Preview

The 7 Deadly Sins and 7 Cardinal Virtues

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2764 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The 7 Deadly Sins and 7 Cardinal Virtues
The 7 Deadly Sins and 7 Cardinal Virtues
========================================

Overview
--------
The "Seven Deadly Sins"', also known as the "Capital Vices" or "Cardinal Sins", are a classification of vices that were originally used in early Christian teachings to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man's tendency to sin. The Roman Catholic Church divided sin into two principal categories: "venial", which are relatively minor, and could be forgiven through any sacrament of the Church, and the more severe "capital" or "mortal" sins, which, when committed, destroyed the life of grace, and created the threat of eternal damnation unless either absolved through the sacrament of confession, or otherwise forgiven through perfect contrition 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 mnemonic "SALIGIA" based on the first letters in Latin of the seven deadly sins: superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, gula, ira, acedia.

Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century AD, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the Seven deadly sins are as follows:
(7) Luxuria (extravagance, later lust);
(6) Gula (gluttony);
(5) Avaritia (greed);
(4) Acedia (sloth);
(3) Ira (wrath);
(2) Invidia (envy); and
(1) Superbia (pride).

Each of The Seven Deadly Sins has an opposite among the corresponding Seven holy virtues (sometimes also referred to as the Contrary Virtues).

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 encompass has evolved over time. This process has been aided by the fact that they are not



Bibliography: ------------ Boyle, Marjorie O 'Rourke [1997-10-23]. "Loyola 's Acts: The Rhetoric of the Self (The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics, 36)". Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20937-4. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2t1nb1rw/

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    7 Great Virtues

    • 2043 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The first virtue Ben Franklin wanted was “An Aversion to Tyranny”. The main idea of this to Ben is that he doesn’t like tyranny, which is power or control of one person. He didn’t like to be told what to do to and he also liked some control and therefore, have a limited government. Ben didn’t want any dictatorship either, which meant no kings or queens. Franklin realized that he didn’t like the idea of tyranny when he was 12 years old. He became an apprentice at the print shop of his older brother, James, who tended to be a tougher boss.…

    • 2043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth by Shakespeare and Lord of the Flies by William Golding have much to say about man's sinful nature. Both of these works contain scenes in which main characters die; their deaths come about because of their sinful nature or the sinful nature of others around them. Man's sinful nature is revealed through the thoughts and actions of the characters of these works. The authors show through their works their belief that if everybody revealed their true natures, the world would tear itself apart.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Seven Deadly Sins

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page

    We live in a fearful society with a variety of horrific things, and generally wanting to avoid contact with these things. We would have to live apart from newspapers, web sites, and TV, and almost separate far from others ourselves from community of people/all good people in the world completely. These very bad and upsetting things are commonly called sins. Sins are actions that are felt to be highly shameful , and are also viewed as going against God's will. Many actions can be viewed as sins, but there are seven sins that a reespecially important. Is humanity guilty of the seven deadly sins? Questions are oftentimes asked, “why were these sins created?”, or “what is the concept of the seven deadly sins?” Mankind was introduced to the…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At&T Code of Ethics

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    References: Carroll, J. "Cats and the seven deadly sins." San Francisco Chronicle. 2011, September 07: E10.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christianity’s ethics is plain and simple, you’re either a good person and make right decisions meaning being virtuous or you make bad decisions meaning vicious. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas somewhat copied Plato’s theory on the Four Cardinal Virtues. Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence are the virtues. But later, Aquinas added three more; he added the three theological virtues, which are faith, hope and love (charity). Those became the Seven Virtues. But when there are virtues, there has to be vices. That is where the Seven Deadly Sins or Vices come about. Those are lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, greed, sloth, and pride, Christians believed that if you follow the seven virtues you will have a very good chance of going to heaven, better than if you followed the seven vices.…

    • 514 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Art History Comparison

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rogier van der Weyden's Seven Sacraments Altarpiece depicts penance and the everyday rites of the Christian society that are executed from birth to death. Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven Deadly Sins exhibits the seven sins engaged by people under the watchful eye of Christ that must be accounted for on judgement day. Both works are representations of the same important idea of penance. The apparent realism of artists such as Rogier van der Weyden and Hieronymus Bosch is more than mere imitation of the world they saw around them: it embodies a wealth of religious symbolism.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are seven deadly sins that, once committed, diminish the prospect of eternal life and happiness in heaven. They are referred to as deadly because each sin is closely linked to another, leading to other greater sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, avarice, and lechery. Geoffrey Chaucer 's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, provided an excellent story about the deadly sins. Focusing mainly on the sins of pride, gluttony and greed, the characters we find in The Canterbury Tales, particularly “The Pardoner 's Tale,” are so overwhelmed by their earthly desires and ambitions that they fail to see the effects of their sinful actions, therefore depriving themselves of salvation.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people contained in the first five rings of Hell failed to restrain themselves. The punishments for these crimes are nonviolent except for the wrathful. The souls in the first ring oh Hell gave into the temptation of another religion and now only grieve their choice of non-Christianity. The second ring of Hell holds the persons that lusted after another and committed adultery. The punishment in the second ring is a continuous storm that blows the souls in a non stop circle to symbolize the lustful’s ability to throw other’s feelings wildly around. The gluttons are in the third circle, their punishment is to lie in rank sludge comprised of black snow and freezing rain to symbolize the slobbery of their life on earth. The fourth circle contains the sinners who had greater concern for materials than anything else; the hoarders and squanderers are performing the opposite action that they carried out on earth. The deceased are punished by moving heavy weights back and forth; the hoarders are pushing the rocks out of the center and the…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bitter Sweet Realization

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Onion. “All Seven Deadly Sins Committed at Church Bake Sale.” 2007. Back to the Lake.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Virtues are character strengths consistently applied to moral decision making. They show positive patterns of behavior. However, vices are negative patterns of behavior, often harmful to one's self or others. The seven virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, greed, and sloth. Practicing one virtue can protect one from the temptation to perform an act which is sinful.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In The Inferno, Dante descends through the nine circles of Hell, encountering increasingly serious sins, most of which are crimes. The levels of Hell can be interpreted as a gradation of crimes, with penalties in proportion to their relative gravity of sin. While crimes are transgressions against human law, Dante’s Christian orthodox ambitions translate the treatment of these seemingly earthly crimes as sins, transgressions against divine law. For the purposes of this paper, the two terms can be used interchangeably because Dante’s perception of crimes on Earth is in parallel to the punishment of those crimes as sins in Hell. For Dante, the most punishable sins are those of betrayal. With a lucid examination of Dante’s political involvement, it becomes evident that Dante’s political motivations strongly influenced his placement of sinners in Hell. Specifically, Dante’s political motivation is illuminated in the final canto, in which we find the three greatest sinners suffering in Lucifer’s mouth. Brutus and Cassius, political figures who betrayed and murdered Julius Caesar, are placed in the same realm of Hell as Judas, who betrayed Jesus. While some critics view Caesar as a divine figure, others argue that he was purely a human figure of authority and thus, not divine at all. In this paper, I will show that Dante’s treatment of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas demonstrates his equal attention to both religious and political virtues.…

    • 1938 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Dark Romantic Essay

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dark Romantics presents human beings as susceptible to sin. The author presents different sins in this story for example, avarice. This sin was…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The three perspectives

    • 3125 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The oldest known of the three theoretical perspectives, Christian Demonology, is the start to answering the question of why deviance is occurring. This question leads to the social control being induced so that society will stay in the hegemonic circle relative to that era. The regulation and differentiation of people is known to begin with Christian Demonology. “The deviance related with this perspective is through sin. Humans succumb to deviance in one of…

    • 3125 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    But sometimes we can manage and control this evilness within the people we will not only be able to save ourselves from these sins, and also save the people around us from the bad effects of…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psychomachia is a literary concept named for a Latin poem by Prudentius. The poem dealt with the inner conflict within one's soul, between virtue and vice, through allegorical representations. This concept of an inner struggle became key to the developing Christian religion, and was refined dramatically in the medieval morality plays. Works such as Everyman, Piers Plowman, and Faust featured protagonists struggling with temptation, literally personified through the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, et. al). A variation of this involved the use of a "Good Angel" and "Evil Angel," one to encourage the tormented soul and the other to push the protagonist further along the path to ruination.…

    • 1964 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays