bestiality or other sinful and sexual acts. Lust can also denote other forms of unbridled desire, such as for money or power.
Henry Edward Manning explains that the impurity of lust transforms one into "a slave of the
devil". Thomas Aquinas considers it an abuse of a faculty that humans share with animals, and sins of the flesh are less grievous than spiritual sins.
Gluttony , 1896) Gluttony is the overindulgence and
overconsumption of anything to the point of excess. The word derives from the Latin , meaning 'to gulp down' or 'to swallow'. One reason for condemning gluttony is that gorging by prosperous people may leave needy people hungry. Medieval church leaders such as
Thomas Aquinas took a more expansive view of gluttony, • – eating too expensively • – eating too daintily • – eating too much • – eating too soon • – eating too eagerly
Greed '' (1909) by
Evelyn De Morgan In the words of Henry Edward Manning, avarice "plunges a man deep into the mire of this world, so that he makes it to be his god". Aquinas believed that greed, like pride, can lead to evil.
Sloth '' (1624) by
Abraham Bloemaert,
Walters Art Museum Sloth refers to many related ideas, dating from antiquity, and includes spiritual, mental, and physical states. The definition has changed considerably since it was first recognized as a sin. Today it can be defined as the absence of interest in or habitual disinclination to exertion. Originally, however, Christian theologians believed it to be a lack of care for performing spiritual duties. In his
Summa Theologica,
Saint Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as "sorrow about spiritual good". According to Stanford Lyman, sloth subverts the maintenance of the body, taking no care for its daily needs; sloth also slows down the mind, diverting its attention away from important matters. Sloth hinders a person in moral undertakings, and it thus becomes a significant source of a person's ruin. According to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, the neutral act of anger becomes the sin of wrath when it is directed against an innocent person; when it is unduly strong or long-lasting; or when it desires excessive punishment. "If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin". Hatred is the sin of desiring that someone else may suffer misfortune or evil, and it is a mortal sin when one desires grave harm. People feel angry when they sense that they or someone they care about has been offended; when they are certain about the nature and cause of the angering event; when they are certain someone else is responsible; and when they feel that they can still influence the situation or cope with it. Henry Edward Manning considers that "angry people are slaves to themselves". and cuts a person off from their neighbor.
Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness, bringing sorrow to committers of envy, while giving them the urge to inflict pain upon others.
Pride Pride is known as
hubris (from the
Ancient Greek ) or futility; it is considered the original and worst of the seven deadly sins—the most demonic—on almost every list. Pride is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins. Pride is viewed as the opposite of
humility.
C. S. Lewis writes in
Mere Christianity that pride is the "anti-God" state, the position in which the ego and the self are directly opposed to God: "Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that Lucifer became wicked: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." Pride is understood to sever the human spirit from God, as well as from the life and grace given by God's presence.
Jonathan Edwards wrote: "remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul's peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was and lies lowest in the foundation of Lucifer's whole building and is the most difficultly rooted out and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility." Modern use of the term
pride may be captured in the
biblical proverb, "Pride goeth before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (which is abbreviated as "Pride goeth before a fall" in
Proverbs 16:18). The "pride that blinds" causes foolish actions against common sense. In political analysis,
hubris is often used to describe how powerful leaders become irrationally self-confident and contemptuous of advice over time, leading them to act impulsively. ==Historical sins==