Book of Kells, Chi Rho folio, c. 800 · public domain

Christianity

Tradition·Founded 30 CE·est. ~2.4 billion worldwide

Judaism → Christianity → 11 branches

Branch
Precept of Christianity

The works of mercy.

Seven for the body, seven for the soul. The bodily list is lifted straight from Matthew 25 with burying the dead added — which the plague centuries made the most costly and the most necessary of the seven.

What it asksSeven bodily works and seven spiritual ones — feed, shelter, bury the dead; instruct, counsel, bear wrongs patiently
Who it bindsCatholics and the Orthodox formally; most Protestants in substance
Where it bitesBy burying the dead, which costs money and gets you nothing, and is on the list for that reason
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Fourteen acts in two lists of seven. The corporal works are Matthew 25's six with burying the dead added, taken from the book of Tobit; the spiritual works are counsel, instruction, admonition, comfort, forgiveness, bearing wrongs patiently, and prayer for the living and dead. Burying the dead earned its place in the plague centuries, when it was dangerous, expensive and unrewarded, and confraternities were founded specifically to do it for strangers. The lists are still the framework Catholic and Orthodox parishes use to organise volunteering, and Pope Francis proposed adding care for the environment as an eighth in 2016. The spiritual list ages less well in modern ears — admonishing sinners reads badly now — and parishes quietly emphasise the corporal seven.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The hungry tigress. Buddhism · story Read it in full →
The four gifts. Jainism Go deeper →
Sarbat da bhala — the good of all. Sikhism Go deeper →
Feed whoever arrives. Yoruba Religion Go deeper →
Ahimsa — do no harm. Hinduism Go deeper →

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