Augustinian Sexuality: A Reevaluation of His Doctrine on Concupiscence

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

St. Augustine is one of those few individuals whose mind provided a foundation on which philosophers and theologians have built from his own day to ours. Augustine has also greatly influenced the development of Christian sexual ethics. In dealing with human sexuality, Augustine frequently used the words concupiscentia in connection with sexual desire.
Many contemporary theologians have charged that Augustine’s approach is too negative and pessimistic toward human sexuality.
However, my argument in this paper is that Augustine did not regard concupiscence itself as evil, but carnal concupiscence, which came after the fall is evil. In order to understand rightly Augustine’s teaching on concupiscence, one should consider three important contexts:Augustine’s experiential background, the Manichaean context, and the Pelagian context. For this purpose, I explored Augustine’s teachings on concupiscence expressed in his writings and examined many scholars’interpretations on the subject.

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