Oct 3, 2018

Once included among the capital sins, acedia has been identified
with both sloth and sadness. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example,
defined it both as “disgust with activity” and “sadness about
spiritual good.” Today’s guest, RJ Snell, argues that acedia is the
chief spiritual malady of our age, underlying the malaise, nihilism
and despair so prevalent in the modern West.

Links

R.J. Snell, Acedia and Its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom
in the Empire of Desire https://amzn.to/2xTTBhQ

Thomas’s 2015 review of Snell, Acedia and Its
Discontents https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=1307

Thomas’s 2015 review of Nault, The Noonday Devil
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=1283

Forthcoming book: R.J. Snell and Robert P. George, Mind,
Heart & Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome https://amzn.to/2zO9Uhk

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