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Are The Deadlies Really Vices?

Author: Rebecca DeYoung

The seven deadly sins have been marketed as something decadent – the Devil’s Food Cake of “treat yourself” temptations; they’re deadly only in that, secretly, they offer an unbounded, unfathomable amount of pleasure. The “spa day” equivalent of luxury living that you dream about as you go about the hum-drum task of doing your duty, living in moderation, and secretly despairing of living under-the-radar and being satisfied with the meat-and-potatoes approach of just getting by. At least, that’s how the western cultural perception of sin has developed over time, and even as Christians, when presented with images of so-called sins such as gluttony and pride, we secretly envision an excess of good things that, sigh, “if only” we could have. Maybe we don’t say this out loud – it would be too gauche after all. But how bad could eating a little too much be? Do we not deserve it? Is that not the reward, after all, for a job well done? For a set holiday? Do we not deserve pride? Should we not, say, stoke the fires of lust for a healthy relationship? Is not a little sloth good for the soul? Did God himself not set aside a day of rest? So then, are these “sins” so deadly, after all? Are these deadlies vices or miscolored virtues?

During the C.S. Lewis fellowship year two program we began looking more in-depth at the idea of the seven deadly sins and what they truly mean. That’s when I first encountered this book.

Rebecca DeYoung starts with an immediately interesting point. The traditional seven deadly sins – envy, vainglory, sloth, avarice (i.e. greed), anger (i.e. wrath), gluttony, and lust all spring from the original sin: pride. But where are the big sins here? Why does sloth get to be a deadly when far worse sins – murder, theft, rape, robbery, racism, torture, genocide, etc. – don’t get a mention? How can sins that seemingly only hurt the individual (such as gluttony) be more serious? How can fun sins (lust) be so bad, especially compared to the true depths of depravity that humanity has, time and again, fallen into (ahem, war and everything that comes along with it, for example)?

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons –> Gluttony

De Young starts out with a little bit of historical background. Now, honestly, I could have done with less of this and gotten to the point faster – how is sloth worse than, say, killing someone in cold blood? But De Young has a very thoughtful process that she likes to follow. First, we get the history. Who thought up the seven deadly sins, and why did the “traditional sins” get ascribed to this role. After this, Young moves into why these “foundational” sins in particular landed and stuck; she does have an explanation for why these sins stay and how, essentially, acts such as murder and all the other “big bads” evolve out the basic, seemingly innocuous temptations of pride, anger, greed, and so forth. The terrifying thing is it rapidly makes sense. The snowflake becomes the snowball becomes the avalanche.

After the introduction and a careful building of concepts, De Young establishes why pride is the gateway out of which each sin (envy, vainglory, sloth, avarice, anger, gluttony, and lust) comes. Some explanations are fairly simple. We’ve heard all the sermons on lust, again and again, but others are far more nuanced than we first realized. Sloth, for instance, is not simply laziness. For example, a slothful person may be incredibly industrious – always busy and distracted. A slothful person, indeed, may be so busy and distracted that they successfully manage to avoid the things they should focus on. Vainglory is another sin that modern audiences spend less time on, even though it is a common sin in our culture. It focuses on a desire for attention and edification at all costs. Even negative attention is good. In this way, De Young breaks down the components of the sin and the temptation, how it takes hold, how it shows up and tempts in seemingly small ways, and how the snowballing effect begins. The sins are deadly not because they are huge, but because they take hold in tiny ways until they have infiltrated every aspect of our lives and beings. A murder does not start from nothing. Indeed, murder may begin as a small proclivity towards anger or greed, growing from there over the course of decades.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons –> Pride

De Young imbues each chapter with elements of grace though, not leaving us hopeless, but providing the remedy just as she has explained the nature and progress of the disease. This is where the edition becomes important too, apparently. The audio book that I read, still available on Amazon, is the first edition, and it is very good. However, the print versions are the second edition, and according to my C.S. Lewis fellows, the second edition has been rearranged with an even greater focus on grace; this second version even includes thoughtful questions at the end of each chapter and an additional chapter on grace. I cannot comment on these, because sadly that’s not the edition that was recorded for Audible. But it’s worth consideration when you go to get your copy. Do you want the convenience of audio or the extra material?

Either way, even the first edition has a lot of material to help you work with the evidence of the seven deadly sins in your life. And believe me, you’ll find that in some quantity, you have them all. I was surprised to see some I was sure I did not have (hello gluttony, which no, is NOT solely about overeating but also about overindulging a desire for pleasure and constant entertainment). This book will have you thinking in new ways about how Satan tricks you, about how seemingly small, insignificant foibles of yours are anything but (here there are definite echoes of Screwtape from the letters of the same name) and it will give you food for thought and advice for starting to notice and address the sins in your life. Glittering Vices is certainly a book you will need to read more than once, and it is one that will leave you thinking after the last page has rustled into place (or in my case after Audible ended with its characteristic “Audible hopes you’ve enjoyed this program.”) Highly recommended. I will be getting the updated edition for a second reading and for my permanent library.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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