7 Deadly Sins: The Seven Virtues
The list of Seven Virtues were developed to give a path leading away from the Deadly Sins. Whereas the sins lead us away from God into deception, the Virtues draws us towards Him. They are stepping stones which help us to build a deeper relationship with God and properly order our relationships.
If we choose the Sins over the Virtues, we jeopardise our souls, lose our way and struggle to build a ‘good life’ here on Earth.
Dante’s Purgatorio
The author Dante wrote a spiritual trilogy called Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. It charts what happens to souls after death. In Purgatorio, the faithful who have any sinful flaws, will find them corrected in this place.
If they struggle with pride, then they would have to carry large stones on their back. This will humble them and correct this flaw.
For envy, their eyes are sown shut. For those who struggle with anger, they are to walk around blinding in overwhelming black smoke. This mimics the spiritual and psychological effects of anger.
For sloth, the faithful are given unceasing work. And for greed, they must lay face down in the dust repeating Psalm 119 v 25
Psalm 119:25 (NET)
I collapse in the dirt. Revive me with your word!
For gluttony, the souls are starved, while fruit trees with low hanging fruit sway temptingly in the breeze.
And finally for lust, the faithful are expected to run through a walls of flames, praising chastity and self-control.
This poetic work argues that the Seven Deadly Sins are in fact examples of misdirected love. So pride is an overactive self-love, lust is inappropriate sexual love and gluttony is the uncontrollable love of over-consuming. By correcting how we love, we participate in the God’s sanctifying process.
In the poem, Purgatorio is presented as an opportunity for the recently departed souls to redirect their gaze from sinful desires and onto the higher things.
For us alive on Earth, it provides a deeper understanding of the effects of sin on our lives. And how we can think about changing the way we live, in order to help us better resist temptation.
The Path of Virtue
In the Medieval period, the Seven Virtues were connected to the Deadly Sins. They provided the Christian with a pathway away from them.
For example, if we struggle with lust, we need to aim for and practice chastity.
When we sin, I believe it’s like we are scraping a groove into our soul. Each time we commit the same sin, the groove becomes deeper and deeper. The more we are tempted by a particular sin, and the greater the groove, then the harder it is to resist.
By practicing the Seven Virtues, we begin to fill that groove in and we find it easier to resist it. The more we choose to act out the Virtues, the more resilient to sin we become.
Here is a list of the Deadly Sins and the corresponding Virtues.
Pride : Humility
Envy : Kindness
Anger : Patience
Lust : Chastity
Gluttony : Temperance
Greed : Charity
Sloth : Diligence
So to combat pride, we need to choose the practice of humility.
With Anger, practice patience. Maybe choose to volunteer for something where we have to show patience.
With sloth, try and diligently deep-clean one room every week or regularly prioritise certain relationships.
It’s about knowing ourselves and our weaknesses (where we get most tempted), and then making practical steps to help us strengthen our resolve against temptation.
Behind the paywall, I talk about the modern version of the 7 Deadly Sins.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tower of Adam to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.