The Concept of Sin

by Pieper, Josef; Oakes, Edward T.

• ISBN13: 9781890318086
• ISBN10: 1890318086
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: St Augustine Pr Inc

Summary

In ordinary conversation, including among the "educated", the word "sin" rarely gets mentioned except when one is trying to be coy or facetious. As Thomas Mann once said, "sin" is nowadays "an amusing word used only when one is trying to get a laugh".

But this small work will interpret sin in its true -- that is, serious -- meaning. What will emerge from its analysis is the discovery that the concept of sin can still serve to unlock the mystery of existence, at least for a thinking that wants to press down to the very foundations.

Needless to say, such an effort will require a kind of "mining energy" of an archeologist of ideas who knows how to recover what was once known (or at least suspected) from time immemorial but has now been forgotten. But Josef Pieper does more than bring to bear on this issue his famous powers of excavation; he also makes meaningful the concept of sin to the ways of thinking and speaking of our time.

Readers of his work already know Pieper as an extraordinarily fitting master in this art of making "the wisdom of the ages" a livi

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface	ix
Usage	1	(15)
``Sin''
a word no longer used?
``Mildly facetious'' (Thomas Mann)
What people claim to mean by the word and what they really mean
Keeping silent vs. not speaking up when one should
``Conflict between guilt and sin'' (Nicholai Hartmann)
Violation of an absolute norm
Missing the Mark	16	(18)
Evil, lapse, guilt
The structure of the false step: more a violation of a behavioral rule than a failure to hit the mark?
All lapses outside of the moral realm are inadvertent
The inno
cence of art?
``Activity'' and ``Labor''
Only moral lapses make the doer evil
Unavailing attempts to make the immensity of sin comprehensible
Contra Naturam, Contra Rationem	34	(14)
Sin as ``contrary to order''
What does ``order'' mean?
Sin as an act ``contrary to nature''
Human nature: the quintessence of what man is meant to be as a created being
Why no one can sin with full heart
The ``theological'' neglect of human nature
Sin as an action contrary to reason
Reason and conscience
Participation in the divine Logos
Contra Deum	48	(8)
``Contrary to order,'' ``contrary to nature,'' ``contrary to reason'': incommensurate terms
The true name for sin: a failing against God
Does ``natural man'' not know what sin is?
The answer of the tradition of humanity
Sin hides its true name
Failing God: too ``anthropomorphic'' a concept?
Pride and Desire	56	(10)
``Deliberately turning away from God''
Is sin really a ``turning away'' and not rather a ``turning toward''? The affirmation of creaturely goods cannot make a deed into a sin
Cupiditas and superbia
Pride as the inner wellspring of all sin
The demand for freedom as a possible mask of our turning away from God
Moral and Venial Sin	66	(8)
Curable and incurable infractions: a distinction not unique to Christianity
``Mortal'' sin and ``venial'' sin: not a distinction of a genus into species
What does ``deadly'' sin mean? The ``eter
nal in man'' as the place of the sinful act in the full sense
``Serious'' vs. ``deadly'' sins
The Paradox of Sin -- A Freely Chosen Compulsion	74	(9)
How can the deliberate denial of the ground of our existence ever be possible?
Various ways to surrender to this question
Why the appeal to man's free will is no answer
Man can sin because, like all creatures, he comes from nothing
Less an explanation than a reductio ad mysterium
The Stain of Sin	83	(16)
What remains after the sinful act is over
Macula, guilt, liability to punishment
Atonement as a chance to purge guilt
The problematic reliance on punishment decreed by man
The ``eternity-intention'' in deadly sin
``Hell'' as self
imprisonment with the prisoner holding the key
The prerequisite for forgiveness: recognizing and repenting one's own guilt
Contrition; self-accusation; confession
Man's autonomous self-under-standing and the attitude of the ``fallen angels''
The necessity for a divine act of forgiveness
Notes	99	(14)
Index	113