SEVEN DEADLY SINS
It was not until the late 6th century that St. Gregory the Great (then Pope Gregory I) described the seven sins in his Moralia in Job. He reduces the list to seven items. His ranking of the Sins' seriousness was based on the degree from which they offended against love. It was, from least serious to most: lust, gluttony, sadness, avarice, anger, envy and pride (abbreviated into the mnemonic palegas). Sadness would later be replaced by acedia, or sloth, in putting off what God asks you to do and not doing it at all.
"Capital" here means that these sins stand at the head (Latin caput) of the other sins which proceed from them, e.g. avarice gives rise to theft and lust gives rise to adultery. Later theologians, most notably Thomas Aquinas, would contradict the notion that the seriousness of the sins would be ranked.
The capital sins are not to be confused with mortal sins.
Ranked in ascending order of severity as per Dante's Divine Comedy (in the Purgatorio), the seven deadly sins are:
Lust (Latin, luxuria) (fornication, perversion) —
Obsessive, unlawful, or unnatural sexual desire, such as desiring sex with a person outside marriage or engaging in unnatural sexual appetites, or depraved thought and unwholesome morality. (Dante's criterion was "excessive love of others," thereby detracting from the love due to God). Associated with the cow and the color blue.
Gluttony (Latin, gula) (waste, overindulgence) —
Thoughtlessness and waste of everything, especially food, drink, or intoxicants. Marked by overindulgence, misplaced sensuality and depriving of others ("excessive love of pleasure" was Dante's rendering). Associated with pigs and the color orange.
Greed (Latin, avaritia) (covetousness, avarice) —
A desire to gain more than one has need or use for, in money or power. Associated with the frog and the color yellow.
Sloth (Latin, acedia) (laziness, indifference) —
Laziness; idleness and wastefulness of time allotted. Laziness is condemned because others must work harder to make up and you are abandoning the will of God. It, like gluttony, is a sin of waste, for it wastes time.
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 include laziness, cowardice, lack of imagination, complacency and irresponsibility). Associated with goats and the color light blue.
Wrath (Latin, ira) (anger, hatred) —
Inappropriate (unrighteous) 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")]. Associated with the bear and the color red.
Envy (Latin, invidia) (jealousy, malice) —
Resentment of material or spiritual possessions of others. (Dante: "Love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs"). Associated with the dog and the color green.
Pride (Latin, superbia) (vanity, narcissism) —
A desire to be important or attractive to others or excessive love of self (holding self out of proper position toward God or fellow man; Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor"). In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play, Cenodoxus, superbia is the deadliest of all the sins and leads directly to the damnation of the famed Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus. Associated with the horse and the color violet.
- posted on 02/23/2006
MORTAL SINS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to the beliefs of Catholicism, a mortal sin is a sin that can remove from a person the possibility of salvation if it goes unrepented. It is called "mortal" because it is said to kill the eternal life in a soul that is first given in baptism.
In Catholic moral theology, a mortal sin, as distinct from a venial sin, must meet all of the following conditions:
its subject must be ‘grave matter’;
it must be committed with full knowledge, both of the sin and of the gravity of the offense;
it must be committed with deliberate and complete consent.
Sin is defined by St. Augustine (Contra Faustum, XXII, xxvii) as something said, done or desired contrary to the eternal law. Mortal sin specifically is further defined, as stated above (by St. Thomas Aquinas), in the Decretum Gratiani; under those circumstances the sin(s) would not be forgiven after death and would therefore lead the sinner to Hell. According to Catholic doctrine, a mortal sin produces a macula, or stain on the soul, and a person who dies in a state of mortal sin, i.e., without having repented, has thereby chosen or merited eternal separation from God in Hell. Prior to the issuance of this doctrine, it was widely believed that the presence of any unconfessed sin at time of death resulted in damnation, as evidenced in Dante's Divine Comedy; associated with this, a valid confession could be made in articulo mortis, or at the moment of death, in which case the sinner's soul reached Purgatory irrespective of the number and or/gravity of such sins.
Some sins that orthodox (note: not the Eastern Orthodox) Catholics consider to be mortal include adultery, murder, lust, missing mass on Sunday, perjury, incredulity, and the use of contraceptives. All of these are subject both to the conditions above and to mitigating circumstances of the individual situation, as with venial sin. The Church itself does not provide a precise list of sins, subdivided into the mortal and venial categories. Rather, it is generally considered a matter for a well-formed conscience to decide. It should not be said that missing Mass on Sunday is considered equal in gravity to murder: the Catholic belief holds that mortal sins can vary in their seriousness, although the "mortal" effect remains present for all sins in this category.
Some sins are so serious that they merit automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church. For this penalty to be imposed, one must be aware not only of the seriousness of the offense, but also of the penalty that is incurred.
Mortal sins are not to be confused with the deadly sins. The latter are categories of sin, corresponding to weaknesses in human nature, while mortal sins may also be called "grave" or "grievous" sins. They may also be referred to simply as "serious sin".
The Catholic teaching on mortal sin was called into question by some within the Church in the late 20th century after the Second Vatican Council. In response to these doubts, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the teaching in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor. It is maintained in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says in section 1035, "Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell."
- posted on 02/23/2006
VENIAL SINS
According to Catholicism, a venial sin is a sin which meets at least one of the following critera:
it does not concern a "grave matter",
it is not committed with full knowledge, or
it is not committed with both deliberate and complete consent.
Such a sin involves a "temporary loss of grace" from God.
As the above critera are the three criteria for mortal sin stated negatively (via de Morgan's theorem), a sin which met none of these extenuating conditions would necessarily be considered mortal.
Each venial sin that one commits adds to one's time in purgatory. A venial sin can be left unconfessed. Venial sins remain venial no matter how many one commits; they cannot "add up" to collectively constitute a mortal sin.
See Jeremiah 7:26, Lamentations 4:6, Ezekiel 16:44-58, 1 John 5:16-17, Matthew 11:22, John 19:11, 1 John 5:16-17.
- posted on 02/23/2006
Original sin in Roman Catholicism
After quoting Saint Paul's letter to the Romans 5:12, 18, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "By the 'unity of the human race', all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand" (404).
The Catholic Church teaches that original sin, in which human beings are born, is "the state of deprivation of the original holiness and justice ... it is transmitted to the descendants of Adam along with human nature" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 76). Being a state, not an act, it involves no personal responsibility (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 405). It is a state that gives rise to other consequences: "Human nature, without being entirely corrupted, has been harmed in its natural powers, is subject to ignorance, suffering and the power of death, and has a tendency to sin. This tendency is called concupiscence" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 77).
The already existing doctrine of original sin was developed especially by Saint Augustine of Hippo in reaction to Pelagianism. The Church had always held baptism to be "for the remission of sins". Infants too were baptized. They were not guilty of any actual personal sin. The sin that through baptism was remitted for them could only be the sin of Adam, a sin with which they were connected by the very fact of being human beings, a condition of deprivation from which God raised them through the sacrament. In insisting that human beings have of themselves full freedom to choose between good and evil and so can achieve justification by their own efforts, Pelagianism denied both the importance of baptism and the teaching that God is the giver of all that is good.
The Catholic Church did not accept all of Augustine's ideas, in particular the opinion that involvement in Adam's guilt and punishment takes effect through the dependence of human procreation on the sexual passion, in which the spirit's inability to control flesh is evident.
There is a close link between the notion of original sin and the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, namely the Church's teaching that, in view of the saving power of the future death and resurrection of her son Jesus, she was preserved from this "stain" (i.e. deprivation of holiness), which affects others, that is to say, that she was conceived without original sin. Those who deny the existence of original sin thus profess belief in the immaculate conception not only of Mary but of every human being.
- Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
Oh my goodnees. I found I got all the sins even on the internet. Is there anywhere or anybody in the cafe I can go for to wash up my sins? :)
That's really good efforts, susan, at least help me go over some good words. - Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
Pretty good stuff isn’t it? Yes I’d like to have a priest here, a priest and a monk and a rabbi, that would be lovely!
LingHuChong wrote:
Oh my goodnees. I found I got all the sins even on the internet. Is there anywhere or anybody in the cafe I can go for to wash up my sins? :) - Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
Susan wrote:
Pretty good stuff isn’t it? Yes I’d like to have a priest here, a priest and a monk and a rabbi, that would be lovely!
And a novelist. Have you read Lawrence Sanders’ novels, the first, second, and the third deadly sins? I love his early books. Wonderful detective stories but in depth they are all about people. A New Yorker would have identified with some of the characters in those stories right away. - Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
Susan wrote:
Pretty good stuff isn’t it? Yes I’d like to have a priest here, a priest and a monk and a rabbi, that would be lovely!
why there is no 'Imam', 阿訇 ?
佛教是通过否定的方式（即十善业）来谈这些的：
十善业包括身三：不杀生，不偷盗，不邪淫；口四：不恶口，不两舌
，不妄语，不绮语；意三：不贪，不嗔，不痴。
基督教犹太教太有名，我很想听听伊玛目（阿訇）谈些伊斯兰教中的
对应。
苏姗开道德课来啦:-?
- posted on 02/24/2006
令狐请宽心，你顶多算劣迹斑斑，主动去少管所报到就行了，犯不上赎罪。
一个疑问在心中打结已久，就是关于这个Sin，不知是否以下几个的词根？
为何中日中美关系叫Sino-Japan, Sino-US relationship? 中国怎么与Sin有缘？或是另由Chin转化而来？
更有可恶的Sinus, 相信玛雅和阿大舅都深有痛感，是不是也源于Sin?
LingHuChong wrote:
Oh my goodnees. I found I got all the sins even on the internet. Is there anywhere or anybody in the cafe I can go for to wash up my sins? :)
That's really good efforts, susan, at least help me go over some good words. - posted on 02/24/2006
外国语的’中国‘通常来自两个词源之一。一个是梵语 Sanskrit 的 Cin, 指秦朝，演变为 Chin. 另一个是阿拉伯语，拉丁／希腊语，和希伯来语的 Sin。有些人认为后者跟更早的 Ser 有一定联系。Ser 跟蚕有关。
廖康在玛雅咖啡贴过一篇考证。可惜玛雅这里没有文集。
WOA wrote:
令狐请宽心，你顶多算劣迹斑斑，主动去少管所报到就行了，犯不上赎罪。
一个疑问在心中打结已久，就是关于这个Sin，不知是否以下几个的词根？
为何中日中美关系叫Sino-Japan, Sino-US relationship? 中国怎么与Sin有缘？或是另由Chin转化而来？
更有可恶的Sinus, 相信玛雅和阿大舅都深有痛感，是不是也源于Sin?
LingHuChong wrote:
Oh my goodnees. I found I got all the sins even on the internet. Is there anywhere or anybody in the cafe I can go for to wash up my sins? :)
That's really good efforts, susan, at least help me go over some good words. - posted on 02/24/2006
To 81: Yes I'd love to read Sander's books some time.
To XW:
xw wrote:Yes, Imam is great too. Who else do we forget?
why there is no 'Imam', 阿訇 ?
佛教是通过否定的方式（即十善业）来谈这些的：This is pretty good! I read somewhere that in 佛教 even stupidity is considered a sin.
十善业包括身三：不杀生，不偷盗，不邪淫；口四：不恶口，不两舌
，不妄语，不绮语；意三：不贪，不嗔，不痴。
苏姗开道德课来啦:-?No no, just like to know where I am heading to and why. It is always good to be prepared ahead of time, you know. ;-) - Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
SusanMM，你一直对罪、人律有兴趣，记得你曾讲过要作computer的forensic（名称记得不是很真切)，这个梦想真好，希望你实现。
我的兴趣点是在犯罪与心理学，科学的进步让我们重新思考什么是罪了。最近我跟一个在广州的脑外科医生聊天，他的的领域就是用外科治疗强迫症和精神分裂，我们谈了这个问题。我去年访问了芳村精神病院，也对罪等等有了思考。很多国家都把政治犯和有思想的人放到精神病院去。
等有空我仔细看了你的贴文，回来跟你讨论，并且谈Yeats的案件。 - posted on 02/24/2006
xw wrote:
why there is no 'Imam', 阿訇 ?
阿訇原来还负责教徒的忏悔？我一直以为伊斯兰教中阿訇只负责单向宣讲。
佛教是通过否定的方式（即十善业）来谈这些的：
十善业包括身三：不杀生，不偷盗，不邪淫；口四：不恶口，不两舌
，不妄语，不绮语；意三：不贪，不嗔，不痴。
身三前二是基本常识。四口可太可怕了，若如此，网上恐怕就没有贴文可看了。
苏姗开道德课来啦:-?
susan英文用的很自在，不用繁杂无意的虚词，也能很轻松地言词达意。八成在家也说英语吧？:)
- posted on 02/24/2006
WOA wrote:
一个疑问在心中打结已久，就是关于这个Sin，不知是否以下几个的词根？
为何中日中美关系叫Sino-Japan, Sino-US relationship? 中国怎么与Sin有缘？或是另由Chin转化而来？
更有可恶的Sinus, 相信玛雅和阿大舅都深有痛感，是不是也源于Sin?
唉，WOA兄弟的问题让人有醍醐灌顶，茅塞顿开的感觉。:) sin又成了sino的词根？不搞Sino-Janpense关系，难道再来一次anti-janpenese战争？(不好，ant不会是anti的词根吧，那历史可真全乱套了。)
词根多来于拉丁。英文小词就如同简化字俗语，很少有当词根用的。这样也好，比较轻省，不用浮想联翩，也不用担心说错话。比如，不会把sexton理解为sex stone或vibarator，那身上的sin可是深入骨髓，怎么也洗不下去了。教士也不敢去就您了:) - Re: SINSposted on 02/24/2006
LingHuChong wrote:
词根多来于拉丁。英文小词就如同简化字俗语，很少有当词根用的。这样也好，比较轻省，不用浮想联翩，也不用担心说错话。比如，不会把sexton理解为sex stone或vibarator，那身上的sin可是深入骨髓，怎么也洗不下去了。教士也不敢去就您了:)
语言多变数，尤其英文，不能用简单的数学归纳法，否则不把考古大师的饭碗给端了？
才知道令狐家住Sexton? 呵呵，恭喜你有Sin 了，赶紧去女王图书馆借一本辞典，Sexton就是Sex Town进化来的嘛！
- posted on 02/27/2006
Hi hi, 谢谢玛雅，可是我现在又想玩别的了。这个世界简直象一个糖果店，我手里
攥着几毛钱，东看西看什么都想要。
我也是对心理学的东西感兴趣啊，特别是医学，神经学上的新发现。这迫使人们对
道德观重新思考，也必然推动法律上的变革。快写你采访精神病院的事吧，我有兴
趣！
玛雅 wrote:
SusanMM，你一直对罪、人律有兴趣，记得你曾讲过要作computer的forensic（名称记得不是很真切)，这个梦想真好，希望你实现。
我的兴趣点是在犯罪与心理学，科学的进步让我们重新思考什么是罪了。最近我跟一个在广州的脑外科医生聊天，他的的领域就是用外科治疗强迫症和精神分裂，我们谈了这个问题。我去年访问了芳村精神病院，也对罪等等有了思考。很多国家都把政治犯和有思想的人放到精神病院去。
等有空我仔细看了你的贴文，回来跟你讨论，并且谈Yeats的案件。 - Re: SINSposted on 02/27/2006
Hehehe, thanks thanks, your comments make me a little bit un-自在. :-)
令胡冲 wrote:
susan英文用的很自在，不用繁杂无意的虚词，也能很轻松地言词达意。八成在家也说英语吧？:)
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