King Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. All that has come before will come again. Whenever we think we’ve uncovered something new about ourselves or the world, all we need do is look to history to set us straight.
Ken Bazyn, editorial director of the Religious Book Club, offers an insightful look at history in The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring. In this readable, yet intricate work, he gives us a literary, religious and philosophical perspective on the seven “perennial” or “root-sins”: pride, envy, anger, avarice (greed), lust, gluttony and sloth (apathy). While the very idea of sin has fallen out of fashion — as pointed out to me by a colleague who once remarked that “sin is a Western concept” — we see it in action every day.
Bazyn masterfully examines how writers, theologians, and philosophers viewed each perennial sin and its “offspring†or variation. Each of the seven is at the root of all others. For example, murder is not listed as one of the seven because it is not a root-sin; it may arise from anger or avarice or envy or all seven.
As an English major, I appreciated Bazyn’s liberal use of literary examples to illustrate the recurring theme. He states at the outset that literature “has a pleasing indirectness that catches us unawares” and that stories help us to “flesh out abstract principles and imprint them on our memories.” Just as Jesus Christ’s parables reflected what was in men’s hearts, stories can hold up a mirror that reflects our own nature.
From such literary characters as Jay Gatsby, Bartleby the Scrivener, Dr. Jekyll, and a host of Biblical figures, Bazyn shows how each perennial sin manifests itself in their tortured lives. He quotes such men as Nietzsche, Kant, St. Augustine, and C.S. Lewis, and refers to historical events such as the French Revolution and the Vietnam War, to build an overarching theme of how human fallacies plague us all. While Bazyn’s book is an excellent study of history and literature, I found myself relishing passages of his own original thoughts and wished he’d used more of a balance in technique.
The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring makes reference to many forgotten stories once read in high school and college, ones that gave us metaphors to “help us cope with life’s complexities and contradictions,” Bazyn writes. Public school educators in America would be wise to return to the study of great literature and Western culture. In the twenty-first century, moral relativism has all but eroded the concept of sin. Some redefine it; others deny it. Ken Bazyn reiterates throughout his book that sin is a deep-rooted, unchanging, universal, and permanent condition of man. We would do well to call it what it is.
King Solomon tells us that no one on earth is free from sin. What, then, is our hope? “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
A perennial solution to a perennial problem.
Originally published at Townhall.com in July 2003
Update (9/21): Wow. Even posting a book review, I can’t get away from controversy. There’s supposedly some dispute about who actually authored Ecclesiastes, a reader tells me. Traditionally, people believed it was Solomon, king of Israel, son of the great King David. Some modern biblical scholars doubt Solomon was the author. My MacArthur Study Bible reads: “The autobiographical profile of the book’s writer unmistakably points to Solomon.” For purposes of this book review, I’ll stick with the traditional view.
I need a vacation…
