Importance of the Deadly Sins

In all religions, in addition to the guidelines of faith, guidelines that have to do with the behavior of the faithful and recommendations on how to understand the universe that surrounds us are established. In the case of Christianity, morality and purity were for a long time the values ​​that preceded others and that, therefore, were more important. In this context of ideals, it develops very early (beginning of the Middle Ages) the notion of capital sins, those acts that are extremely dangerous and contemptible for the coexistence communities healthy.

The concept of deadly sins according to the eyes of the Christian religion

Before determining the importance of this type of concept, it is essential to be able to understand it correctly. In all the scriptures, testimonies and documents that come down to us from the early days of the Christian religion, we find an endless number of metaphors, allegories and signs that serve to determine our behavior as good Christians, respectful of forms and dogmas and responsible enough to avoid certain habits that may be harmful.

So, we have the 10 Commandments, a simple and very concrete list of attitudes to respect. Along the same lines runs the idea of ​​capital sins, which are understood according to the Christian religion, as the maximum sins that a person can commit and that must, at the same time, be strongly punished.

What kind of sins are we talking about?

As stated, the concept of capital sins implies a much more immediate and clear level of seriousness than other sins of the human being. It is interesting to clarify that this category of sins has been created and determined by sins or acts that in some moment they were understood as highly immoral, harmful to the good spirit and dangerous for coexistence ethics. These sins are seven and are the following: anger, gluttony, lust, greed, laziness, envy and pride or vanity. In themselves, all these acts imply in the eyes of the Christian religion serious immoral attitudes that must be controlled and therefore eliminated from human behavior.

The usefulness of sins in every religion

Once the concept of deadly sins is understood, we can go on to say that all monotheistic religions have in greater or lesser degree a design of social control to lead society to develop certain behaviors over others.

In the specific case of Christianity, the need to impose moral behavior guidelines and Ethics have always been very important and essential to ensure faithful with a certain type of spirit. It is no coincidence that all these practices have been developed at a time when the Church controlled and had much more power over people, even over their intimate lives.

Images: iStock. Lise Gagne-vandervelden