Concupiscence
Concupiscence (from Latin concupiscentia : intense desire , desire) is a theological technical term and describes the inclination or inner tendency of people to evil or sin . Closely connected with the question of justification , the interpretation of concupiscence was already controversially discussed by the church fathers and in scholasticism , since the beginning of the Reformation between Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians, but also between the intra-denominational schools .
The concupiscible passions became desire (desire, which the absent good strives for; Latin concuspiscentia ), love and lust (for example joy) as well as hatred, loathing (as fear opposite to desire, which flees the absent evil; Latin fuga or horror ) and pain.
Biblical basis
The archetype of the connection between sin and desire is for theological thought of all times the fall of man with the words of the serpent preceding it (Gen 3: 1-6).
Concupiscence becomes the central concept in the apostle Paul's thinking . In his early letters, and then in detail in his theological legacy, the Letter to the Romans , he reflected on the relationship between the law - for him the epitome of the unconditional divine demand for selfless love for God and neighbor - and human freedom . “I would have known nothing about desire” (Gr. Epithymía , Latin concupiscentia ) “if the law hadn't said: 'You should not desire'. Sin was offended by the commandment and produced all desire in me, for without the law sin was dead ”(Rom 7: 7f).
For Paul, the concept of concupiscence includes not only sexual and oral desires (fornication and gluttony), but also and above all the self-centeredness of the spirit (boasting). The solution of the conflict comes from outside to man in the form of unconditional love and self-giving of Christ (Romans 7 and 8).
Concept history
Augustine
Augustine describes in the confessiones , lib. X, cap. 35, the concupiscentia as that part of curiosity ( curiositas ) that is pure eye pleasure. All other senses are equated with it:
“Sed etiam, vide quid sonet; vide quid oleat, vide quid sapiat, vide quam durum sit. - We also say: see how it sounds, see how it smells, see how it tastes, see how hard it is. "
In doing so, he exposes concupiscentia as an instinctive enjoyment of sensual experience that can delight in everything.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas separates sensuality into two independent categories: that of concupiscentia with the attribute of ambition on the one hand, and (sudden) anger ( irascible ) with the attributes of aggression and competition on the other. He attributes the emotions of joy, sadness, love and hate to the former, while he attributes fear, hope, despair and daring to the latter.
The Catholic point of view
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (KKK), Adam and Eve were installed in an original state of “ holiness and righteousness” (KKK 375), in which they were free from concupiscence. Because of his personal sin, Adam lost this original state of holiness (CCC 416). This applies not only to himself, but to all of his descendants. They are all entangled in the sin of Adam and have a part in their procreation. (KKK 404, 419) Because of this entanglement, the original sin (a sin only in the figurative sense), human nature is not completely corrupted, but its natural powers are injured and subjected to the weakness of the understanding, the suffering and the reign of death and to sin inclined. (KKK 404, 405) This tendency to sin and evil is concupiscence (KKK 405, 418). Concupiscence is "but not itself a sin".
The baptism wipes out original sin and directs the people back to God , but the inclination to sin and evil remains. Even after baptism, a person must therefore continue to fight against disordered desire, concupiscence, which he can also achieve with the grace of God. (KKK 405, 2520)
"What is meant [by concupiscence ] is the disintegration of man, the striving of the various driving forces, the stubbornness of the body as well as the spirit against the basic orientation of the person, the inclination to evil."
The Protestant view
In contrast to Catholic theology (in which concupiscence urges sin, but is not itself a sin), in Protestant theology concupiscence itself is seen as sin, and in some ways even as the central form of sin. The concupiscence inherited from Adam is identified with original sin.
Since concupiscence (the tendency to sin) remains in the believer even after baptism, sin and original sin also remain in the baptized, who in this sense is simul iustus et peccator (at the same time righteous and sinner).
Joint declaration on the doctrine of justification
In the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church, and later also the World Council of Methodist Churches , there was also a convergence in the understanding of concupiscence.
The consensus “in the basic truths of the doctrine of justification” (4) includes the common confession that even the justified “is not withdrawn from the still pressing power and the grip of sin (cf. Rom 6: 12-14) and from the lifelong struggle against godliness not relieved of the old man's selfish desires (cf. Gal 5:16; Rom 7: 7, 10) ”(28). Differences in details of understanding are associated with differences in the use of the term concupiscence. (See Annex 2 B)
swell
literature
- Georg Langemeyer: Desire, greediness. I. Theological-anthropological . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 141 f .
- Klaus Demmer: Desire, greediness. II. Theological-ethical . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 142 f.) .
- 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.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Viktor Cathrein SJ : Moral philosophy. A scientific exposition of the moral, including the legal, order. 2 volumes, 5th, newly worked through edition. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1911, pp. 75–77 ( classification of passions ) and 79–83 (of concupiscible passions in particular ).
- ^ Gerhard Ludwig Müller : Catholic dogmatics: for study and practice of theology. - 6th edition. - Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-451-28652-1 , p. 137
- ↑ German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Catholic adult catechism . Volume 1: The Church's Creed. 4th edition. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer, 1989, S. (1985) , p. 133