Seven: The Deadly Sins and The Beattitudes

by Jeff Cook

Our world is charged with both the grandeur of God and the void of his absence. The seven deadly sins are the force causing that hole. They are at work in each of us. They decimate our relationships, our souls and our world. These deadly sins often seem pleasing and good for gaining what we desire, but they are thoroughly poisonous. Conversely, the Beatitudes are Jesus' pictures of a restored creation. The Beatitudes introduced what Jesus said to his earliest followers about a life strong and fruitful. In fact, the Beatitudes give us a glimpse of a world empty of evil and filled to the edges with God's life. Looking at the Beatitudes and the seven deadly sins in turn, we see two paths, two sets of invitations. Both call to deep places within us to come and taste. Both invite us to take up residence. Both present themselves as life as it actually is. But only one will draw us further into reality.And only one will make us happy. “Of the many, many books about the Gospels, or about Jesus, or about Christian morality, only one in a thousand gives us a real breakthrough, a new ‘big picture’. Most are just nice little candles on the cake. Seven is a bonfire. It’s not just good; it’s striking. It doesn’t just say all the things you’ve heard a thousand times before. And yet it’s totally in sync with both the saints and the scholars.”--Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College, and author of over forty-five books, including Fundamentals of the Faith.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Spirituality, Adult, Nonfiction

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessant en las ook nog eens lekker weg (met alle anekdotes). Vond de connecties die de auteur maakte soms een beetje vergezocht (sin gedeelte, was beter dan beautitude), maar over het algemeen was het vooral een verhaal dat me aan het denken heeft gezet. Over mezelf en over de wereld in het algemeen. Denk dat ik het nog wel een keer ga herlezen ooit.

[Alex Apostol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. It really opened my eyes to the way I was living, the way I'd lived my whole life, compared to how I am choosing to live it now in God. I would recommend this read to anyone and everyone!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read it at least 190 times, and I still kinda like it.

[Brad Kittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this book was very good, full of insights and great stories. Jeff Cook contrasted the Sermon on the Mount with the seven deadly sins. Easy to read, informative and interesting. I would give it a 5 but there was nothing ground breaking here and, in my opinion, the book tailed off a little toward the end.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice work Jeff!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yea for my cute husband!

[David Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a helpful book in my sermon prep for a series on seven deadly sins.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a different view point to ponder on each of the sins. I highly recommend reading this and discussing his take with others.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent explanation of true righteousness and its opposite

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one did me some long-term good. If you seek true enlightenment to our shared human condition then read and ponder this book. Well written, engaging, insightful, and challenging.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favortie books!!

[Jerrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paralleling the seven deadly sins with the Beatitudes of Christ, philosophy professor Jeff Cook breaks into the depths of these antithetical ways of living in a straightforward, intelligent, yet easy-to-comprehend fashion in his book “Seven”.

One aspect of the book that I greatly appreciate is Cook’s analysis of Christ’s teachings, parables, and life-story as they exemplify and uphold everything that the seven deadly sins are not.

Additionally, I was grateful that Cook’s explanations and deconstructions of the seven deadly sins were neither stereotypical nor trite. Instead, he breaks them apart and presents their appearances Biblically, in our modern world, and — most importantly — in our hearts. And then he counters each one with the hope offered in Christ and that we as humans have the clear choice to make of which to follow. Whether you’re a life-long believer or new in your faith, I believe that you’ll appreciate much of the analyses, parallels, and insight offered in “Seven” as I found it to be one of the better books in the genre of Christian-Living that I’ve read in a while.

[Phil Whittall · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting juxtaposition of the seven deadly sins and the Beatitudes. In fact the structure & the comparison was probably the most stand out thing about the book - I thought that was a really interesting & fascinating idea. The execution was fine and good enough but I don't know how much it stood out or how much I'd refer back to it. But the call to follow the way of Jesus in this life and how the deadly sins really are deadly was one I am in agreement with.

[Eric Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read along with Will Willimon’s Sinning Like a Christian and Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung’s Glittering Vices in preparation for a series of sermons on the seven deadly sins. Glittering Vices is far and away the best of the three books. Willimon is too clever, and Cook stretches a bit too far to make the Beatitudes a corollary to the seven sins.

[Adam Dragoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful as a bible study on the deadly sins

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeff Cook is a philosophy teacher and teaching pastor in Colorado, and he uses many of his life experiences to illustrate the details the of the points he makes in each chapter. These are more than his studies; he talks about his experiences with the church he helped found, his relationship with his wife and children, and people he taught and met through the university.

Jeff contrasts each deadly sin with a beatitude. But it is not a direct comparison/contrast. He begins each chapter by discussing the root problem of each deadly sin, and then moves on to discuss how the underlying problem that each sin manifests is truly healed by one of the Beatitude’s promises.

The common thread that Jeff uses to tie them together is the contrast of isolation vs. relationship; each of the deadly sins displays a way that the fantasy relief of sin pulls us farther into isolation from God and what He wants to accomplish in the world, but each of the beatitudes are an example of how the broken and desperate for God can be filled with the relationship of God and His Kingdom.

I really liked this book. It was not what I was expecting. It had great analogies do demonstrate the nature of relationship with God and others — I especially liked the breathing metaphor that signifies how we’re supposed to receiving from God and give to those around us.

There were a few comments that I didn’t entirely agree with; but they were mostly comments where my philosophy differed from his, and they weren’t central to the point of the chapter, so I didn’t have too much problem with them. One that I did have a problem with was the discussion of lust; the description of underlying problem with lust did not seem to move beyond sexual lust, and I really felt it should have covered lust in any form (lust for power, etc.). But that was my one issue with this book.

Overall I felt is really good, and gave me a lot to think about in terms of focusing on God’s desire for the world and allowing that desire to be fulfilled in my life as He wants it to be in the world, and also in terms of drawing in to community as an example of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I felt that the book was great inspiration to choose, not the fantasy life that sin uses to mask the pains and hurts of life, but the abundant life that God provides — the only real life there is.

[Joshua Reitano · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of Jeff Cook's Seven is that the seven deadly sins correspond in some ways to the eight Beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Both are invitations to a way of life. The seven deadly sins are cancers, or holes in the world that God has made. The Beatitudes are tastes of the kingdom, like grapes from the Promised Land (if you know the book of Numbers at all).

It's a great concept. And I found a lot of wisdom in this book as Cook related personal anecdotes and analyzed contemporary culture. But at times, the connection between the seven deadly sins and the beatitudes were forced. Some of the connections were obvious and worked well: pairing pride and the poor in spirit, lust and the pure in heart, wrath and the peacemaker, for example. But other were a stretch: envy and the mourner, gluttony and the persecuted. And because Cook was so committed to the paradigm it seemed to skew his interpretations of the sin, the beatitude or both.

Overall, it was a decent book, but it wouldn't be at the top of my recommendation list.

Jeff Cook lives and works in Greeley, Colorado, he is a teaching pastor at Atlas Church and he lives with his two sons and his wife while he teaches at the University of Northern Colorado in the Philosophy Department.

[William Cunion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Religious analysis of the seven deadly sins, contrasting them with the promises in the Beatitudes (from the Sermon on the Mount). The author provides a wonderful close reading of scripture to support his central claim that the seven sins produce “holes” in our spiritual selves, separating us from God, from one another, and perhaps even from ourselves. Some of the argument strikes me as pretty thin; the social science is especially sketchy. He contends that we could eliminate poverty in the world if we weren’t so greedy. Maybe, but I doubt it. Regardless, with its intelligent, novel presentation of the sins and their consequences, as well as many relevant stories to enliven the text, this was a terrific read.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as it might have been. I bought this for the clever idea of comparing deadly sins and beatitudes, I got a bit of good writing, some biblical exegesis that was questionable (I do not buy into Dallas Willard's interpretation of the Beatitudes, neither did Cook after awhile it felt like), and chapters that frankly did not hold all that well together. The book should have more deliberately tied the sin to the beatitude. The sin talk was the best part of the book - but even there the first chapters were better than the last.

[Eric Lewis]

This is a great book focusing on the seven deadly sins. Jeff Cook does a good job explaining each and provided examples. Very easy to understand. The end of the book has some discussion questions and area for notes. This book should remain on your bookshelf forever as reference material. And if you are a Sunday School Teacher it would be very easy to use in your teaching.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think it is a good book and a lot of people should read it. it brings you to think about yourself - hopefully. if you read this book and you decide you don't have to think about your life than you are either a saint or you are already lost.
i don't agree in every aspect with the author, but i think he is right in many many things.

[JM · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. It bounced between theological discourse to personal testimony. Its good for the Christian at the start of his/her journey to learn about the faith. Those of us who are a little further along in our journey, this is not as fulfilling. Nevertheless, it was a good book.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply stated, this is a profound book. Most certainly, the best book that I have read on this subject and one of the best books on Christianity that I have found in a very long while. The thoughts on these pages will stay with me for a long while.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful look at the seven deadly sins & the teachings of Christ from Matthew 5-7... very different take on these spiritual issues than other sources but solidly Biblical and thought-provoking.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on the big seven yet. Love the contrast and connection to the beatitudes! Very helpful!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book