The acclaimed writer discusses the limits of kindness and the foundations of sin. This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.

MEREDITH: [narrating] “So what makes anger different from the six other deadly sins? It’s pretty simple really. You give in to a sin like envy or pride, and you only hurt yourself. Try lust or ...

Seven were the sins—pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth —that the early Christian theologians labeled capital, or deadly, on the ground that they led to the commission of other ...

The concept of sin is a hard sell to atheists and agnostics alike. But one set of sins—the seven deadly sins—has entered the collective consciousness regardless of belief. The origins of the seven ...

Q. 274. How is sin divided? A. (1) Sin is divided into the sin we inherit called original sin, and the sin we commit ourselves, called actual sin. (2) Actual sin is sub-divided into greater sins, ...