Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies

by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung

Anger, when it is a holy emotion, has justice as its object and love as its root. Both love and justice are focused on the good of others. Justice concerns giving to another what that other is due. Good anger is expressed in passionate efforts to make sure others get the respect they deserve, to bring about the end of oppression and tyranny, to give due punishment to those who cause injury and damage, to honor covenants and promises, to give equal treatment to the marginalized, and to uphold the law. Motivated by good anger, we hunger and thirst for righteousness, an appetite that depends on justice for its object, but on love for its right expression. Anger in these cases adds energy and passion to the execution of justice. The love that underlies it, however, keeps it in check, for love does not seek to destroy the other, but to set things right. In this way, our anger can imitate God’s in its object.