Pros And Cons Of Gluttonyism

When I first reviewed the reading assignment for this week, I thought it was interesting that we were going to be reading about gluttony instead of lust: I thought that the latter would be more applicable to most students. However, I found this chapter to be far more practical and personal than I at first imagined. As noted in the beginning of the chapter, our fitness-obsessed culture generally does not take a favorable view of gluttony (Guinness 212). Believers and unbelievers alike tend to lump all types of gluttony into the same stereotypical image of an overweight person sitting down to a meal that is far larger than the sum total of what an average family should eat in a day. Nevertheless, as C.S. Lewis notes in the Screwtape Letters excerpt reproduced in this chapter, gluttony can be a subtle sin. Although there are certainly physical risks associated with overeating (212-213), I believe that gluttony that is hidden in the heart can produce results that are far more severe. …show more content…
Perhaps the simplest way to explain the deeper issue of gluttony is that it is, as Henry Fairlie wisely points out, “an inordinate self-love” (qtd. in Guinness 224). Stated this way, it seems obvious that our culture would struggle with gluttony in some form or another given the priority that it places on the individual. Because overeating is no longer a palatable practice in American society (212), we have devised a new expression of this sin and have stamped upon it our hearty seal of approval. C.S. Lewis calls this variation the “gluttony of Delicacy” (qtd. in Guinness 220), and it breathes a new sense of pride into a sin that was quickly falling out of public