Christian Pure

What Is Sloth, and Is It a Sin? The Deadly Sin of Acedia

Команда Christian Pure

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  • Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, and in Christian teaching it means a sorrow or weariness toward the good things of God, more than plain laziness.
  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists “sloth or acedia” among the capital sins and says it can “refuse the joy that comes from God.”
  • John Cassian described acedia as “weariness or distress of heart,” the restless noonday temptation of the desert monks.
  • Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as “sorrow for spiritual good” and set it against the joy in God that comes from charity.
  • The word “sloth” is not in the King James Bible, but “slothful,” “slothfulness” and “sluggard” appear 23 times, 18 of them in Proverbs.
  • Rest is not sloth: Jesus told his tired apostles to “rest a while,” and Aquinas tied sloth to the Sabbath command to rest in God.
  • Christians fight sloth by staying faithful in small tasks, thinking on the good things of God, and coming to Jesus for rest.

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, and yes, it is a sin. In Christian teaching it means more than laziness. Sloth, also called acedia, is a sorrow or weariness toward the good things of God: the heart no longer wants what God offers, and so it stops moving toward him. Proverbs gives the picture in one line: “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed” (Proverbs 26:14). The door moves all day…

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Библиография (нажмите, чтобы показать)
  • The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), quoted from BibleGateway and counted in the Project Gutenberg text (eBook #10): Psalm 91:6; Proverbs 6:6–10; 13:4; 19:24; 20:4; 24:30–32; 26:13–14; Matthew 11:28; 25:24–26; Mark 6:30–31; Romans 12:11; and the Douay-Rheims (public domain) for Psalm 90:6. gutenberg.org
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1866 (the capital sins). vatican.va
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2094 (sins against the love of God). vatican.va
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2733 (acedia in the battle of prayer). vatican.va
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, question 35, “Of Sloth,” trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (2nd rev. ed., 1920). NewAdvent.org
  • John Cassian, Institutes, Book X, “Of the Spirit of Accidie,” trans. Edgar C. S. Gibson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 11 (1894). NewAdvent.org
  • “Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem,” Orthodox Church in America. oca.org
  • The Westminster Larger Catechism, questions 105 and 119, Orthodox Presbyterian Church. opc.org
  • 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (checked 27 October 2026). 988lifeline.org

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