There has been recent work on acedia and its relationship to depression, but the results are a mixed bag. In this essay, I engage some recent scholarship comparing acedia with depression, endeavouring to clarify the concept of acedia using literature from theology, philosophy, psychiatry, and even a 16th-century treatise on witchcraft. Along the way, I will show the following key theses. First, the concept of acedia is not identical to the concept of depression. Acedia is (...) not merely a primitive psychological predecessor to depression, but it marks off significantly different ways of being, not least because of one’s spiritual relation to God. As Lucrèce Luciani-Zidane (2009: 13) has said, “acedia is entangled in the heart (or life) of Christian dogma.” Second, however, it is still possible that an instance of acedia can coincide with an instance of depression, if one’s condition, or state, is such that each term can be correctly and truthfully applied. By the conclusion of this piece, I begin to explore what practical implications this view has for practitioners and laypersons. (shrink)

El presente trabajo intenta mostrar el modo en que Tomás de Aquino tematiza el vicio de la acedia como taedium operandi en la Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 35. Para ello, se procederá en la recuperación, y consecuente análisis, de los elementos tanto sistemáticos cuanto doctrinales sobre cuya base el Aquinate desarrolla esta temática.

There has been a general failure among mental health theorists and social psychologists to understand the etiology of work-engendered depression. Yet the condition is increasingly prevalent in highly industrialized societies, where an exclusionary focus upon work, money, and the things that money can buy has displaced values that traditionally exerted a liberating and humanizing influence. Social critics have called the result an impoverishment of the spirit, a state of cultural bankruptcy, and an incapacity for genuine leisure. From a clinical perspective, (...) the condition has been diagnosed as widespread narcissism and obsessive work. -/- Acedia, a concept developed by the Scholastics, throws clarifying light on the origin of this form of depression. (shrink)

In the capital vices tradition, acedia was fought through perseverance and manual labor. In this paper, I argue that we can also fight acedia through practicing wonder and gratitude. I show this through an account of moral formation developed out of the insight of the virtues and vices traditions that character traits affect how we see things. In the first section, I use Robert Roberts’s account of emotions to explain a mechanism by which virtues and vices affect vision (...) and thus moral formation. Then, by looking at the capital vices tradition, I argue that restless boredom is a primary construal of the vice of acedia. Third, I explain wonder and gratitude through the work of G.K. Chesterton and Roberts, respectively. In light of their accounts, I explain how the construals of wonder and gratitude are contrary to the construal of acedia. Finally, I offer some practices that encourage gratitude and wonder. (shrink)

Søren Kierkegaard is well-known as an original philosophical thinker, but less known is his reliance upon and development of the Christian tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins, in particular the vice of acedia, or sloth. As acedia has enjoyed renewed interest in the past century or so, commentators have attempted to pin down one or another Kierkegaardian concept (e.g., despair, heavy-mindedness, boredom, etc.) as the embodiment of the vice, but these attempts have yet to achieve any consensus. In (...) our estimation, the complicated reality is that, in using slightly different but related concepts, Kierkegaard is providing a unique look at acedia as it manifests differently at different stages on life’s way. Thus, on this “perspectival account”, acedia will manifest differently according to whether an individual inhabits the aesthetic, ethical, or religious sphere. We propose two axes for this perspectival account. Such descriptions of how acedia manifests make up the first, phenomenal axis, while the second, evaluative axis, accounts for the various bits of advice and wisdom we read in the diagnoses of acedia from one Kierkegaardian pseudonym to another. Our aim is to show that Kierkegaard was not only familiar with the concept of acedia, but his contributions helped to develop and extend the tradition. (shrink)

A través de un examen de la acedia en Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 35 se clarifica su condición de posibilidad partiendo de la doctrina inmanente y sus presuposiciones ontológicas implícitas. Tal avistamiento permite mostrar su posible presencia subyacente en el trasfondo de Ser y Tiempo, así como también abrir el campo para la problematización respecto al método de acceso, a saber, si Tomás realizó de facto una interpretación herme-néutica de la vida cotidiana.

ABSTRACT The midday demon, who attacked the solitary monk with vicious temptations – above all, that of acedia – is a conventional motif in late antique and medieval ascetic literature. At the noon hour, the demonic assault was vigorous and ranging. But medieval spiritual writers like Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) and Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173) also described noontime as the high point of mystical experience. Both notions hark back to biblical statements made in the Psalms and (...) Song of Songs and were elaborated by medieval thinkers through exegetical rumination. This paper studies the propinquity of these two notions in the symbolism and vocabulary of medieval spiritual writers, and in so doing documents the biblical and monastic contribution to unfolding ideas about melancholy. As examined in Saturn and Melancholy pathological melancholy would traditionally refer to the complex of symptoms associated with sloth and sadness that beleaguered the uprooted and antisocial ascetic. But after the introduction of the Aristotelian problem to Latin writers, a contrasting view appeared in the early thirteenth century, which held melancholy for a benediction of mystical or theophanic frenzy. This paper unmoors melancholy from its classical sources and, beginning from the ambivalence of the noonday motif, argues that the traditional literature of mystics and ascetics prepared for this remarkable shift. (shrink)

Eastern Orthodox accounts of acedia are often neglected in Catholic and Protestant circles, yet offer a range of insights for contemporary virtue ethics and moral psychology. Acedia is a complex concept with shades of apathy, hate, and desire that poses grave problems for the moral life and human wellbeing. This is because acedia disorders reasoning, desiring, willing, and acting, and causes various harms to relationships. Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian discuss acedia in the context of a (...) virtue ethic ordered to human flourishing that includes practices to combat vices and build character. The result is an Orthodox conception of virtue and moral psychology that rewards ecumenical attention. (shrink)

Cet article aborde le péché capital d’ acedia ou acédie, pour déterminer s’il se caractérise plus essentiellement comme aversion ou comme indifférence. À partir de sa figure originaire, livrée par le théologien-ermite Évagre le Pontique, sera dépassée sa formulation comme odium professionis, haine de l’état monastique, au profit d’une hypothèse mettant en jeu à la fois indifférence et aversion, celle de l’insupportable indifférence. Cette hypothèse sera ultimement dépassée par la mise au jour d’un état plus profond d’indifférence à soi, (...) menant à la thèse ultime, kierkegaardienne, d’une défaillance éthique profonde dans l’acédie. (shrink)

Critiques of transhumanism from Christian theologians and philosophers often focus on the movement’s disdain for the human body. These criticisms are expressed in a number of different ways. Some argue that the transhumanists’ disdain is a new form of Gnosticism, while others argue that it leads to real violence against real human bodies. When such criticisms turn to identify the particular sin of which transhumanism is guilty, they sometimes identify vainglory as the besetting sin, but more often than not pride (...) is the sin named. After all, what is transhumanism – with its various proposals for bringing about the posthuman, which is some future being with capabilities so far beyond the human so as to border on godlike – but the latest iteration of the primal sin of humans wanting to become God on their own terms? -/- While such criticisms are valid, they do not capture the depth of transhumanism’s offense from a Christian perspective. Pride and vanity are indeed two of the deadly sins of transhumanism, but there are others at play as well. Moreover, pride is the root of all sin, so saying that pride is the problem is not necessarily helpful. We must find the particular ways in which pride manifests itself. I will argue that the sin of acedia (sometimes spelled accidie), found in ancient lists of the deadly sins, is a primary sin of transhumanism. In so doing, I hope to contribute to a more complete diagnosis of the transhumanist project from a Christian perspective, and I hope to further show why transhumanism is at odds with Christianity, contra the claims of the Christian Transhumanist Association. It should also be stated up front that this article may raise more questions than it answers. Accordingly, it should be seen as an invitation for further research, not as a definitive assessment of acedia in transhumanism. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Circa 1630, the Dutch painter Pieter Jakobsz Codde, created a painting that shows little more than a young man sitting in a chair. Yet an in-depth examination of the person, the design of the space and the objects located in the room reveal that different aspects of disturbances and tensions have been integrated into the presentation and open a discourse on the imagery of melancholy and acedia. The paper shows by way of example that this is not an (...) iconographic gimmick but rather a challenge to differentiate and then decide between political as well as social meanings. Should the painting’ viewer decide between temperament and vice in the meaning of the representations, he or she determines at the same stroke the defining characteristics of the subject. For while the melancholy enjoyed social acceptance, acedia remained a vice to be avoided. Decisive in this: by acknowledging one’s competence to distinguish between the two states, the observer was able to prove his or her own personal good character traits. The image and the handling of the image thereby constitute a situation in which decision-making authority could be practiced and positive character traits could be solidified. (shrink)

Frontmatter -- Vorwort -- Inhalt -- 1 Antike Melancholie -- 2 Die Acedia des Mittelalters -- 3 Moderne Metamorphosen -- Anmerkungen.

The definition of acedia presents unique conceptual problems among the eight Evagrian logismoi. Its descriptions are so complex and varied as to render the concept seemingly incoherent. This article argues that the conceptual unity of acedia has been obscured by the translation of Evagrian logismoi into the ‘deadly sins’ tradition, resulting in a category error. Acedia is more properly understood, not as a psychological state or a sin, but rather as an array of demonic temptations with the (...) unifying end-goal of interrupting the anchoritic ideal of sustained contemplation. (shrink)

권태는 지루함이나 따분함의 감정 이외에도 낙담, 우울, 냉담한 마음 등과 같은 인간 정신의 어둡고 우울한 면을 반영하는 기분이다. 이런 권태의 기분은 인간을 사로잡는 본질적이고 근원적인 것으로 어느 시대를 막론하고 누구에게나 나타나는 현상이기 때문에 하이데거는 근본기분(Grundstimmung)이라고 말한다. 근본기분은 인간 현존재가 그때마다 바로 지금 거기서 자기의 존재 가능과 관련하여 자기 존재로 존립하게 하는 하나의 주요 계기이자 인간 현존재가 드러나며 개시(開示)되는 현존재의 근원적인 존재 방식이다.4세기 이집트 사막에서 은둔 수도 생활을 했던 사막교부 에바그리우스는 권태(아케디아)를 체계화시킨 최초의 인물로서 그의 주저 『프락티코스』에서 ‘아케디아’(ἀκηδία)를 다루고 있다. 아케디아는 (...) 수도승의 수행 생활을 방해하는 여덟 가지 ‘로기스모이’(λογισμοι 악한 생각들)중의 하나로 영적 태만, 영적 무기력, 나태, 게으름, 우울, 냉담한 마음과 같은 영혼의 내적 상태를 의미한다.사막의 수도승도 오늘을 사는 현대인도 인간이 처한 환경에서 근본기분으로 느끼는 ‘권태’의 모습은 하나로 수렴될 수 있다. 하이데거는 권태가 지닌 두 가지 구조 계기를 “붙잡힘”(Hingehaltenheit)과 “공허에 내맡김”(Leergelassenheit)이라고 분석한다. 우리는 일상에서 권태로움을 견디지 못하고 ‘시간 죽이기’(Zeitvertreib)를 하지만 이런 시간 죽이기와 관련된 표면적 권태는 오히려 우리가 불필요한 일에 몰입하게 만듦으로써 역설적으로 우리를 공허 속으로 내민다. 하이데거는 인간이 시간 죽이기와 무관한 “그저 지루할 뿐인 깊은 권태”, 즉 근본 권태와 마주할 때 비로소 진정성 있게 자기 존재와 공명하게 된다고 말한다. 하지만 일상성에 빠져있는 ‘그들’(das Man)은 권태를 일깨우는 것이 아니라 오히려 그것에 대항하여 떨쳐내려고 하고, 현존재의 심연 밑바닥까지 내려가는 일을 피하곤 한다. 철학상담은 권태로 인해 삶의 의미를 잃어버리고 공허와 우울 및 무기력에 빠진 사람들에게 인간의 근원적 존재 방식에 대한 이해와 수용, 그리고 침묵 속에서 일상에 새로운 의미를 주는 ‘경이’의 발견이라는 철학적 통찰로 내담자를 안내하고 공감적 대화로 동반하면서 내담자 스스로가 자신을 초월하여 진정한 자기됨으로 나아가도록 도울 수 있다. (shrink)

A study of the psychology of demoralization affecting university faculty in the liberal arts. This form of demoralization is not adequately understood in terms of the concept of career burnout. Instead, demoralization that affects university faculty in the liberal arts requires a broadened understanding of the historical and psychological situation in which these professors find themselves today.

Evagrio Póntico es uno de los primeros grandes sistematizadores de la espiritualidad cristiana y, por lo mismo, de gran importancia en diversos desarrollos antropológicos y de espiritualidad en el medioevo. El tópico de la acedia resulta un ejemplo de ello. El presente trabajo examina esta concepción evagriana de acedia de acuerdo a algunas claves hermenéuticas otorgadas por dos de los estudiosos más importantes del pensamiento del Póntico. Una vez clarificado el concepto de acedia, avanza en la dilucidación (...) del recurso de la palabra como instancia terapéutica, principalmente de la palabra de la salmodia. La acedia es, consecutivamente, incuria o descuido, λογισμός tentador y desborde pasional, que impulsan a abandonar la vida del espíritu. Frente a ello, la palabra de la salmodia se erige en un importante recurso terapéutico para aquietar las pasiones, refutar los pensamientos y restaurar la esperanza. (shrink)

En el marco de los estudios contemporáneos acerca de la noción de acedia, y de esta en la obra de su primer sistematizador, el monje filósofo Evagrio Póntico, el presente trabajo se propone, primero, mostrar las múltiples coincidencias entre las manifestaciones fenomenológicas de la acedia evagriana y las de la denominada “caída” del sistema heideggeriano. En el marco de las manifestaciones de esta última se consideran, entre otras, la avidez de novedades, las habladurías, la carencia de morada y (...) otras, y se pone de manifiesto la tematización de idénticos fenómenos por parte de Evagrio Póntico en su conceptualización de la acedia. En segundo lugar, y avanzando ya en la condición vinculante de tales convergencias fenomenológicas, se analiza el rol que tiene la temática del cuidado de la muerte en la definición y configuración tanto de la acedia evagriana cuanto de la caída heidegerriana. In the frame of contemporary studies on the concept of acedia, and in the work of its first systematizer, the philosopher monk Evagrius Ponticus, this paper, firstly, proposes to show the many similarities between the phenomenological manifestations of acedia in Evagrius and those recognized as the “fall” in the Heidegger system. As part of the manifestations of the latter, the avidity of innovations, the gossip, the lack of lodging are considered; and we show the identical phenomena theming by Evagrius of Pontus in his conceptualization of acedia. Secondly, and moving into the binding capacity of such phenomenological convergences, we analyze the role of death care in the definition and configuration of both Evagrio’s acedia and Heidegger’s fall. (shrink)

The list of the seven capital vices include sloth, envy, avarice, vainglory, gluttony, lust, and anger. While many of the seven vices are more complex than they appear at first glance, one stands out as more obscure and out of place than all the others, at least for a contemporary audience: the vice of sloth. Our puzzlement over sloth is heightened by sloth's inclusion on the traditional lists of the seven capital vices and the seven deadly sins from the fourth (...) century onward. For hundreds of years, these seven vices were distinguished as moral and spiritual failings of serious and perennial importance. By contrast, recent studies, as well as the popular imagination, typically associate sloth with, or even define it as, laziness. But is laziness in fact a moral failing? (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Historical Background Superbia (Pride) Invidia (Envy) Ira (Wrath) Acedia (Sloth) Avaritia (Avarice) Gula (Gluttony) Luxuria (Lust) The Antidote: Righteous Love The Bridge to Salvation.

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 reading of this enigmatic vice. Investigating the question on acedia 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. (shrink)

Defining the capital vice of sloth (acedia) is a difficult business in Thomas Aquinas and in the Christian tradition of thought from which he draws his account. In this article, I will raise three problems for interpreting Aquinas's account of sloth. They are all related, as are the resolutions to them I will offer. The three problems can be framed as questions: How, on Aquinas's account, can sloth consistently be categorized as, first, a capital vice and, second, a spiritual (...) vice? These two questions lead to a third, namely, how is the condition of sloth possible, given Aquinas's moral psychology and the nature of the will? The resolution of these interpretive issues can help do two things. It can help explain the apparent inconsistency between traditional (ancient and medieval) and contemporary conceptions of this vice, and —if Aquinas's account is right— it can help us diagnose contemporary moral and spiritual maladies that may either go unnoticed or be confused with distinctively modern "virtues" like diligence and industriousness. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to clarify Kierkegaard’s concept of demonic despair (and demonic evil) and to show its relevance for discussions of the guise of the good thesis (i.e. that in f-ing intentionally, we take f-ing to be good). Contemporary discussions of diabolic evil often emphasise the phenomena of despair and acedia as apparent counter-examples to the guise of the good. I contend that Kierkegaard’s analysis of despair is relevant to these discussions, because it reconciles demonic (extreme) (...) despair and acedia with the guise of the good. In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard provides an influential, systematic account of despair that relates evil, despair, and acedia to each other. Michelle Kosch argues that this account goes beyond Kierkegaard’s German predecessors by introducing a concept of diabolic evil and despair. By contrast, the present paper argues that Kierkegaard takes diabolic evil to be impossible, although he offers a rich analysis of the demonic that resembles diabolic agency. Still, Kierkegaard’s analysis rests on ontological assumptions about the nature of the good that belong to a Platonico-Christian tradition that is controversial today. (shrink)

Neuerdings ist dem Begriff der Langeweile viel philosophische Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet worden. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, wie stringent sich seine anthropologischen, ontologischen und theologischen Implikationen nachzeichnen lassen, wenn man von dem wohlbekannten Augustinus-Diktum ausgeht, ruhelos sei unser Herz, bis dass es ruhe in Gott. Das menschliche Personsein wird hier aufgrund der Erbsünde als unzufrieden oder auch gelangweilt dargestellt, und diese Darstellung radikalisiert sich durch die späteren Theorien der acedia als Unzufriedenheit oder Langeweile angesichts des bonum divinum selbst. Die neuzeitliche philosophische Rede (...) von ennui, Langeweile usw. übernimmt die wesentlichen Implikationen von inquietudo cordis und acedia auch dort, wo sie diese am entschiedensten verkehrt - mit Pascal beginnend über den deutschen Idealismus bis zur Quasi-Gnosis von Cioran und Heideggers Versuch, das Herz des Menschen als auf dessen endgültige Ruhe im „letzten Gott" hin ausgerichtet zu verstehen. In the past decades, the concept of boredom has been attracting much philosophical attention. The aim of this article is to show how concisely a summary of its anthropological, ontological and theological implications can be drawn if one starts from the famous phrase in St. Augustine's "Confessions" that our heart is restless until it rests in God. Human personal being is conceived of here as dissatisfied or bored because of the original sin, and this conception sees its radicalization in the theory of the acedia as a being dissatisfied or bored by the bonum divinum itself. The modern philosophical discourse on ennui, Langeweile and the like inherits very truly the basic implications of inquietudo cordis and acedia even where they are the most decisively inverted, as is shown beginning with Pascal, across the very centre of German Idealist philosophy, until Cioran's quasi-Gnostic turn and Heidegger's attempt to understand the heart of man as directed towards its ultimate rest in the "last God". (shrink)

„Neřest” je nepatřičný pojem a mohlo by se zdát, že moderní civilizace se neřestí zbavuje. Pro některé neřesti to platit může, ale stále existují chamtivost (fixace na peníze a materiální věci), melancholie (acedia) a nevděčnost – případně jako druh pýchy („superbia”) –, které tomu, kdo má vše, brání v tom, aby byl šťastný.

The aim of this entry is to provide the reader with a philosophical map of the progression of the concept and experience of boredom throughout the Western tradition—from antiquity to current work in Anglo-American philosophy. By focusing primarily on key philosophical works on boredom, but also often discussing important literary and scientific texts, the entry exposes the reader to the rich history of boredom and illustrates how the different manifestations of boredom—idleness, horror loci, acedia, sloth, mal du siècle, melancholy, (...) ennui, monotony, and emptiness—are grounded in the historical context in which they arise. (shrink)

Drawing on centuries of wisdom from the Christian ethical tradition, this book takes readers on a journey of self-examination, exploring why our hearts are captivated by glittery but false substitutes for true human goodness and happiness. The first edition sold 35,000 copies and was a C. S. Lewis Book Prize award winner. Now updated and revised throughout, the second edition includes a new chapter on grace and growth through the spiritual disciplines. Questions for discussion and study are included at the (...) end of each chapter. Contents 1. Why Study the Vices? 2. Gifts from the Desert: The Origins and History of the Vices Tradition 3. Vainglory: Image Is Everything 4. Envy: Feeling Bitter When Others Have It Better 5. Sloth (Acedia): Resistance to the Demands of Love 6. Avarice: Possession and Mastery 7. Wrath: Holy Emotion or Hellish Passion? 8. Gluttony: Feeding Your Face and Starving Your Heart 9. Lust: Sexuality Stripped Down 10. The Rest of the Journey: Self-Examination, the Seven Capital Vices, and Spiritual Formation Epilogue Index. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Confinement is an experiment in procrastination. It used to be a vice, close to acedia, but we now take it as irrational. But it's not clearly so. Procrastination is indeed vicious when a philosopher delays permanently explaining what his theses are. Derrida is a case in point.

In his slim and punchy little book, Acedia and its Discontents: Metaphysics of Desire in an Age of Boredom, R.J. Snell suggests that the common experience of the loss of meaning in the modern world can be attributed to the vice of acedia. Relying on Evagrius of Pontus, as well as the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas, Snell defines acedia as a rejection of life itself and an antipathy with one’s place in the world. It is the (...) unhappy rejection of one’s supernatural end, union with the Triune God. (shrink)

This article points to the influence of medieval debates about the possible non-existence of a God on the formation of modern atheist discourse. On the basis of sources composed by Muslims, Christians and Jews, alleged appearances of disbelief like apostasy, blasphemy, and immoral behaviour are reconsidered. Medieval Latin conceptions of atheism are described as acedia, temptation, and murmur. It is made clear, that doubts or nonbelief in God’s existence were neither rare nor forbidden nor persecuted. Nonbelievers were regarded as (...) fools, rather than as a threat. At the same time, heretics as representatives of opposing teachings were construed as threatening, and indeed persecuted violently in the Latin Christian world and in some Muslim realms. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Three Probes into St. Francis of Assisi's Second Letter to the Faithful1Robert J. Karris, OFMFrancis' Second Letter to the Faithful2 is so rich that it would take a lengthy book to probe most of its treasures. My goal is to make three probes: 1) from a literary analysis of this letter of exhortation, 2) from the results of a more thorough search for the biblical sources behind its eighty-eight (...) lines, and 3) from the insights achieved through literary and theological parallels to its contents.3 I accomplish my goals by going systematically through this letter, which I contend has introduction, positive exhortations, conclusion to positive exhortations and bridge to second part of the letter, negative exhortations, aka polemic, the example story of the unrepentant rich man, and ending.4 At the very beginning, I remind myself and my readers of something that we might take for granted: The dominant figure of this letter is "our Lord Jesus Christ," an expression and reality that pulses through its eighty-eight lines. Take, as [End Page 79] an example, n. 49–50, which are staggering in scope: "And they (who persevere in penance) will be children of the heavenly Father, whose works they are doing. And they are spouses, brothers, and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ."Methodology: Search for Literary and Theological ParallelsEarly on in my doctoral studies, I learned the importance and value of investigating New Testament texts by means of their literary parallels.5 For example, there were significant interpretive payoffs to be gained by comparing St. Paul's use of polemic in the Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy and Titus) to that employed by the Stoics.6 Paul probably never met a Stoic philosopher in his life, but their means of no-holds-barred polemic was "in the air" he breathed. Daniel J. Harrington expresses well this common methodology in New Testament Studies: "In literature a parallel involves some point or points of similarity between two texts where literary dependence is unlikely or not proved. Parallels to New Testament texts can be taken from any body of literature and from any period of history…"7So what parallels do I suggest as background for the interpretation of Francis' 2LtF? There may be many, since Francis' letter is dealing with fundamental human and Christian realities: sin and virtue. I have selected what I call The Big Three:In his De Virtutibus et Vitiis Liber,8 Alcuin of York (d. 800) wrote a letter to Count Guy, who is engaged in martial activities. Alcuin has followed Guy's request for paternal admonition and prays that his writing may help Guy to perpetual salvation (n. 6). Alcuin writes briefly about 35 topics: wisdom, faith, charity, hope, zeal of reading, peace, mercy, remission, patience, humility, compunction of the heart, confession, repentance, not delaying conversion to God, fear of God, fasting, almsgiving, chastity, avoiding fraud, judges, false witnesses, envy, pride, proneness to anger, not seeking human praise, perseverance in good works, eight principal vices, greed, fornication, avarice, anger, [End Page 80] weariness (acedia), sorrow, cenodoxia (vainglory), and the four virtues.9 It is abundantly clear that Francis does not engage in 35 topics, but his exhortations do overlap with a number of Alcuin's, e.g., almsgiving, judges, perseverance in good works.In his Liber exhortationis,10 Archbishop St. Paulinus of Aquileia (d. 802) wrote to Count or Duke Henry of Fruilli. His treatise has 66 chapters and covers virtually all spiritual and moral topics. Of singular interest is Chapter 8, "On Friendship with God and Keeping God's Commandments." His final chapter is a long prayer to resist the wiles of the devil and to persevere in virtue. Saints Paulinus of Aquileia and Francis of Assisi's 2LtF have numerous points in common.11Archbishop Hincmar of Reims (d. 882) wrote a very polished and regarded letter, De cavendis vitiis et virtutibus exercendis to King Charles the Bald.12 It has ten chapters. The first seven deal chiefly with vices such as avarice, pride, voluptuousness, gluttony, envy, anger, and jealousy. They also encourage virtuous deeds such as almsgiving, works of mercy, fidelity, and prayer. Chapters 8... (shrink)

Illusion und Aufklärung: 1. Apologie der Illusion in Kants Opponenten-Rede gegen Johann Gottlieb Kreutzfeld. 2. Eine heilsame Illusion: wie die Kultur aus der Natur entsteht. 3. Acedia und das radikal Böse -- Praktiken der Illusion in der Moderne: 1. Nietzsches Tanz um die Philosophie. 2. Erzeugung von Zukunft. Sprachformen der Apokalypse bei Hermann Cohen. 3. Zu Benjamins Kritik des Scheins im Wahlverwandtschaftenaufsatz mit einem Exkurs zu Cohens Behandlung des Empfindungsproblems. 4. Heilsame Illusion und auratische Wahrnehmung. 5. Antigenealogische Revolte und (...) Reproduktion -- Nachspiel: Diffraktion Statt Reflexion. Die Fadenspiele von Donna J. Haraway: eine Methode mit kleinem "m.". (shrink)

The relation between the moral account of the capital vices and the philosophical analysis of the passions of the human soul undergoes an important turning point from the 11th century onwards during the recovery of medical knowledge in the medieval West. In this wave of fervour towards a physiological approach in the investigation of the nature of man, the vice of acedia - as described by the Christian moral tradition - and the melancholic temperament - the result of a (...) millenary reworking and technicalisation of medical knowledge - found a point of contact in the passion of sadness. If authors such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, following the Christian heritage, characterised acedia as an escalation of the passion of sadness, the medical tradition from Hippocrates and Galen to Avicenna and Constantine recognised sadness as one of the most distinctive manifestations of the melancholic temperament. The aim of this study is to demonstrate, by retracing some aspects of this interweaving of traditions after the year 1000, how Dante’s description of the sinners of acedia in Canto VII of the Inferno takes up the legacy of this hybridisation between the Christian description of acedia and the physiological description of melancholy. (shrink)

THE ESSAY DEMONSTRATES THE SUBTLETY OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS on sin and addiction. It suggests a parallel between Aquinas's understanding of acedia and invidia as the two vitia capitalia most directly undermining of God's caritas and AA founder Bill Wilson's understanding of two contemporary deadly sins, self-pity and resentment, as the "root" of alcoholics' troubles. I argue that AA's understanding of sin and addiction is relevant far beyond the lives of alcoholics. Indeed, its understanding could help the Christian tradition rediscover (...) the "soul" of its sin-talk, aiding all of us in discerning our sin and in recovering from sin in our lives. (shrink)

Since the wife-husband team of Anne Case and Angus Deaton popularized the term deaths of despair, psychologists have become more interested in decoupling despair from clinical depression and anxiety. Despair’s central marker is the loss of hope. It is characterized by feelings of social and spiritual isolation, meaninglessness, hopelessness, helplessness, demoralization, and shame. Causes of despair are complex, ranging from individual (e.g., grief, bad health, addiction, abuse), to societal (e.g., social and cultural dislocation, unemployment, economic disaster, poverty), to a combination (...) of both. Sometimes, acknowledging and/or addressing despair’s material causes is enough. But the problem with despair is that it tends to generate a vicious cycle of self-defeat. Often, it manifests in self-perpetuating negative cognitive biases, self-defeating emotional reactions, and self-destructive behavior. To break free, the person must address the psychological and spiritual roots of her despair. Here, I offer insights from a Christian tradition grounded in the monastic spirituality of the Desert Fathers in the hopes that these might help a therapist seeking to do just that. After distinguishing between an emotion and a sin of despair, I locate the latter’s roots in the vices of acedia and pride. Finally, I point to the virtue of humility as a traditional cure for despair. (shrink)

Después de que Friedrich Nietzsche expusiera el fenómeno del resentimiento mediante un supuesto desenmascaramiento de un complejo emotivo oculto, autores posteriores, como Max Scheler y René Girard, matizaron el análisis nietzscheano aplicándolo a diversos ámbitos antropológicos y sociales. Muchas de las principales aportaciones de estos análisis contemporáneos encuentran sus precedentes en autores anteriores, modernos y medievales. Seis siglos y medio antes de Scheler, Tomás de Aquino ofrece en dos cuestiones de su Summa Theologiae dedicadas a la acedia y la (...) envidia una serie de precisiones conceptuales y observaciones psicológicas que coinciden en gran parte de su fondo y, en ocasiones, en la forma, con ciertas caracterizaciones del resentimiento. Demostramos, apoyándonos en numerosas referencias textuales, los paralelismos entre la fenomenología scheleriana del resentimiento y la exposición tomasiana de los vicios capitales. (shrink)

Der Beitrag untersucht die Langeweile auf klinischem Terrain und als literarisches/philosophisches Sujet in Abgrenzung zu benachbarten Phänomenen wie Muße, Müßiggang und Faulheit. Da sich das Phänomen Langeweile im Bedeutungsspektrum zwischen »horror vacui« (Kant) und »Windstille der Seele« (Nietzsche) einer definitorischen Klarheit entzieht, schlägt die Autorin anhand klinischer Vignetten vor, drei Qualitäten und regulierende Funktionen der Langweile zu differenzieren: eine vernichtende, mit »Desobjektalisierung« (Green) einhergehende Langeweile, eine als Abwehr eines traumabedingten Ich-Verlusts fungierende Langeweile sowie eine Langeweile als kreativer Übergangsraum. Freuds Gedanken (...) über die Existenz von »lustvolle(n) Spannungen und unlustige(n) Entspannungen« enthalten eine triebökonomische Perspektive, die einen Blick auf sehr unterschiedliche Lust- und Unlustqualitäten der Langeweile erlaubt. (shrink)