The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 7. Pride
Article by December 2014
Now as we conclude our series, we come at last to the vice of Pride, “the Great Sin” as C.S. Lewis calls it, and as the Christian tradition has consistently taught. It is both the first and the last of sins: the mother which gives birth to all the others, but which, when grown to its full stature, can supersede, even devour the others, and last long after they have been subdued. It is the mother of all other sins because Pride is, at its root, self-love, or rather, inordinate self-love. There is an appropriate self-love that in fact acts as a check on other vices, particularly sensual ones, in which we recognize ourselves as a creature and servant of God, and in due regard for our Maker and the task to which He has called us, seek health and well-being, and seek to pursue excellence of body, mind, and soul. continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 6. Wrath
Article by December 2014
As we come to Wrath in a Digital Age, we must once again by asking, “what is this vice exactly?” Is Wrath a vice like Gluttony – too much of a good thing, or wanting a good thing in the wrong way? Or is it more like Envy – intrinsically disordered, and purely destructive? continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age V. Envy
Article by December 2014
Envy, like our previous vice, Sloth, is often misunderstood today. In fact, I suspect many of us are apt to confuse it somewhat with Greed. Both, it seems, boil down to wanting more stuff, so that Envy would seem to designate merely the sub-set of cases in which someone else already has the stuff that you want (and perhaps their having it is what prompts your wanting it). continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 4. Sloth
Article by November 2014
When we come to the subject of Sloth in a Digital Age, the diagnosis might seem obvious, if a tad moralistic. We are all familiar with the couch potato glued to the TV screen, or the teenager who neglects his homework for video games, or her homework for Instagram. In the modern world, we are taught to work only for the sake of attaining leisure, and digital media have become our favorite source of leisure. The vice of sloth, then, we deem, is the sin of laziness, of failing to be as productive as God calls us to be. continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 3. Greed
Article by November 2014
Given what I have said in the last installment about Gluttony, you might well be wondering what we could possibly say about the distinctive shape of Greed in a digital age. Digital content, by its nature, cannot be possessed in the way that the traditional objects of avarice can; not only is it physically insubstantial, but it is limitlessly replicable, much to the dismay of the music industry. Whatever our attempts to extend the logic of ownership to digital content via intellectual property agreements, the fact remains that such content is essentially consumed (without limit) rather than possessed, inasmuch as possession pressupposes a certain scarcity. continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 2. Gluttony
Article by November 2014
At first glance, the subject of “gluttony in a digital age” might seem almost a joke. However much gluttony might be a dominant vice in our society (and in one of the most perceptive chapters of The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis reveals it to be far more pervasive than we might have imagined), it can have little to do with the digital side of our lives. If gluttony is a matter of over-consuming food and drink, the things most central to our bodily existence, then our use of digital technologies, which we engage with the eyes and the mind, cannot be an issue of gluttony. continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: 1. Lust
Article by November 2014
When the subject of “Lust in a digital age” comes up, our minds are likely to jump immediately to the suffocating epidemic of internet pornography that is sweeping our country–indeed, the world. Although it is still rarely openly discussed, most of us are probably dimly aware of the statistics, which are terrifying, and the anecdotes, which are more terrifying still. More than two-thirds of men now report watching porn on at least a weekly basis, and many report full-blown addictive behaviors, watching porn daily, for hours on end, and seeking out ever more perverse and degrading videos. continue
The Seven Deadly Sins in a Digital Age: An Introduction
Article by November 2014
Although the advent of new technology has probably posed new challenges for almost every generation, no one can deny that the pace of change has increased exponentially in recent decades, inflicting ever more severe growing pains on Christians seeking to live faithfully in a rapidly-changing world. continue
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