Sloth or despair?

Every time one gets interested in something that seemed obvious, new aspects of this already known phenomenon open up and one discovers something completely new. While translating from English I recently discovered one such occurrence which I would like to discuss.

I had to translate the list of deadly sins, and it so happens that one of the sins cannot be literally translated, even though I always thought that the list of sins in catholic, protestant and orthodox traditions doesn't vary. This list was first put together by Pope Gregory the Great in the second half of the sixth century and included lust, gluttony, greediness, despondency, anger, envy and pride. But in English in place of despair/despondency (rus. уныние) stands laziness (sloth). Sometimes Russians also write "despair (laziness)", but you have to agree that it's not one and the same.

Historically they were connected, and the younger contemporary of Pope Gregory, St.John Climacus discussed these sins in one Word of his famous work "Ladder of Divine Ascent". However he speaks more about despondency than about laziness, assuming that "each of the other passions gets abolished by one, contrary virtue; however, despondency for the monk is absolute death." Laziness he recalls only in the statement "A brave soul can resurrect a dead mind; despair and laziness rob all these riches."

When I began to look at this, it appeared that the understanding of this particular sin (lat. acedia) has changed the most since the time when it was included in the list of deadly sins. Initially it meant grief and was understood as spiritual laziness, apathy, which leads to a person no longer enjoying the happiness of life, given to him by God. Thomas Aquinas (catholic saint of the thirteenth century), to whom goes back the modern understanding of the deadly sins, treated despondency as the "uneasiness of mind", which, in turn, leads to lesser sins - unbalanced state of mind, worry, trepidation.

Finally, with industrialisation of western civilization, this sin has begun to be understood literally as laziness, or inaction. Thus laziness became a deadly sin, but in our orthodox tradition it stayed as despair.

I think here lies one of the most important differences between Russian and Westeuropean mentalities. If we consider that the deadly sins are those that produce all other sins, then there is a big difference between the sins that are produced by despair, and those produced by laziness. Goncharov wrote with such warmth about Ilya Ilyich Oblomov! "At other times his glance would darken as with weariness or ennui. Yet neither the one nor the other expression could altogether banish from his countenance that gentleness which was the ruling, the fundamental, characteristic, not only of his features, but also of the spirit which lay beneath them. That spirit shone in his eyes, in his smile, and in his every movement of hand and head. On glancing casually at Oblomov a cold, a superficially observant person would have said, "Evidently he is good-natured, but a simpleton"; whereas a person of greater penetration and sympathy than the first would have prolonged his glance, and then gone on his way thoughtfully, and with a smile as though he were pleased with something."

Laziness prevents actions, but despair plagues the spirit. This is more frightful.

A Russian version of this article can be found here.