Glittering Vices

Konyndyk DeYoung Rebecca

Description

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.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 02 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493422166
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Endorements
“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
“The 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 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 counteracts 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 , University of Notre Dame
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2009, 2020 by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2216-6
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
“To a Long Loved Love,” “Within This Quickened Dust,” and “Epiphany” from The Ordering of Love by Madeleine L’Engle, © Crosswicks, Ltd. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“To a Long Loved Love: 7” from The Weather of the Heart by Madeleine L’Engle, copyright © 1978 by Crosswicks, Ltd. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
“In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful,” words by the Community of Taizé, music by Jacques Berthier, copyright 1991, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc., exclusive North American agent. Used by permission.
Excerpt from Piers Plowman: A Modern Verse Translation © 2014. William Langland. Translated by Peter Sutton by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. www.mcfarlandbooks.com.
Contents
Cover i
Endorsements ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
1. Why Study the Vices? 1
2. Gifts from the Desert: The Origins and History of the Vices Tradition 21
3. Vainglory: Image Is Everything 41
4. Envy: Feeling Bitter When Others Have It Better 67
5. Sloth (Acedia): Resistance to the Demands of Love 87
6. Avarice: Possession and Mastery 111
7. Wrath: Holy Emotion or Hellish Passion? 137
8. Gluttony: Feeding Your Face and Starving Your Heart 163
9. Lust: Sexuality Stripped Down 189
10. The Rest of the Journey: Self-Examination, the Seven Capital Vices, and Spiritual Formation 217
Epilogue 235
Notes 243
Index 269
Back Cover 275
Preface
This is a book about sin and self-examination, but sin should never be the first or last word about us.
The Christian life begins and ends with love. Ultimately, what draws us from brokenness and bondage is the power of love—God’s love. Taking our inspiration from Henri Nouwen, we can say that our belovedness and blessedness form the essential context for confronting our brokenness.
Advertisers rarely give us a picture of what we should reject. They craft their messages based on a key insight into human nature. They know that what draws the human heart and fuels the human spirit is love of something good. We are moved, powered, captivated by a glimpse of something in front of us that we long for more and more wholeheartedly. The images they put before us promise a good and beautiful life (or at least a replica, or a convincing fantasy). In short, they start with a vision of what we desire. The reason this works so well is that it is an imitation—and a cheap imitation at that—of what God does for us. He sets before us abundant life. It’s the life we were made for. Don’t let anything hold you back from it. God wills to draw you into his heart of love, like a magnet pulling an iron filing into a close bond of connection. Allow that image to fuel your spiritual journey through this book.
When I wrote the first edition of Glittering Vices , I was coming straight from a philosophical study of Aquinas’s Summa theologiae and the vices tradition. I found the primary source material conceptually rich but also—surprisingly—personal. I confess I did not expect to find these texts speaking to my own deep spiritual longings. I was not alone in this reaction, though. My students encouraged me to condense the course material into a book, because they found it was the most practical thing they’d studied yet in college.
They wanted to know: How should I live? What sorts of goods and what types of relationships should I commit to and center my life on? What patterns of thought and rhythms of desire have I fallen into that are thwarting that good life? How do I discern that? What would restoration and freedom feel like? How do I move forward into new practices and a new way of life?
My best description of this book is that it is a translation, colored by my own experience, of ancient ideas from disciples and saints who have walked in wisdom before me. Glittering Vices is my attempt to make this material understandable and accessible to contemporary Christians and other students of the vices.
The implicit frame of the book is sanctification—that is, the ways the Holy Spirit operates in our lives to conform us more and more to the character of Jesus Christ. God is working for us, and with us, and in us. When vices prompt self-examination and reflection, this is neither a guilt trip nor a recipe for despair. Rather, anything convicting that you find in these pages is an invitation to be set free.
In my original, more philosophical frame for the book, I was mentally pairing the deformation of our character through the vices with the reformation of our character through the virtues. That’s not entirely off course, but I prefer a different schema for thinking about the project now. The vices mark things we need to leave behind. That is our starting point. The virtues, by contrast, mark the end or goal; they give us a picture of the Christlike life in all of its fullness. What’s the bridge between the two then? The ancient philosophers would say “habituation in virtue.” Start practicing. Try harder.
A more adequate and effective response invokes “graced disciplines,” daily rhythms of discipleship that bridge a life held captive to vice and a life that shines with beautiful virtue. Character reform is not powered simply by our own efforts. It’s true that we must do something, and that we must be intentional about doing it. But what we often find is that something is also being done in us, and it’s not always what we anticipated or intended. In those moments, our efforts are, at their best, ways of opening our lives and submitting ourselves to the Spirit’s transforming work. Spiritual disciplines cover everything from resting, working, speaking, listening, spending, and giving, to recreation and celebration, feasting and fasting, worship, prayer, solitude, and silence. The Spirit’s goal is to reshape and enliven every inch and corner of your life and character.
The book’s purpose is to share wisdom that helps you more wholeheartedly live that kind of life.
Acknowledgments
I wrote this book with the generous support of many people and institutions. Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) granted me a sabbatical in 2005 to work on the first edition, and the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship provided funding in 2007 to revise it. I also attended a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar on the vices in 2006 at Cambridge University. Thanks also to Rodney Clapp and Lisa Ann Cockrel for