Glittering Vices, 2nd Edition
A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies
About
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
Endorsements
"In this new and expanded edition of Glittering Vices, Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung offers wise and compassionate soul care that is historically rooted, biblically sound, and surgically precise. A skilled philosopher and gifted teacher, DeYoung makes the wisdom of the desert accessible for contemporary audiences through relevant cultural references and honest personal examples, inviting us to see where we're captive and deceived so that we're better able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work of conforming us to the likeness of Christ. I have long been a fan of DeYoung's work, and this revised edition--with its even deeper emphasis on the grace that frames the process of self-examination and the spiritual practices that help us counteract the gravitational pull of the vices--is a liberating and joyful read."
Sharon Garlough Brown, author of the Sensible Shoes series, Shades of Light, and Remember Me
"This revised edition of Glittering Vices helpfully builds on the insights of the first edition and deeply probes the nature of the disease that has infected all God's precious image-bearers. DeYoung skillfully analyzes the sickness that plagues us in its various manifestations and wonderfully provides healing antidotes in her presentation of the classical spiritual disciplines. This is surely one of the best books written on the vices and their cure in the past one hundred years, if not longer."
Chris Hall, president, Renovaré
"The first edition of this fine book has been widely praised for its marvelous integration of intellectual clarity and spiritual depth. This new edition is even better with additional profound guidance for our spiritual journeys. DeYoung is without doubt one of our most gifted writers on the cultivation of Christian character."
Richard Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of All That God Cares About
"Glittering Vices is one of the best treatments of vice, character, and spiritual growth published in the past one hundred years. With this second edition, a classic text has gotten even better. I cannot recommend it highly enough!"
Christian B. Miller, A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University
"The second edition of Glittering Vices complements DeYoung's now classic, incisive, and--to any honest and self-reflective reader--humbling analysis of the vices with an inspiring account of spiritual disciplines that counteract those vices. Far from a simple self-help project, DeYoung's work offers a theologically nuanced account of divine and human agency that would please any scholastic theologian as well as wise counsel on the need for continued vigilance and ongoing growth that would make any classic spiritual master proud. Glittering Vices is read equally profitably as a moral theology of vice and virtue and as a spiritual discipline itself."
William C. Mattison III, Wilsey Family Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
The Author
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Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is professor of philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice. She speaks to a wide range of audiences. Her essays on virtues and vices...
Continue reading about Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung