The Cardinal and the Deadly: Reimagining the Seven Virtues and Seven Vices

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What makes for a good life? The seven deadly vices and seven holy virtues, ingrained in our cultural imagination, help us answer this perennial question. For two millennia, these fourteen character traits have stirred our imagination of human nature and desire. Sometimes, however, lists like the seven deadly sins remain mere caricatures that shame and exclude. The world, however, is not divided up into priests and convicts, saints and sinners, virtuous and vicious people. Much of the time, we live between the boundaries of vice and virtue. The Cardinal and the Deadly challenges simplistic bifurcations in order to reimagine a more faithful, hopeful, and loving life. It adopts a unique approach to examining the virtues and vices by pairing them in unexpected ways to reveal something significant about being human. Hope redirects greed; wisdom corrects pride; faith enlivens sloth. Bringing ancient and contemporary authors into dialogue, the book offers a concrete and accessible introduction to virtue ethics for students, pastors, and churches. Its ultimate goal is to engage the reader’s intellect and imagination, so that we may respond creatively to the ethical challenges of living together.