Dr. Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung

Biography

Rebecca DeYoung (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame) has enjoyed teaching ethics and the history of ancient and medieval philosophy at Calvin College for over 20 years.  Her research focuses on the seven deadly sins, and virtue ethics, as well as Thomas Aquinas’s work on the virtues.  Her books include Glittering Vices (Brazos, 2^nd edition 2020), Vainglory (Eerdmans), and a co-authored volume entitled Aquinas’s Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press).  Recent essays about various vices and virtues—hope, despair, sloth, courage, magnanimity, wrath, and vainglory—appear in Virtues and Their Vices (Oxford), Being Good (Eerdmans), and Cambridge Critical Guide to Aquinas’s De Malo (Cambridge), and the journals Res Philosophica, ACPQ, the Thomist, and Faith and Philosophy. Awards for her work include the Book and Essay Prize from the Character Project and the C.S. Lewis prize for Glittering Vices. She speaks widely, including opportunities to teach in prison. She and her husband Scot live in Grand Rapids, near the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline. They have four children ages 18-25.

Watch Professor DeYoung's panel "A Long Obedience: Cultivating Christian Virtue in Long-term Illness" for the Faith and Illness Initiative at Western Theological Seminary, September 18-20, 2023. 

Listen to Professor DeYoung's interview with Ken Myers for Mars Hill Audio as they discuss the second edition of Glittering Vices.

Discover Professor DeYoung's recommendations for the best Christian books on spiritual formation and Christian virtues.

Professor DeYoung collaborated with the Martin Institute's Conversatio Divina on a class on the vice of wrath. You can access the interviews and articles here.

Listen to a conversation with Ken Myers and Professor DeYoung on her book Vainglory. 

Listen to Professor DeYoung's podcast "Deadly Sins and Their Remedies" with Renovaré.

Read  Professor DeYoung's essays from "The Table,"  a publication of Biola University's Center for Christian Thought.

• "Sloth: Laziness about Love" January 29, 2018
• "Vainglory: How to Share Your Virtue Without Showing Off" January 30, 2017
• "Why Are You Angry?: Exploring the Deadly Sin of Wrath"  August 7, 2017

Watch Professor DeYoung's workshop "Shiny, Happy People: The Vice of Vainglory" for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at the Vital Worship Grant Colloquium on June 22, 2016.  

Watch Professor DeYoung's chapel talks at Wheaton College.  

• The Seven Deadly Sins:  Sloth 11/4/2015
• The Seven Deadly Sins:  Wrath 11/5/2015
• The Seven Deadly Sins:  Vainglory  11/6/2015

Watch an interview with Professor DeYoung about her book Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice.

Listen to podcasts of Prof. DeYoung's C.S. Lewis Institute talks, Nov 7-9, 2013.

Apply monastic wisdom to your life. Read Prof. DeYoung's article "New Life in the Desert: Monastic Wisdom for Public Life"

Read Prof. DeYoung's interview on The Brazos Blog.

Watch Prof. DeYoung on InnerCompass.

Read about Prof. DeYoung's honor as a Character Project Character Essay winner for her chapter "Courage" in Being Good:Christian Virtues for Everyday Life.

Read about Prof. DeYoung's honor as second place winner of the C.S. Lewis Book Prize at the University of St. Thomas for her book Glittering Vices: a New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and their Remedies.

Listen to a series of interviews with Prof. DeYoung about her book Glittering Vices from Open House radio in Australia. There are interviews on anger, envy, sloth, vainglory, and wrath.

Read an interview with Prof. DeYoung from Christianity Today.

Watch Prof. DeYoung's Stob Lectures on the Vice of Vainglory.