Concupiscence in Augustine and Aquinas
INTRODUCTION
Why are human beings evil? The Judaeo-Christian
explanation is in terms of original sin. The notion of
original sin comes from the biblical story in Genesis of how
Adam and Eve lived in paradise, yet how they freely chose to
disobey God, and how they were punished by God by being cast
out of paradise. This casting out was not the only
punishment, however. In the biblical story, the woman is
specifically punished by God in that her childbearing will
now be painful, and also in a loss of equality with her mate,
who will now "rule over" her. In turn, the man is also
punished, in that now he must laboriously work the soil in
order to gain any food from it. Yet all of these punishments
from the biblical story give no inkling of why it is human
beings are inclined toward evil. Many early commentators on
the biblical story, however, began to see how this first or
original turning away from God, who is good, is the first
instance of evil. They then argued that it must be on
account of this first evil or original sin that human beings
are inclined towards evil. Yet few ever attempted to explain
how the punishment for original sin affected this
inclination.
In the Christian tradition, the first thinker to attempt
a coherent explanation in this regard was Augustine of Hippo.
Augustine felt that the punishment for original sin was
visited first upon the will, by weakening it and thus
inclining it towards evil, since it was through this free
will that God had given them that Adam and Eve chose to
dis ...