Class 14: Concupiscence

This class is about concupiscence and the last two commandments. The term “concupiscence” indicates a strong or intense desire. In the Western philosophical tradition, concupiscence is an essential component of the anthropological and ethical structure of the human being. We find it in Plato (in the Phaedrus) in the famous Chariot Allegory, in which the Charioteer has to drive a chariot drawn by two horses difficult to tame. With a similar meaning it is also found in the division of the parts of the soul offered by Aristotle.

In ethical and anthropological terms “concupiscence” does not have a negative meaning. In its broadest sense it indicates the inclination to the good as pleasant, which in itself is not evil but which should be informed by reason.

In theology, the meaning of concupiscence is fed by the positive philosophical connotation but takes on mostly a negative meaning. In fact, it indicates the disorder in our appetites that comes from original sin.

St. John in his first letter distinguishes three forms of concupiscence: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life (1 Jn 2:16). Christian tradition has seen in this threefold distinction the root of all possible sins. In addition, it has interpreted in the light of these three meanings both the sin of Adam and Eve and the temptations of Jesus in the desert. Jesus, as the new Adam, resisted to those three temptations to which Adam had not resisted, and which include all possible temptations of the human being.

The threefold concupiscence is the subject of the last two commandments, the commandments of desire, which insofar as they safeguard our good intentions summarize “all the precepts of the Law” (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2534).