terça-feira, 29 de setembro de 2009

7 Deadly Sins




GREED

Greed (Latin, avaritia), also known as avarice or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess.
However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things."
In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts.
"Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior.
These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason,[citation needed] especially for personal gain, for example through bribery.
Scavenging[citation needed] and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed.
Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.


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7 Deadly Sins




PRIDE

In almost every list Pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise.
It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God).
Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor."
In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play, Cenodoxus, pride is the deadliest of all the sins and leads directly to the damnation of the titulary famed Parisian doctor.
In perhaps the best-known example, the story of Lucifer, pride (his desire to compete with God) was what caused his fall from Heaven, and his resultant transformation into Satan.
In Dante's Divine Comedy, the penitents were forced to walk with stone slabs bearing down on their backs in order to induce feelings of humility.


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7 Deadly Sins




SLOTH

Gradually, the focus came to be on the consequences of acedia, rather than the cause, and so, by the 17th century, the exact deadly sin referred to was believed to be the failure to utilize one's talents and gifts.[citation needed]
In practice, it came to be closer to sloth (Latin, Socordia) than acedia.
Even in Dante's time there were signs of this change;
in his Purgatorio he had portrayed the penance for acedia as running continuously at top speed.
The modern view goes further, regarding laziness and indifference as the sin at the heart of the matter.
Since this contrasts with a more wilful failure to, for example, love God and his works, sloth is often seen as being considerably less serious than the other sins, more a sin of omission than of commission.


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7 Deadly Sins




Wrath

Wrath (Latin, ira), also known as anger or "rage", may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger.
These feelings can manifest as vehement denial of the truth, both to others and in the form of self-denial, impatience with the procedure of law, and the desire to seek revenge outside of the workings of the justice system
(such as engaging in vigilantism)
and generally wishing to do evil or harm to others.
The transgressions born of vengeance are among the most serious, including murder, assault, and in extreme cases, genocide.
Wrath is the only sin not necessarily associated with selfishness or self-interest
(although one can of course be wrathful for selfish reasons, such as jealousy, closely related to the sin of envy).
Dante described vengeance as "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite".
In its original form, the sin of wrath also encompassed anger pointed internally rather than externally.
Thus suicide was deemed as the ultimate, albeit tragic, expression of wrath directed inwardly, a final rejection of God's gifts.


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7 Deadly Sins




ENVY

Like greed, Envy
(Latin, invidia)
may be characterized by an insatiable desire;
they differ, however, for two main reasons.
First, greed is largely associated with material goods,whereas envy may apply more generally.
Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it. Dante defined this as "love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs."
In Dante's Purgatory, the punishment for the envious is to have their eyes sewn shut with wire because they have gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low.
Aquinas described envy as "sorrow for another's good"


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