In his book Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, Matthew Fox describes the ten deadly sins of our time. Such sins are nothing other than actions which, as an aggregate, define evil in a concrete way. But what is the point of knowing evil, you may ask, when so many are already suffering from it and more evil seems ready to be unleashed each and every day in the dark times that we are living in? The point is to keep a clear mind about it.
The first deadly sin is the suffering we cause one another. Sometimes our first experience of sin is not as subject (that is, as the perpetrator) but as object (that is, as the victim). In other words, we learn what sin is by what others do to us. It is very relevant to begin with this aspect, because too often talks about sin are connected to moralizing and even to victimization (obviously the major culprit here is “original sin” which has kept people afraid of their own needs and desired for centuries).
Second, ignoring, which is the beginning of denial. Ignoring even obvious facts has become very common, but we need to fight this sin even in ourselves, as it is more and more costly these days not to turn one’s head away.
Third, injustice, which is the Western word for imbalance. Today, injustice obviously shows itself in its very raw shape as growing inequality.
Fourth, severing relations. If relationship is the essence of everything that exists, to cut off relations is to do something hostile to what is. All sin is a kind of severing, a cutting-off from how we connect and how we find one another in the universe. While this is surely the aim of oppressive powers, in our present environment it is also the risk run by good people who are falling prey to fear, and thus to isolation.
Fifth, dualism, that is, the belief that opposites cannot be reconciled. While such reconciliation may seem impossible at times, part of the task of resisting evil consists in keeping to work stubbornly for the overcoming of dualisms wherever they may show up in our lives.
Six, reductionism, which in essence is excessive simplification of complex situations.
Seven, lack of passion, which is hardly understood as a sin by most people, but is very dangerous. If we let our passions get extinguished by the present oppressive powers, we become collaborators with evil.
Eight, misdirected love. This occurs when desire and passion are alive, but we waste them by employing them wrongly, that is, orienting them toward objects that — at least in our present situation — are not the right ones. For example, the objects of our desire might be too small for the magnitude of the evil that we are confronted with.
Nine, dissipation of energy, which can be seen as a variation of the previous one.
Finally, the tenth and ugliest of the deadly sins, “that which devours,” consisting of drowning into nothingness, disappearing into forgotten wells of sadness (…) It is being swallowed whole by events or feelings or circumstances. While this risk is both pervasive and very understandable, it remains a “sin,” that is, an act — or lack thereof —damaging ourselves and others.
Meditating regularly on this list may prove itself to be a hard and unpleasant task. Yet I believe it can be an accurate tool for analyzing evil and, therefore, resisting it within and without ourselves at these dangerous times.
All quotes from Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 158-160
See also Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
See also Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
See also Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
See also Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Banner Image: “Stop Shopping/Start Living: Buy Nothing” Buy Nothing Day demonstration, downtown San Francisco. Photo by Lars Aronsson on Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Which of these sins is obvious to you and which is surprising?
Which ones do you see well represented outside yourself and which ones are you prone to?
Recommended Reading
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
6 thoughts on “What to Do? A List to Resist Evil”
I sit at the foot of the Lord every day and listen. But that alone is not enough. To not listen, to not commune, to not be aligned becomes our separation from all that represents our true identity, our true reality. What more is there to say? For this we are born. For this we exist. For this and by this we are love and peace, truth and compassion, charity and mercy, joy and justice, knowledge and the endurance that comes of it. – BB.
There are, indeed, endless ways of missing the mark (the true meaning of sin), but one that should be in any list of modern sins is passive abstention on voting day. Its dreadful consequences show us every day how much of a deadly sin it is, even if, on a conventional color scheme from green to red, orange seems to symbolize it better than red.
Thank you for pointing out what should have been but never was obvious to me—that as children we first learn about sin as it is perpetrated upon us. The focus, even as children, in the conservative church has always been on sins we do or were told we did. Thank you for the refocus. It makes me very sad that we were given the wrong focus as little ones. Bless you and Matthew.
All of these sins are interrelated but to me the main source of these sins by humanity that has caused destructive behavior and suffering to ourselves and one another is our conditioned separation (duality) from Our LOVING SOURCE~CREATOR Eternally Present within and among Us which Is Being~Becoming Our Compassionate DIVERSE LOVING ONENESS with All Our LOVING EVOLVING COSMOS ~ COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Dualism — the ubiquitous “sin” (error of thought and lifestyle).
The “PATH” of Mysticism (Neoplatonic Mystical transformation) is the long deep immersion in, and gradual integration of teachings that challenge the dualisms and narrow egoic viewpoints of everyday experience, culminating (sometimes, rarely) in a sacred Mystical Revelation (and complex non-duality). These teachings become a life-Path of personal transformation. Jesus taught them vividly, by parable and as a living exemplar. The supreme Law and sacred expression of non-duality is Love.
There are several major branches of (Neo)platonic Mysticism: Judaic (ancient Biblical and medieval-to modern Kabbalah); ancient Roman (Platonic to Neoplatonic), Christian (ancient to medieval Catholic and ancient to present Eastern Orthodox), Sufism (Islamic), and various branches of Hinduism (Upanishads to current). Minor branches have also existed, not always labeled.
All of them are about transformation into a new human who lives within an awareness of a radically non-dualistic God/One, while living a deeper, loving, increasingly-non-dualistic life.
For a good example: Meister Eckhart was an eloquent, if sometimes unwisely bold, Neoplatonic mystic.
Thank you for this very helpful list for self examination. I am most prone to dualism and demonizing those who are doing so much harm to so many people. It seems as though opposites cannot be reconciled, but I must be able to hold them in tension and work not to fall into the rigidity of dualism. One of the practices that I need to get back to is the Buddhist practice of lovingkindness. I believe in my head that God loves everyone, even the worst behaved, and I need to get that knowledge into my heart.