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Gluttony

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Der Völler by Georg Emmanuel Opiz

Gluttony (Latin: gula, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning 'to gulp down or swallow') means over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.

In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a lack of control over one's relation with food or harms the body.[1] Some Christian denominations consider gluttony one of the seven deadly sins. The concept of gluttony also has a broader definition within Christianity, where it is categorized into five distinct traits.

Etymology

In Deuteronomy 21:20 and Proverbs 23:21, it is זלל.[2] The Gesenius Entry[3] (lower left word) has indications of "squandering" and "profligacy" (waste).

In Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34, it is φαγος (phagos).[4] The LSJ Entry[5] is tiny, and only refers to one external source, Zenobius Paroemiographus 1.73. The word could mean merely 'an eater', since φαγω (phagō) means 'eat'.

In religion

Judaism

Rambam, for example, prohibits excessive eating and drinking in Hilchot De'ot (e.g., halachot 1:4, 3:2, 5:1).[6] The Chofetz Chaim (Yisrael Meir Kagan) prohibits gluttony on the basis of Leviticus 19:26, in Sefer Ha-Mitzvot Ha-Katzar (Prohibition #106).[7]

Christianity

Church leaders from the ascetic Middle Ages took a more expansive view of gluttony:

St. Gregory the Great

Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great), a doctor of the Church, described the following ways by which one can commit the sin of gluttony:[8]

  1. Eating before the time of meals in order to satisfy the palate.
  2. Seeking delicacies and better quality of food to gratify the "vile sense of taste".
  3. Seeking to stimulate the palate with overly or elaborately prepared food (e.g. with luxurious sauces and seasonings).
  4. Exceeding the necessary quantity of food.
  5. Taking food with too much eagerness, even when eating the proper amount, and even if the food is not luxurious.

This fifth way is worse than all others, said St. Gregory, because it shows attachment to pleasure most clearly. To recapitulate, St Gregory the Great said that one may succumb to the sin of gluttony by: 1. Time (when); 2. Quality; 3. Stimulation; 4. Quantity; 5. Eagerness. He asserts that the irregular desire is the sin, not the food: "For it is not the food, but the desire that is in fault".[9]

St. Gregory lists the daughter sins of gluttony as: Foolish mirth, uncleanness, babbling and dullness of the mind [1]

St. Thomas Aquinas

In his Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas reiterated the list of five ways to commit gluttony:[10]

  • Laute – eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly
  • Studiose – eating food that is excessive in quality (too daintily or elaborately prepared)
  • Nimis – eating food that is excessive in quantity (too much)
  • Praepropere – eating hastily (too soon or at an inappropriate time)
  • Ardenter – eating greedily (too eagerly)

St. Aquinas concludes that "gluttony denotes inordinate concupiscence in eating"; the first three ways are related to the food itself, while the last two related to the manner of eating.[10] He says that abstinence from food and drink overcome the sin of gluttony,[11] and the act of abstinence is fasting.[12]: A2 (see: Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church) In general, fasting is useful to restrain concupiscence of the flesh.[12]: A6

St. Alphonsus Liguori

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote the following when explaining gluttony:

Pope Innocent XI has condemned the proposition which asserts that it is not a sin to eat or to drink from the sole motive of satisfying the palate. However, it is not a fault to feel pleasure in eating: for it is, generally speaking, impossible to eat without experiencing the delight which food naturally produces. But it is a defect to eat, like beasts, through the sole motive of sensual gratification, and without any reasonable object. Hence, the most delicious meats may be eaten without sin, if the motive be good and worthy of a rational creature; and, in taking the coarsest food through attachment to pleasure, there may be a fault.[13]

Islam

An interpretation of the meaning of a part of a Qur'anic verse is as follows:

and eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not Al‑Musrifoon (those who waste by extravagance)

— al-A’raaf 7:31

The Sunnah encourages moderation in eating, and strongly criticizes extravagance.

The Prophet said: The son of Adam does not fill any vessel worse than his stomach. It is sufficient for the son of Adam to eat a few mouthfuls, to keep him going. If he must do that (fill his stomach), then let him fill one third with food, one third with drink and one third with air.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2380); classed as saheeh (truthful) by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah (2265).

In arts

Callimachus the famous Greek poet states, "All that I have given to my stomach has disappeared, and I have retained all the fodder that I gave to my spirit."[14]

Popular quote "Eat to live, not live to eat" is commonly attributed to Socrates.[15] A quotation from Rhetorica ad Herennium IV.28: "Esse oportet ut vivas; non vivere ut edas"[16] ('It is necessary to eat in order to live, not to live in order to eat')[17] is credited by the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs to Cicero.[18]

See also

  • Food addiction
  • Binge eating
  • Edward Dando
  • Bourgeoisie
  • Mukbang

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

(From Lat. gluttire, to swallow, to gulp down), the excessive indulgence in food and drink. The moral deformity discernible in this vice lies in its defiance of the order postulated by reason, which prescribes necessity as the measure of indulgence in eating and drinking. This deordination, according to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, may happen in five ways which are set forth in the scholastic verse: "Prae-propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose" or, according to the apt rendering of Father Joseph Rickably: too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily. Clearly one who uses food or drink in such a way as to injure his health or impair the mental equipment needed for the discharge of his duties, is guilty of the sin of Gluttony. It is incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the mere pleasure of the experience, and for that exclusively, is likewise to commit the sin of gluttony. Such a temper of soul is equivalently the direct and positive shutting out of that reference to our last end which must be found, at least implicitly, in all our actions. At the same time it must be noted that there is no obligation to formerly and explicitly have before one's mind a motive which will immediately relate our actions to God. It is enough that such an intention should be implied in the apprehension of the thing as lawful with a consequent virtual submission to Almighty God. Gluttony is in general a venial sin in so far forth as it is an undue indulgence in a thing which is in itself neither good nor bad. Of course it is obvious that a different estimate would have to be given of one so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink, so minded as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St. Paul, "whose god is their belly" (Phil., iii, 19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for duties for the performance of which he has a grave obligation, would be justly chargeable with mortal sin. St. John of the Cross, in his work "The Dark Night of the Soul" (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is the disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who "will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communition but in all their other acts of devotion." This he declares is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Okholm, Dennis. "Rx for Gluttony". Christianity Today, Vol. 44, No. 10, September 11, 2000, p.62
  2. Back to citation "Strong's Search: H2151". Newjerusalem.org. Archived from the original on 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  3. Back to citation "Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon by Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius". Tyndalearchive.com. Archived from the original on 2014-01-12. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  4. Back to citation "Strong's Search: G5314". Newjerusalem.org. Archived from the original on 2021-03-21. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  5. Back to citation "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, φάγος". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  6. Back to citation "Hilchot De'ot".
  7. Back to citation "ספר המצות הקצר" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  8. Back to citation Shipley, Orby (1875). Shipley, Orby. A Theory About Sin, London (1875) pg. 268–278. Macmillan. ISBN 9781981450961. Retrieved 2014-08-27; Susan E. Hill (2007). "The Ooze of Gluttony". In Richard Newhauser (ed.). The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities to Individuals. BRILL. p. 64. ISBN 9789004157859; Lori Barcliff Baptista (2012). "Gluttony". In Carl A. Zimring, William L. Rathje (ed.). Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage. SAGE Publications. p. 324. ISBN 9781452266671.
  9. Back to citation St. Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXX, 60, Lectionary Central, archived from the original on 2023-08-06, retrieved 2015-10-23
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 St. Thomas Aquinas. "The Summa Theologica II-II.Q148.A4" (1920, Second and Revised ed.). New Advent. Archived from the original on 2023-01-11. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  11. Back to citation St. Thomas Aquinas, "Question 146. Abstinence", The Summa Theologica II-II, A2 (1920, Second and Revised ed.), New Advent, archived from the original on 2023-03-29, retrieved 2015-10-25
  12. Back to citation occurrence 12.0 Back to citation occurrence 12.1 St. Thomas Aquinas, "Question 147. Fasting", The Summa Theologica II-II (1920, Second and Revised ed.), New Advent, archived from the original on 2020-11-12, retrieved 2015-10-25
  13. Back to citation St. Alphonsus Liguori. The True Spouse of Jesus Christ; trans. from Italian. Dublin (1835), p. 282. 1835. p. 282. Retrieved 2014-08-27 – via Internet Archive. “Innocent XI has condemned the proposition which asserts,.”
  14. Back to citation Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Gluttony Archived 2019-03-31 at the Wayback Machine." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Sean Takats. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2006. Web.
  15. Back to citation George Alexander Kennedy (2008). The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 133. ISBN 9781556359798.
  16. Back to citation M. Tullius Cicero (1773), Rhetoricorum (in Latin) (1773 ed.), J. Manfré (from Montserrat Abbey Library), p. 335
  17. Back to citation Giambattista Vico (1996). Giorgio A. Pinton, Arthur W. Shippee (ed.). The Art of Rhetoric. Rodopi. p. 181. ISBN 9789051839289.
  18. Back to citation Jennifer Speake, ed. (2015). Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. OUP Oxford. p. 89. ISBN 9780191059599.

Further reading

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