Description
In this fascinating book Kenneth Baker explores how the Seven Deadly Sins - Pride, Anger, Sloth, Envy, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust - have shaped history from the Greek and Roman Civilisations, through their heyday in the Middle Ages, when sinners really believed they could go to Hell for all eternity, to the secular world of today, where they are still an alluring and destructive force. Today most sinners are punished in this world not the next:* Black Pride and Gay Pride have made tens of millions more understood and more accepted, but the overweening pride of certain leaders - Hubris - has led to wars and devastation: Hitler in Russia; the Japanese at Pearl Harbour; Saddam Hussein in Kuwait; and Blair and Bush in Iraq. * Anger, when righteous, can be a virtue, which helped to end the slave trade in the 19th century and to expose child abuse today, but there is still personal anger in domestic violence and Daesh terrorism. * Sloth can be an amiable weakness as Tennyson said, 'Ah why
