"An ardent and eloquent argument for bringing back the biblical notion of sin and putting it to work in our own benighted world....Challenging, even radical. Essentially, Schimmel questions the conventional wisdom of...psychotherapy."
Los Angeles Times "Schimmel artfully weaves ideas from Judaism, classical philosophy, and Christianity to observe the ways the seven cardinal sins...are played out in the modern world....It is a scholarly rendering of ancient thought applied to modern times."
Contemporary Psychology "Schimmel's examples are penetrating and pointed....Read this book. It is time and effort well spent....[He] is literate, insightful, and has a wonderful narrative style."
Rocky Mountain News "This is a surprising, humane handbook for self-transformation."
Publishers Weekly "This book mediates the moral wisdom of antiquity in a very useful and engaging way. It shows that the temptations to which we are all subject do not change. What does change is our willingness to recognize and overcome them. Few of us can afford not to read this book."
Jon D. Levenson, Harvard University "A well-argued attack on value-free theories of psychoanalysis for general religion and psychology collections."
Library Journal "A useful study.... The book is welcome and valuable, especially for teachers."
Horizons