gluttony

gluttony, in Roman Catholic theology, one of the seven deadly sins. Gluttony is defined as excess in eating and drinking. Although eating and drinking for pleasure is not seen as sinful, eating or drinking to excess beyond reason is a sin. Drunkenness, which is caused by excessive consumption of intoxicating beverages, is considered a type of gluttony. As a deadly sin, gluttony is believed to spur other sins and further immoral behavior.

According to Roman Catholic theology, gluttony can be countered with the heavenly virtue of temperance. The seven deadly sins were first enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and were elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. Along with gluttony, the deadly sins include pride, lust, envy, wrath, greed, and sloth.

The Bible repeatedly admonishes against gluttony in the Old Testament. The Book of Proverbs advises, “Do not join with wine bibbers, nor with those who glut themselves on meat. For drunkards and gluttons come to poverty, and lazing about clothes one in rags” (Proverbs 23:20–21). Gluttony is one of the sins named in God’s judgment upon the wicked city of Sodom, whose inhabitants were “proud, sated with food, complacent in prosperity. They did not give any help to the poor and needy” (Book of Ezekiel 16:49).

In the New Testament, St. Paul the Apostle includes “drinking bouts, orgies, and the like” in his list of “works of the flesh” that will keep “those who do such things” from inheriting the kingdom of God (Letter of Paul to the Galatians 5:19–21). Paul also likens gluttony to idolatry, as in his description of the “enemies of the cross of Christ” in the Letter of Paul to the Philippians: “Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame.’ Their minds are occupied with earthly things” (Philippians 3:18–19).

In Summa theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas specifies five ways in which gluttony can present itself in one’s behavior: (1) hastily, by eating or drinking too rapidly or at the inappropriate time; (2) sumptuously, by eating or drinking rich or expensive fare over healthier or more moderate fare; (3) excessively, by eating or drinking too much; (4) greedily, by eating or drinking too eagerly and refusing to share; and (5) daintily, by eating food that is dainty in quality or excessively prepared.

In Dante’s 14th-century Inferno, gluttons are punished in the third circle of hell, where they are guarded and tortured by Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed beast, while lying face down in icy mud and slush. Dante also meets Ciacco—like Dante, a native of Florence—and they discuss the political strife between two rival factions in Florence, which represents gluttony for dominion and power.

The 16th-century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder made allegorical drawings of the seven deadly sins. In Gula (Gluttony), gluttony is depicted in a nightmarish scene that includes a woman guzzling from a pitcher while sitting atop a pig as demons and nude women around her eat and drink to excess. The drawing also shows figures vomiting or being force-fed.

In the modern era, Pope Francis referenced the sin of gluttony on numerous occasions in his commentary on world hunger, food insecurity, food waste, the obesity epidemic, and materialism. During his Christmas Eve homily in December 2018, he called on Christians to forgo greed, gluttony, and materialism and instead focus on the holiday’s meaning of love, charity, and simplicity. In October 2019, on World Food Day, which is observed annually by the United Nations to draw attention to world hunger and malnutrition, Francis lamented that “food is ceasing to be a means of subsistence and turning into an avenue of personal destruction.” He blamed unjust economic practices as well as lifestyle habits, and he named the virtues of temperance, moderation, abstinence, self-control, and solidarity as ways to combat “nutritional disorders.”