A.D. 375
Monks living in the desert in Egypt identify eight thoughts that weaken their devotion. Talking Back, a book by Roman monk Evagrius of Pontus, instructs monks on how to fight gluttony, lust, love of money, sadness, anger, listlessness, vainglory and pride.
Early fifth century
John Cassian, a student of Evagrius, proposes that the sins connect sequentially. For example, he suggests that lust comes from gluttony and avarice arises from lust.
Late fifth century
Priest-historian Gennadius of Massilia translates Evagrius' work into Latin. He posits that the devil and human nature alike lead us into temptation.
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590
Pope Gregory the Great revises the list to create the one we know today: pride, wrath, envy, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. He considered pride to be the root of all sins.
1215
Texts detailing the seven deadly sins abound after a church council decrees that all Christians must go to confession at least once a year.
1265–1274
Thomas Aquinas writes Summa Theologica, in which he defines lust more precisely as adultery, rape, seduction, bestiality, sodomy, or sex without reproduction in mind.
Early 14th century
The rise of a wealthy middle class leads some theologians to decry avarice as the number-one sin.
Circa 1308–1321
Dante Alighieri writes the Divine Comedy, which delves into the punishments doled out in purgatory for every sin. For example, the proud were humbled by having to carry heavy stones.
1500
Hieronymus Bosch paints The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things. In a series of everyday scenes, Bosch depicts the aristocracy as proud and lustful, merchants as envious, avaricious and slothful, and the poor as wrathful and gluttonous.
1556–1558
Pieter Brueghel the Elder's engravings use cartoonish characters and surreal landscapes to depict the sins.
1812
The Brothers Grimm publish their famous book of fairy tales, establishing envy as a common trait of stepmothers.
1892
Charles Allan Gilbert draws his famous visual pun All Is Vanity, an image of a woman admiring herself in the mirror that, when viewed from afar, looks like a skull.
1933
First performance of George Balanchine's ballet The Seven Deadly Sins. Every act takes place in a different city: wrath in Los Angeles, lust in Boston and envy in San Francisco, to name a few.
1950s
A win for sloth: TV remote controls enter mass production. One early model was Zenith Radio Corporation's “Lazy Bones.”
1964
Gluttonous Augustus Gloop, greedy Veruca Salt and wrathful Mike Teavee take a fateful tour of Willy Wonka's factory in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
1987
The movie Wall Street picks apart the greed behind corporate raiding and insider trading.
1989
One of the first empirical studies on how Christians rank the sins is published. This sample of parishioners views “life-rejecting melancholy” as the worst sin, followed by lust and anger.
1993
Australian artist Susan Dorothea White proposes that today's deadly sins are the opposite of the original ones. Indifference has replaced anger, workaholism has ousted sloth and squandering is more prevalent than avarice.
1995
The movie Seven is released. In the film, a serial killer targets “sinners,” with every “punishment” designed to fit the “crime.”
1995
Homer Simpson proclaims sloth to be part of American culture: “If you don't like your job, you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way.”
1997
The International Federation of Competitive Eating is born, establishing gluttony as a sport.
1998
Cognitive-behavior therapy, which emphasizes reframing thoughts and behavior change, is shown to be effective for anger management.
2002
Pride takes a venomous turn: the FDA approves Botox to improve the appearance of forehead lines.
2008
Bishop Gianfranco Girotti announces that the Catholic Church has added seven new sins: polluting, genetic engineering, obscene wealth, drug abuse, abortion, pedophilia and the perpetration of social injustice.
2009
Roberto Busa, an Italian priest and Jesuit scholar, tallies up confessions he has received. He concludes that men's number-one sin is lust, whereas pride tops the list for women.
2011
First confessional iPhone app is developed. It helps users keep their sins straight and includes a “custom examination of conscience” and the ability to “choose from seven different acts of contrition.”
2012
Pride and envy get a facelift. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that the number of cosmetic procedures is up 250 percent since 1997.
