Concupiscence
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In theology, concupiscence refers to the orientation or inclination of human desire towards a partial good before any voluntary and conscious decision. It is derived from the Latin word concupiscentia.
Thomas Aquinas believed there were two divisions of the "sensuality": the concupiscible (pursuit/avoidance instincts) and the irascible (competition/aggression/defense instincts). With the former are associated the emotions of joy and sadness, love and hate, desire and repugnance; with the latter, daring and fear, hope and despair, anger. However, the most common meaning of the term in English, and the one which will be used here, is the innate tendency of human beings to do evil. This latter concept is found in Aquinas's writings as well, but has achieved usage among both Catholic and Protestant theologians. However, Catholics and Protestants have radically different opinions on what concupiscence is, and the concept is more commonly used amongst Catholics.
The primary difference between Catholic and Protestant theology on the issue of concupiscence is that Protestants consider concupiscence to be sinful, whereas Catholics believe it to be highly likely to cause sin, though not sinful in itself.
This difference is intimately tied with the different traditions on original sin. Protestantism holds that the original prelapsarian nature of humanity was an innate tendency to good; the special relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed with God was due not to some supernatural gift, but to their own natures. Hence the Fall was not the destruction of a supernatural gift, leaving humanity's nature to work unimpeded, but rather the corruption of that nature itself. Since the present nature of humans is corrupted from their original nature, it follows that it is not good, but rather evil (although some good may still remain). Thus, in the Protestant view, concupiscence is evil in itself.
Catholicism, by contrast, teaches that humanity's original nature contained an innate tendency to sin. Due to a special supernatural gift granted by God to Adam and Eve, namely original righteousness, they were able to overcome their tendency toward evil and fully orient themselves towards God. After the Fall this gift was lost, and the natural self ruled; because the natural self was not fully oriented toward God, the result was sin. But human nature cannot be called evil, because it is natural; despite the fact that sin usually results, Catholic theology teaches that human nature itself is not the cause of sin, although once it comes into contact with sin it may produce more sin, just as a flammable substance may be easily ignited by a fire.
The difference in views also extends to the relationship between concupiscence and original sin. In the Protestant view, original sin is concupiscence inherited from Adam and Eve. It is never fully eliminated in this life, although sanctifying grace helps to eliminate it gradually. Since concupiscence is not evil in the Catholic view, it cannot be original sin. Rather, original sin is the real and actual sin of Adam, passed on to his descendants; rather than remaining until death (or in the case of the damned, for all eternity), it can be removed by the sacrament of baptism. For more information, see original sin.
Another reason for the differing views of Protestants and Catholics on concupiscence is their position on sin in general. Protestants (or at least the magisterial reformers; some modern-day Protestants would doubtless not accept this position) hold that one can be guilty of sin even if it is not voluntary; Catholics, by contrast, traditionally believe that one is only guilty of sin if that sin is voluntary. It is to be noted that the Scholastics and the magisterial reformers have rather different views on the issue of what is voluntary and what is not: the Catholic Scholastics considered the emotions of love, hate, like and dislike to be acts of will or choice, while the Protestant reformers did not. According to the Bible, it is not just actions that are sinful, but also attitudes. If one accepts the Catholic position that one's attitudes are acts of will, then one can still maintain that all sin is voluntary; but if one accepts the position of the magisterial reformers that these attitudes are involuntary, it must follow that some sins are involuntary. Since man's nature (and therefore concupiscence) is clearly not voluntarily chosen, Catholics do not consider it to be sinful; the reformers believe that, since some sins are involuntary, it can be.
Protestants believe that concupiscence is sinful, indeed, they believe it to be the primary type of sin; thus they most often refer to it simply as sin, or, to distinguish it from particular sinful acts, as "man's sinful nature". Thus, concupiscence as a distinct term is more likely to be used by Catholics.
[edit] References
- Robert Merrihew Adams, "Original Sin: A Study in the Interaction of Philosophy and Theology", p. 80ff in Francis J. Ambrosio (ed.), The Question of Christian Philosophy Today, Fordham University Press (New York: 1999), Perspectives in Continental Philosophy no. 9.
- Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins, and Dermot A. Lane, eds., The New Dictionary of Theology (Wilmington, Delaware : Michael Glazier, Inc., 1987), p. 220.
