The Seven Interesting Sins

At Books and Culture, Stephen Prothero examines the Oxford University Press book series on the seven deadly sins. Though the volumes vary, Prothero notes that most of them tend to turn toward advocacy of the ways in which the particular sin mentioned has received bad press.

Prothero writes:

Flannery O'Connor, the sin-obsessed novelist of the once sin-obsessed South, wrote, "The Catholic novelist believes that you destroy your freedom by sin; the modern reader believes, I think, that you gain it in that way." The Seven Deadly Sins series was written for this modern reader. But what has been lost as sin has been sacrificed to freedom?

The stock answers are close at hand. What has been lost are guilt and fear, Catholic bishops who worm their way into our bedrooms, Puritan divines who take sadistic pleasure in dangling us over a fiery pit. But such answers are too pat.

What is missing from these books—and from contemporary American culture—is a sense that something is missing from this world. With the notable exception of Thurman's Anger, there is little awareness here of the incompleteness and unsatisfactoriness that Augustine took for evidence of another life, and that saints from Mary to Mother Teresa have taken as a charge to make this life conform to our imaginings of the next. Quoting Baudelaire, O'Connor once wrote that "the devil's greatest wile …is to convince us that he does not exist." If so, this is a wily series indeed.

Comments

[Bobby Winters]

Vice is virtue, virtue vice.

[Bill R]

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight."

--Isaiah 5:20-21

[Stuart Koehl]

The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life,
Spare me from the spirit of apathy and meddling,
Of idle chatter and love of power.

Instead, grant to me Your servant,
The spirit of apathy and humility,
Of patience and of love.

Yes, O Lord and God,
Grant me the grace to be aware of my sins,
And not to judge others,

For You are blessed,
Now and ever, and unto Ages of Ages,
Amen.

[Stuart Koehl]

Ooops!

Correct version:

The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life,
Spare me from the spirit of apathy and meddling,
Of idle chatter and love of power.

Instead, grant to me Your servant,
The spirit of apathy and humility,
Of patience and of love.

Yes, O Lord and God,
Grant me the grace to be aware of my sins,
And not to judge others,

For You are blessed,
Now and ever, and unto Ages of Ages,
Amen.

[Ethan Cordray]

Sorry, Stuart, I can't spot the difference between the two versions...third time's the charm?

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Sorry, Stuart, I can't spot the difference between the two versions...third time's the charm?<<<

Gaaack!!!

Correct version (really, it is!):

The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life,
Spare me from the spirit of apathy and meddling,
Of idle chatter and love of power.

Instead, grant to me Your servant,
The spirit of INTEGRITY and humility,
Of patience and of love.

Yes, O Lord and God,
Grant me the grace to be aware of my sins,
And not to judge others,

For You are blessed,
Now and ever, and unto Ages of Ages,
Amen.

[GL]

Stuart,

Thanks for the prayer. It is one we all need to pray often.

[Ethan Cordray]

Stuart,

I figured that word was the trouble. Although from a poetic standpoit, using "apathy" in two different ways might be rather interesting (though that would sound a little more Buddhist than Christian).

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>lthough from a poetic standpoit, using "apathy" in two different ways might be rather interesting (though that would sound a little more Buddhist than Christian).<<<

Quite right, since apatheia is not apathy. One of the problems I have encountered with translating the Greek Fathers and the liturgical texts into English is the inability to render the innumerable puns and other forms of wordplay which they, apparently could not resist, into meaningful English.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Thanks for the prayer. It is one we all need to pray often.<<<

It's recited frequently by us at Great Lent. I find it interesting because of the sins St. Ephrem saw as at the roots of evil: gossip, indifference, and lust for power.

[James A. Altena]

"One of the problems I have encountered with translating the Greek Fathers and the liturgical texts into English is the inability to render the innumerable puns and other forms of wordplay which they, apparently could not resist, into meaningful English."

Of course, the same problem exists with the Scriptures, particularly the OT -- e.g., the wordplay on the visions and their meaning in the opening chapter of Jeremiah.