The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Episode 141, ‘Deadly Sins’ with Elizabeth Oldfield (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion)

Apr 6, 2025

Elizabeth Oldfield, a writer and host of The Sacred podcast, delves into the relevance of the seven deadly sins in today's fragmented society. She discusses how these ancient concepts serve as reflections on our ability to connect and flourish. The conversation also touches on living intentionally within communities, balancing forgiveness and accountability in public discourse, and challenging gender norms to foster inclusivity in philosophical discussions. Oldfield invites listeners to rethink faith and the moral transformations possible through relational understanding.

38:37

Creator website

Episode guests

Elizabeth Oldfield

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

The podcast emphasizes the importance of communal meaning in fostering individual fulfillment, contrasting the isolating nature of contemporary individualism.

Elizabeth Oldfield discusses how revisiting the seven deadly sins can provide insights into moral transformation and the cultivation of deeper connections.

Deep dives

The Quest for Communal Meaning

Contemporary society struggles to provide reliable communal meaning, which affects individual fulfillment and connection. Many people face the burden of creating their own meaning in an increasingly individualized world, leading to feelings of loneliness and disconnection. This crisis is exacerbated by a cultural shift towards individualism, which overlooks the relational nature of human beings. Ultimately, communal meaning is essential for flourishing, contrasting sharply with the isolating quest for individualistic significance.

Intro

3min

Exploring Intentional Community Living

5min

Forgiveness, Accountability, and Public Discourse

11min

Challenging Gender Norms in Philosophical Discourse

2min

Rethinking Faith: Religion as a Relational Gamble

18min

Much of ethics is relational: it’s about how we treat other people, the world around us, and how those relationships shape who we become. In philosophy, this often gets formalised as a set of virtues to cultivate, duties to obey, or harms to avoid. But today, we rarely talk about sins – let alone the seven deadly sins.

Historically rooted in the Christian tradition – pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth – have been understood not just as personal failings. They were taken seriously because they obscured what it meant to flourish: that is, to be fully alive. They are, fundamentally, habits of being that corrode our ability to love. So, what might we learn today from the seven deadly sins? How can these ancient categories illuminate our lives, in a world marked by disconnection and distraction?

In this episode, we’ll be speaking about the seven sins with Elizabeth Oldfield. Elizabeth is a writer, speaker, host of The Sacred podcast, and the former director of Theos Think Tank. In her recent book Fully Alive, she revives the seven deadly sins – not as a tool for moral condemnation, but as a lens through which to examine our practices and principles.

We’ll be talking with Elizabeth about how sin, properly understood, can help us confront the crisis of meaning and the collapse of community. We’ll also explore her Christian vision of moral transformation and why it’s vital to believers and non-believers alike.

Links

Elizabeth Oldfield, Website

Elizabeth Oldfield, Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times

Jules Evans on Psychedelics

Sarah Stein Lubrano, Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds