Summary
Title: Greed: The Seven Deadly Sins
Author: Phyllis A. Tickle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195156609
Pro:
• Discusses greed in the context of several religious traditions
• Numerous notes
Con:
• Too few images of the art being discussed; focus on art a problem for those unfamiliar with it
• Condemnation of Western secularism rings hollow, ill-conceived
• Not enough depth in discussion of greed and what it means
Description:
• Exploration of the nature of greed, one of the seven deadly sins
• Focuses on how greed is represented in art and literature
Book Review
Greed — whether we call it acquisitiveness, ambition, covetousness, or something else — appears to occupy a secure and stable position in the human psyche. It’s even arguable that some amount of greed, or at least whatever drives greed, is probably good for us. Despite this, greed has been repeatedly condemned in most religious systems around the world for millennia. Yet greed hasn’t always been condemned for the same reasons or in the same way.
Phyllis A. Tickle wrote Greed for the Oxford University Press series on The Seven Deadly Sins. All of the books in this series have been short, and Greed is the shortest with 51 pages of regular text and 30 of notes. Like most of the other authors, Tickle treats her chosen sin as primary to the others — as the “first” sin which helps engender all the others. Of course, they can’t all be right, and it might be nice if OUP were to release an “epilogue” book which took a look at the first seven, reviewing their arguments and ideas, faults and successes.
One nice aspect of this book is that Tickle, a former religion editor for Publishers Weekly, takes a broad view and examines a variety of religious perspectives on greed, not just Christian ones.
Not every author in the series has done this. Most of the book, however, focuses on the various ways in which greed has been represented in art.
These representations help demonstrate how people have thought about greed and what sort of role it has played in religion, politics, and society. This use of art works best with an audience already familiar with the artists in question as well as the general course of Western art generally, something that may not be true of the average reader. The notes help, but not everyone reads the notes. The few pictures help somewhat, but little is done to connect specific passages to specific pictures.
Early on in the West, greed was conceived of as an affront against God and holiness; in the modern era, however, it has become more an amoral force which might be used for either good or evil, depending upon the designs of the person in question. Some readers may be turned off by Tickle’s condemnation — sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit — of the modern secularized West where, according to her, greater space has been made for greed by the slow diminution of traditional religious values.
Unfortunately, detailed and in-depth discussion of greed never actually occurs. Tickle’s use of art to structure her book leads her to present her ideas as a series of images, but in hopping from one image to another, she never stops to linger over an idea and explain how it provides insights into the nature or problems with greed.
Sometimes Tickle seems more interested in discussing sin in general rather than greed specifically; while context might help strengthen an essay about greed, this essay simply wasn’t long enough to bear the weight of so much context and so little content. For many authors, it might have seemed natural to tie this book into the recent scandals at major companies and in the financial industry; Tickle doesn’t really mention them at all.
Tickle’s book about greed isn’t without any value at all, but I’d have to count it as the least of all the books in the series and one which is most disappointing because so much promise and possibility was squandered. It might have been worse, but it also surely could have been much better.
