7 Deadly Sins: A Very Partial List - Hardcover

Kleinberg, Aviad

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674031415 ISBN 13: 9780674031418

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2008

Synopsis

A Very Partial List

About this title

About the Author

Aviad Kleinberg is Professor of History at Tel Aviv University and the author of Prophets in Their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages.

Reviews

What's more sinful: angrily beating a child for no apparent reason, sleeping with a neighbor's wife or husband or eating all of the cheesecake so nobody else can have any? In his simplistic book, Tel Aviv University professor Kleinberg attempts a very partial answer to this question. He acknowledges that there is no sin without context, so that while child abuse may not be a wrong in one culture, it is horribly wrong in another. Using the Catholic Church's list of the seven deadly sins as his foil, Kleinberg proceeds to show that sin is relative and that even the worst of sins can be excused or seen in different lights depending on circumstances. For example, he understands sloth as the tendency to avoid the daily struggle against evil and injustice, and he counsels avoiding such slothfulness. Ultimately dissatisfying, Kleinberg's unfocused reflections comprise a book without a mission, for it fails to be either a deep personal meditation on the subject or a thoughtful theological exploration of a subject much better covered by Oxford University's series on the seven deadly sins. (Oct.)
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Kleinberg’s Israeli best-seller is a learned, sometimes personal look at sloth, envy, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, and pride as well as self-righteousness and what he calls “advanced sin.” He begins the journey through the history of sin straightforwardly: “There is no sin without context”; that is, behavior becomes sinful only in a moral and cultural context. Since society constantly redefines right and wrong, “sin is a cultural construct.” Christianity, he believes, is founded on sin. He describes the basic Christian categories of original sin, created by Adam and Eve; venial sin, which only confession and acts of contrition erase; and mortal sin, which destroys the soul. He explores each deadly sin with great care and thoughtfulness and from both historic and very personal perspectives. Thus, he includes elements from his own background—his shortcomings and flaws—while considering the characteristics and traits of each sin; and he refers to not only literary classics (e.g., the Iliad) in his retellings of biblical tales but also pop culture (e.g., the Michael Douglas movie Wall Street). --June Sawyers

Edition details

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674031415
• ISBN 13: 9780674031418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208