Why I choose this image - Richard Wallis.

The idea of there being Seven Deadly Sins isn’t found in the Bible, but originates in the fourth and fifth centuries.  Each of these sins is found individually in scripture, but not in a single list.  So for example, Proverbs 6 lists some of them, as does chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel of Matthew.

Nevertheless, for fifteen centuries, the Seven Deadly Sins has captured the Western public imagination.  In art, music, literature and in popular culture, they continue to fascinate and challenge. They are, in fact, as accurate and as complete a list of human vices as is possible to get, and as such, provide a disconcerting insight into the human condition for those willing to stop to reflect on them and their repercussions in our lives.

Seven Deadly Sins: Introduction in an Image...

Introduction

Pride

13 June ‘10

Envy

18 July ’10

Anger

15 Aug. ’10

Sloth

3 Oct. ’10

Greed

7 Nov. ’10

Gluttony

27 Mar ’11

Lust

6 Feb ’11

Dante and the Divina Commedia by Domenico di Michelino (1417 – 1491).

On the wall above my desk, I have a small print of Dante and the Divina Commedia (1465), a photographic reproduction of Michelino’s fresco on the wall of the Duomo in Florence.  Sometimes referred to as ‘The Three Kingdoms’ the picture features the Fourteenth century poet, Dante Alighieri in the foreground, presenting the viewer with the manuscript of his Commedia.  To the right stand the fortified towers of the earthly city of Florence (from where Dante has been exiled); on the left, the miserable descent of the damned into Hell (Inferno); in the middle, the climbing Mount Purgatory (Purgatorio); and this reaches up to the Ten Heavens (Paradiso).  Dante gestures the scene with his right hand, and looks out of the picture away to his left with an expression that could almost be tired resignation: ‘I’m just telling you’ he seems to be saying, ‘this is the way it is’.

Dante’s Commedia is a staggering, bewildering feat of imagination – a complex, personal work of allegory, history, politics, theology, philosophy and poetry.  One only has to look at the way in which artists through the centuries have interpreted some of his diabolical visions to get a sense of the more sensational aspects of this work.  (I have one edition that contains the gruesome, shadowy engravings of Victorian illustrator Gustave Doré, which is definitely not for the faint of heart.)  But looking beyond the grim, the Commedia is essentially the story of Dante’s journey towards God – ‘the Love which moves the sun...’  And understanding the importance of this Love is the key to understanding the seven cardinal or ‘deadly’ sins.

Because the story of Commedia is that of a journey away from Hell and towards God, Dante effectively ranks the seven sins in Purgatorio in the following order of gravity:  pride; envy; wrath; sloth; avarice; gluttony; and lust.  But to become too concerned with the particular ‘levels’ of sin is to miss the point.  In Canto XVII, the character of Virgil explains to Dante the central truth:  all sin stems from a deviation of love.  In the case of pride, envy and wrath, this is perverted love; in the case of sloth, it is insufficient love; and in the case of avarice, gluttony and lust, excessive love of the wrong thing:

Hence thou mayest comprehend that love must be

The seed within yourself of every virtue,

And every act that merits punishment.

Contrary to our contemporary ‘naughty but nice’ idea of sin, in Dante’s world it is entirely negative.  It is the diseased stump that should have been the great oak.  It is the lack of the very thing that sustains and nurtures life.  ‘I’m just telling you’ he seems to be saying, ‘this is the way it is’.

Richard is a long-standing member of Mutley Baptist Church, where for many years, he and his wife Teena ran the children's theatre group, Louder than Words.  He works for a media company, and has a particular interest in theatre, new media, communication theory, and media education.

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