The Death of the Deadly Sins

Daniel M. Doriani, Ed.

Reviewed by: James M. Stafford

The Death of the Deadly Sins: Embracing the Virtues That Transform Lives, Daniel M. Doriani, ed. P&R, 2025. Paperback, 208 pages, $18.99. Reviewed by OP pastor James M. Stafford.

The Death of the Deadly Sins is a slim volume that gives a theoretical (chs. 1–2, 11) and historical (ch. 3) account of virtue, but the bulk of its pages (chs. 4–10) provides a practical and experiential approach to growing in virtue through mortification of the deadly sins (pride, greed, anger, envy, sloth, gluttony, and lust). Nine coauthors contributed to the book, but it retains a coherent style as each of the vice-to-virtue chapters follows the same general pattern: a biblical exposition of a deadly sin, guidance for identifying that sin in our lives, disciplines that cultivate that vice’s corresponding virtue, and finally a set of discussion questions.

While the book’s preface identifies church leaders and teachers as the chiefly intended audience, others need not shy away from the book. My impression from the middle chapters was that the authors were actually writing with congregants primarily in mind. In fact, the chapter on sloth states that “the average reader of this book is . . . a man or woman, single or married, working a vocation or rearing children, and active in a local church.” So, a broad audience will benefit from this book, especially if readers take time to discuss the end-of-chapter questions as a family or with a friend, mentor, or small group.

But the book’s opening chapters are valuable especially for church leaders in that they provide a defense of virtue as a biblically warranted concept, framing the discussion within a Protestant understanding of justification. Chapter 3 is a concise survey, but fairly academic, for anyone looking for an entry point into the expansive history of virtue and the seven deadly sins in Christian thought.

The book often mentions the necessity of community for cultivating virtue and the converse reality that there is a communal dimension to vice. There are places where the authors could have expanded on this by suggesting corporate disciplines that could be adopted by congregations regarded in their organic unity. Individuals are nurtured toward virtue by virtuous communities, and the latter will have certain practices that create a “scaffolding” conducive to each individual’s pursuit of virtue. For example, if consistent cheerful (and therefore conscious) giving is a discipline that cultivates generosity (68), should churches be wary of a potential for automated tithing to inhibit spiritual growth in this area? The section “Gluttony and Culture” recognizes the influence of the economy and, purportedly, the social habits of certain ecclesial traditions on obesity; yet all the remedies offered are individualistic in scope.

While one may wish for a more complex analysis of the social dimensions of vice and virtue, the authors can hardly be faulted for leaving these thoughts underdeveloped. Indeed, reading the book has generated them in the first place. Whatever communal changes may be needful, they will be preceded by individual sanctification. To that end, the authors have written quite helpfully.