A secular society always feels uncomfortable with the moral imagination associated with the seven deadly sins. The Enlightenment replaced the idea of sin, which is deemed to be an offense against God, with the idea of crime, which is an offense against other people. But the rationalists still shared with religion the belief that individuals […]

In a world whose motto has become ‘You mustn’t blame yourself’, sin has been replaced by sickness. Once upon a time there were seven deadly sins. They were called deadly because they led to spiritual death and therefore to damnation. The seven sins were (and are): lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, anger, envy and pride. Now […]

To be honest, as a humanist I don’t much like the idea of sin. But given the choice of being powerless in the face of God or an impotent client of a therapist, I side with the Church. Therapeutic definitions of addiction elevate the sense of human powerlessness to a level unimaginable in medieval times. […]