Scholasticism developed schema of attribute and substance of will to explain these sins.Īs previously mentioned, the Latin words for the sins are: superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, gula, ira and accidia. For example, pride (love of self out of proportion) is needed for gluttony (the over-consumption or waste of food), as well as sloth, envy, and most of the others.Įach of these sins is a way of not loving God and not loving others as much as oneself. People see that some of these sins are connected. Pride (vanity) - A desire to be important or attractive to others or excessive love of self (holding self out of proper position toward God or fellows Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor").Dante wrote that envy is "Love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs" (in other words, thinking that the person himself should have more, even if it means someone else will have less because of him.) Envy ( jealousy) - Hating other people for what they have.Wrath ( anger, hate) - Inappropriate (not right) feelings of hatred, revenge or even denial, as well as punitive desires outside of justice (Dante's description was "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite").Sloth is a state of equilibrium: one does not produce much, but one does not need much either (in Dante's theology, sloth is the "failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind, and all one's soul" specific examples including being lazy, being scared, lack of imagination, complacency, and not doing what the person should do).It, like gluttony, is a sin of waste, for it wastes time, maybe because of pride.It makes life harder for oneself, because useful work does not get done.Delaying what God wants a person to do or not doing it at all.Sloth (also accidie, acedia) - Laziness idleness and wastefulness of time that a person has.
Some examples of greed include air conditioning, mansions, luxury cars and sport utility vehicles. Dante wrote that greed is too much "love of money and power".
Some followers of Christianity say that there are sins that are the causes of all others. Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516): The Seven Deadly Sins.