Vicious Sorrow: The Roots of a ‘Spiritual’ Sin in the Summa Theologiae
The vice of acedia deserves—and rewards—a closer reading than is implied in the old rendering ‘sloth’, or even in contemporary readings of ‘spiritual sloth’. Such is at least true in Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, the subject of the following close (re)reading of this enigmatic vice. Investigating the...
| 发表在: | Studies in Christian ethics |
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| 主要作者: | |
| 格式: | 电子 文件 |
| 语言: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| 出版: |
Sage
[2017]
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| In: |
Studies in Christian ethics
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages NBE Anthropology ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
Passions
B Summa Theologiae B Rest B Sorrow B Thomas Aquinas B 怠惰 B sloth |
| 在线阅读: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| 总结: | The vice of acedia deserves—and rewards—a closer reading than is implied in the old rendering ‘sloth’, or even in contemporary readings of ‘spiritual sloth’. Such is at least true in Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, the subject of the following close (re)reading of this enigmatic vice. Investigating the question on acedia (II-II.35) and its grounding in portions of I-II, I first establish acedia’s basis not in a sovereign spiritual ‘choice’ but in the sensitive appetite and the passion of sorrow. This turns the portrait of acedia’s ‘patients’ from those who avoid to those who embrace the labors of love, those who experience acedia’s sorrow in the very midst of pursuing divine joy. A third section steps back to show the entire problem of acedia, including its ‘slothful’ effects, in terms of this one fundamental sorrow that suppresses joy—real rest—in the Lord. I end with Thomas’s remedy, the hope-charged possibility of rising up in defense of the divine joy, turning back acedia’s sorrow at every point of its attack and reclaiming the pleasure of sharing in God’s life. |
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| ISSN: | 0953-9468 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0953946816658719 |