Gluttony

Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out it is hungry. (St. John Climacus – “the Ladder of Divine Ascent”)

Thus we have one marvelous early church member react to overeating eating as though it were an addiction.  Another recent statement (undocumented in the paper I read, but put forward with some certainty) was that gluttony in the tradition of the desert monastics related to the matter of variety of food, not so much consumption of food (Christian Century – September 28, 2021 – “Vocational Gluttony”).  Gluttony thus becomes a matter of the pleasure of the eyes and of the taste buds.  Temperance and sameness, on the other hand, were to be preferred.

The King James Bible mentions in Philippians (3:18) that “their god is their belly”, contrasting them to those who have a citizenship other than here on earth.  Not only do these belly seekers place appetite first (and probably many different appetites), but they brag about shameful things, and think only about life here on earth.

More than needed does not mean you cannot partake of the “more”, just that the “more” may not be what is needed and may even be harmful and less than what we were created to eat!

BTW – I love how some people characterize the double quotes we use around words we want to emphasize.  They call them “scary” quotes. 

Leave a Reply