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The definition of acedia presents unique conceptual problems among the eight Evagrian logismoi. Its descriptions are so complex and varied as to render the concept seemingly incoherent. This article argues that the conceptual unity of acedia has been obscured by the translation of Evagrian logismoi into the 'deadly sins' tradition, resulting in a category error. Acedia is more properly understood, not as a psychological state or a sin, but rather as an array of demonic temptations with the unifying end‐goal of interrupting the anchoritic ideal of sustained contemplation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which analyzed the applicability of acedia or sloth, which is among the seven capital vices, to the economic sector in the 21st century, including the view of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the vice as cited in his masterwork "Summa Theologiae."

This study begins with some clarifications on current acedia, one of the eight bad thoughts. Speaking about acedia is not an easy endeavour. In a metaphorical sense we could compare acedia with a storm which is recognized by the damaging effects it produces. One of these effects is the carelessness state. Once he arrives in this state, man acts as he would not have a soul and an eternal destiny. Carelessness is the main cause of man's failure in the spiritual life. Seen through the lens of carelessness, acedia can take the image of what might be called "lacebunita" and "I don't care syndrome". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on the association between Internet pornography and acedia, also known as spiritual apathy, is presented. It emphasizes the consideration of spiritual apathy as a vice in Christian spiritual wisdom. It explores the influence of spiritual apathy on the loss of one's transcendent calling to the love and friendship of God.

Given renewed interest in the role of human action in the development of depression, I re-examine a tradition in the West which interpreted phenomena akin to the symptoms and signs of modern depression as ‘a spiritual disease.’ In medieval Europe, acedia was a vice, an undesirable trait of character acquired in the course of living a life. Persons suffering from the vice of acedia were implicated as agents in its development and to some extent responsible for overcoming it. In Part I of this paper, I note the contemporary interest of psychiatrists and others in this vice, consider the warrants for asserting that it is akin to some forms of depression, and recount, in brief, the history of this vice from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. In Part II, I discuss how medieval scholars, confessors, and spiritual guides understood the question of responsibility for acedia and how they distinguished between this vice and melancholia. I argue that acedia was a vice that could be distinguished from melancholia and that, while akin to clinical depression, this vice should not be identified with depression. This investigation of and commentary on acedia is intended as a contribution to the contemporary discussion of the role of human agency in the development of depression and in its treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on scientific acedia. Acedia is an occupational hazard among men of learning that takes the form of a gradual withdrawal of motivation for research and an increasing alienation from science. During the middle ages acedia had only a religious meaning. At that time the word stood for sloth, the fourth cardinal sin, the state of not caring about one's salvation. With the separation in the Renaissance between scholars, clergymen, and artists, it becomes appropriate to speak of secular versions, a scientific acedia, and an artistic acedia. In most accounts of acedia, the condition is viewed primarily as a psychological or medical problem; individual variations in personality are seen as affecting a person's endurance in scientific work. However, even students of acedia who by profession are biologists or psychologists concede that some important determinants are of a social nature and, therefore, located not in the scientist, but in the social setting in which he works. The assumption that acedia is primarily a sociological phenomenon has been made by sociologist Robert K. Merton, who treats it as a case of anomie.