I seem to recall that there are also seven virtues, parallel to the Seven Deadly Sins. (Why are the “Seven Deadly Sins” so Deadly?)
I think faith, hope and charity are three - what are the other four?
Well, Piper, when I first read your question, I thought the answer was yes, but I had that only on the word (in one of the novels of the Cornish Trilogy) of Robertson Davies. Great writer though he may have been, religious authority doesn’t appear to have been among his many - dare I say it - virtues, so I went to a more, shall we say, varied source: the internet.
Unfortunately, most of the hits I got were for things like ‘the seven cardinal virtues of system administration’ or ‘the seven cardinal virtues of fundraising.’ (There’s a good reason for this, turns out - there aren’t seven cardinal virtues, apparently, only four.) Probably not what you had in mind. However, I found a nifty site: http://deadlysins.com/virtues.html. To summarize, in case you’ve got a short attention span or a linking deficiency or something, these folks list:
[ul]
[li] The four cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, courage, and justice.[/li][li] The three theological virtues: love, hope, and faith.[/li][li] The seven contrary virtues: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, and diligence. (The phrase ‘contrary virtues’ means, near as I can gather, that these are sort of antidotes to the seven deadly sins.)[/li][li] The seven heavenly virtues: faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence. These come from cardinal plus theological virtures, more or less.[/li][li] The seven corporal works of mercy. You’ll have to visit the site for these; I want to leave some kind of suspense for you, and it sort of goes beyond the scope of the question anyway.[/li][/ul]
The big question now is of course: what authority does the site author have for these? The ability to construct a fairly nifty site isn’t the only thing required here. Well, the Catholic Church apparently has something similar in its catechism. Check out http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/moral.html. (Look to Article 7 - The Virtues.) This site is not nearly as all-around cool as the deadly sins site, but as it is brought to us courtesy the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, complete with a Bishop and all, it probably has some manner of religious grounding behind it.
The catechism goes over the cardinal and theological virtues and defines them in, one might say, wearisome detail. (I have to say, reading this, I understand how the Catholics got Jesuits, I really do.) The virtues covered are the same as the ones in ‘the seven heavenly virtues,’ above. It also mentions something the deadly sins site doesn’t: the seven gifts of the holy spirit, which are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
So, to sum, there’s a heck of a lot of virtues. You were probably thinking of faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice, but there are other ones to pick from if those don’t float your theological boat.
These are the seven virtues I learned. The theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) are also called the Christian virtues (I Corinthians 13:1). I hope that doesn’t mean to suggest only Christians can possess them. The cardinal virtues (Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance) are also called Plato’s natural virtues.
By the way, does anybody else think the poor sinner in Slug’s illustration is having unnatural things done to him with that crozier? :eek:
Well, gee, bibliophage (do you really eat books, or are you just an editor?), not until you mentioned it. Now, of course…well, let’s just say I’m not totally clear on why the second bishop and his crozier are needed if all they’re doing is pushing Mr. Slothful into the pit.
As if my worldview needed recalibrating to make it more perverse. Thanks a lot, pal.
And let’s not forget the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and the ever-popular fear of the Lord. Also known as the one question the bishop is sure to ask you about before Confirmation if you’re growing up Catholic.
These are the seven virtues I learned. The theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) are also called the Christian virtues (I Corinthians 13:1). I hope that doesn’t mean to suggest only Christians can possess them. **
[/QUOTE]
Never heard of them referred as “Christian” virtues, but in any case it would only mean that Christians are specially required to seek them.
When I took Confirmation classes they called it “reverence.” 
(Entertaining story: when my brother was confirmed they had these banners hanging in the church with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit written on them, and the nun who was in charge of decorating the church had them in this order: Fear of the Lord, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge…until someone pointed it out to her. 
They had them up again today for Pentecost, but not in that order. :D)
BTW, there’s a song in Camelot called “The Seven Deadly Virtues”:
“There’s courage – now there’s a sport!
An invitation to the state of rigor mort!
And purity, a noble yen,
And very restful every now and then.
I find humility means ‘to be hurt.’
It’s not the earth the meek inherit, it’s the dirt!
Honesty is fatal, it should be taboo,
Diligence, a fate I would hate.
If charity means giving, I give it to you,
And fidelity is only for your mate!”
deepbluesea, you forgot about the Seven Spiritual Acts of Mercy. I’ll be darned, though (golly gee gosh darned, to be exact :)) if I can remember what the heck the are.
Speaking of virtues and sins, and also relating to the bible. This ones found in the book of proverbs 6:16-19. Paraphrased is God hates seven things: lofty eyes, a false tongue, hands shedding innocent blood, heart fabricated hurtful things, feet that are in a hurry to run to badness, false witness launching forth lies, anyone sending forth contentions among brothers.
I wouldn’t call this necessarily deadly unless you think god is going to do the killing
zero
Well, Chronos, turns out I also left out:
[ul]
[li]The Evangelical Counsels[/li][li]The Fruits of the Holy Spirit (distinct from the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which I did include),[/li][li]The Added Fruits of the Holy Spirit (we’re wandering into Breakfast Cereal Land, I know, but it turns out there are an extra five that are ‘traditional’ even though not actually catechismal, so to speak)[/li][li]The Gifts of the Just Plain Old Spirit, of which there are only five instead of the seven the holy version will give you[/li][li]The Gifts of the Prophets[/li][li]The Gifts of the Evangelist (distinct from the Evangelical Counsels)[/li][/ul]
Ad infinitum, and, frankly, ad nauseum. But just because I’d hate for you to be darned to heck if it turns out there’s a test later, Chronos, the Seven Spiritual Acts of Mercy are:
[ul]
[li]Counsel the doubtful[/li][li]Instruct the ignorant[/li][li]Admonish the sinner[/li][li]Comfort the sorrowful[/li][li]Forgive injuries[/li][li]Bear wrongs patiently[/li][li]Pray for the living and the dead[/li][/ul]
Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to go thank god for making me an atheist.