Introduction

Abstract

The concept of sin, and, with it, those of the vices and virtues, is changing. Its definition is being revised even (and mainly) within the traditionally conservative Christian Church. Hamartiology is, in a way, culture-aware and like all intellectual acts is conditioned by ideological and intellectual changes. This is particularly evident in the modern schematisation of virtues, which nowadays tend, as an example, to include social and ecological sins. James Taylor’s Sin: A New Understanding of Virtue and Vice is just one of the most well-known, and provocative, cases of renewed hamartiology.1 In a way, this study is stimulating because of the author’s attempt to relate somewhat modern concepts such as sexism, slavery, and militarism to a reinterpretation of the seven deadly sins. However, equally revealing is that while Taylor’s research focuses on the traditional topic of the theology of sin, it also makes evident how standards are changing in the definition and perception of moral weakness or strength.