Seven Deadly Sins: A Very Partial List

What's more sinful: angrily beating a child for no apparent reason, sleeping with a neighbor's wife or husband or eating all of the cheesecake so nobody else can have any? In his simplistic book, Tel Aviv University professor Kleinberg attempts a very partial answer to this question. He acknowledges that there is no sin without context, so that while child abuse may not be a wrong in one culture, it is horribly wrong in another. Using the Catholic Church's list of the seven deadly sins as his foil, Kleinberg proceeds to show that sin is relative and that even the worst of sins can be excused or seen in different lights depending on circumstances. For example, he understands sloth as the tendency to avoid the daily struggle against evil and injustice, and he counsels avoiding such slothfulness. Ultimately dissatisfying, Kleinberg's unfocused reflections comprise a book without a mission, for it fails to be either a deep personal meditation on the subject or a thoughtful theological exploration of a subject much better covered by Oxford University's series on the seven deadly sins. (Oct.)