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Summary
- Vanity is a sin when it means living for other people’s admiration, and the tradition’s name for that is vainglory.
- The “vanity” of Ecclesiastes is the Hebrew hevel, breath or vapour, and it names how brief and futile life is; it is no sin.
- Where the King James Version says “vainglory” in Philippians 2:3, the Greek is kenodoxia, empty glory, and “desirous of vain glory” in Galatians 5:26 is the related adjective kenodoxos.
- Gregory the Great made pride the root of seven principal vices and put vainglory first among them, while today’s list in Catechism 1866 names pride in its place.
- Thomas Aquinas taught that vainglory is a venial sin unless it goes against charity, as when a person prefers human praise to God.
- Caring for how we look is not forbidden: Calvin, Aquinas and Wesley all held that the New Testament’s words on adornment do not condemn neatness or moderate care.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version, from BibleGateway: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 1:14 and 11:10; Psalm 144:4; Jeremiah 10:15; Romans 8:20; Ephesians 4:17; Philippians 2:3; Galatians 5:26; 1 John 2:16; Proverbs 16:18 and 31:30; Matthew 5:16, 6:1, 6:16 and 23:5; John 12:43; Daniel 4:30 and 4:37; Acts 12:23; 2 Samuel 14:25 and 18:18; 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Peter 3:3-4.
- Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon and Strong’s Concordance, hebel (H1892), via Bible Hub.
- Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon and Strong’s Concordance, mataiotēs (G3153), kenodoxia (G2754) and kenodoxos (G2755), via Bible Hub.
- Rachel Scheinerman, “All Is Vanity!” How to Understand Ecclesiastes’ Famous Lament, My Jewish Learning (2021).
- John Cassian, Institutes, Book V, chapter 1 (the eight principal faults) and Book XI (vainglory), trans. Edgar C. S. Gibson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11 (1894), via New Advent.
- Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI, chapter 45, English translation (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1844), via Lectionary Central.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, Question 132, Vainglory, and Question 169, Modesty in the outward apparel, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (2nd ed., 1920), via New Advent.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1857 (mortal sin), paragraph 1866 (the capital sins) and paragraphs 2288-2289 (respect for health).
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 15.4, as published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, on 1 Peter 3:1-4, via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
- John Wesley, Sermon 88, On Dress, The Sermons of John Wesley (1872 edition), Wesley Center Online.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia, Pope St. Gregory I (1909), St. Thomas Aquinas (1912) and John Cassian (1908), for dates.
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