We folk of the 20th century may be more moralistic than were medieval people, in the sense that we fret more about morality (outward observation), but men and women of the Middle Ages had better moral habits (inward contemplation). We fret over the sins of others as reported on the news; they agonized over the sins they saw in themselves hidden from the view of others. In medieval times, the seven cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins were known to everyone, while nowadays it is a rare person who can name them.

Most people have a narrow understanding of the term sin. The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins does not allow us to compartmentalize our lives. Faced by the descriptions of them, it becomes less easy for us to claim that we are good in parts, and on balance, not all that bad a person. The cunning of this kind of self-absolution is obvious, and what we are forced to do, by the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins, is to try to avoid this shallowness and instead to take responsibility for our whole natures and seek to know them in all their intricateness. This book will be painfully more convicting than most sermons you've heard or preached. ISBN: 0-268-01698-4

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