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Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society
Using numerous illustrations from everyday life as well as the social sciences, Peter examines the kinds of evil-both personal and societal-that we all confront on a daily basis.
- GenresTheology
347 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1994
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December 25, 2016
Can I give it seven stars?
I recently re-read this book after nearly two decades. Back then, I had a few minor quibbles with it. Overall I thought it was superb: brilliant. The definition of blasphemy provided by this book is probably the single most significant turning point in my thinking throughout my entire life. it provided the theoretical background to enable me to understand the nature of inverted symbolism in so many literary works.
I was pretty ignorant back then. But in the intervening years I've gained a great deal of experience in counselling hundreds of people - ranging from minor spiritual issues all the way up to ritual abuse - and those initial quibbles have long ago disappeared.
This book provides a framework - a hierarchy as it were - for understanding evil and for how a person descends into it. At the time I first read the book, I was struggling with the very idea of the existence of evil - and I still think that, if you are in that space, it's the most helpful book imaginable. Although the book doesn't deal with this aspect, the framework is outlined so well it has enabled me to understand why ordinary people become co-dependent with others whose behaviour is increasingly evil; why so many of us become complicit in helping others to keep on sinning.
I thought it was brilliant back when I was young and ignorant. Now that I'm older and wiser, I think it's like a fine wine that is even better because it has matured along with me.
The framework:
Step 1 - anxiety, while not evil in itself, readies us to move into it.
Step 2 - 'unfaith' - a loss of trust serious enough to cause a person to rely only on themselves.
Step 3 - pride
Step 4 - concupiscence, an insatiable desire for power over others
Step 5 - self-justification
Step 6 - cruelty without empathy or remorse
Step 7 - blasphemy, including inverted symbolism
I recently re-read this book after nearly two decades. Back then, I had a few minor quibbles with it. Overall I thought it was superb: brilliant. The definition of blasphemy provided by this book is probably the single most significant turning point in my thinking throughout my entire life. it provided the theoretical background to enable me to understand the nature of inverted symbolism in so many literary works.
I was pretty ignorant back then. But in the intervening years I've gained a great deal of experience in counselling hundreds of people - ranging from minor spiritual issues all the way up to ritual abuse - and those initial quibbles have long ago disappeared.
This book provides a framework - a hierarchy as it were - for understanding evil and for how a person descends into it. At the time I first read the book, I was struggling with the very idea of the existence of evil - and I still think that, if you are in that space, it's the most helpful book imaginable. Although the book doesn't deal with this aspect, the framework is outlined so well it has enabled me to understand why ordinary people become co-dependent with others whose behaviour is increasingly evil; why so many of us become complicit in helping others to keep on sinning.
I thought it was brilliant back when I was young and ignorant. Now that I'm older and wiser, I think it's like a fine wine that is even better because it has matured along with me.
The framework:
Step 1 - anxiety, while not evil in itself, readies us to move into it.
Step 2 - 'unfaith' - a loss of trust serious enough to cause a person to rely only on themselves.
Step 3 - pride
Step 4 - concupiscence, an insatiable desire for power over others
Step 5 - self-justification
Step 6 - cruelty without empathy or remorse
Step 7 - blasphemy, including inverted symbolism
Displaying 1 of 1 review