thumb|St. [[Augustine explored and used the term "concupiscence" to refer to sinful lust.]]
Concupiscence (from Late Latin , from the Latin verb , from , "with", here an intensifier, + , "to desire" + , a verb-forming suffix denoting beginning of a process or state) is an ardent longing, typically one that is sensual. In Christianity, particularly in Catholic and Lutheran theology, concupiscence is the tendency of humans to sin.
There are nine occurrences of in the Douay-Rheims Bible and three occurrences in the King James Bible. It is also one of the English translations of the Koine Greek (ἐπιθυμία), which occurs 39 times in the New Testament.
Involuntary sexual arousal is explored in the Confessions of Augustine, wherein he used the term "concupiscence" to refer to sinful lust.
Jewish perspective
In Judaism, there is an early concept of yetzer hara (Hebrew: יצר הרע for "evil inclination"). This concept is the inclination of humanity at creation to do evil or violate the will of God. The yetzer hara is not the product of original sin as in Christian theology, but the tendency of humanity to misuse the natural survival needs of the physical body. Therefore, the natural need of the body for food becomes gluttony, the command to procreate becomes lust, the demands of the body for rest become sloth, and so on.
In Judaism, the yetzer hara is a natural part of God's creation, and God provides guidelines and commands to help followers master this tendency. This doctrine was clarified in the Sifre around 200–350 CE. In Jewish doctrine, it is possible for humanity to overcome the yetzer hara. Therefore, for the Jewish mindset, it is possible for humanity to choose good over evil and it is the person's duty to choose good (cf. Sifrei on Deuteronomy, P. Ekev 45, Kidd. 30b).
Augustine
Involuntary sexual arousal is explored in the Confessions of Augustine, wherein he used the term "concupiscence" to refer to sinful lust. resulting in humanity becoming a (mass of perdition, condemned crowd), with much enfeebled, though not destroyed, freedom of will. When Adam sinned, human nature was thenceforth transformed. Adam and Eve, via sexual reproduction, recreated human nature. Their descendants now live in sin, in the form of concupiscence, a term Augustine used in a metaphysical, not a psychological sense. Augustine insisted that concupiscence was not a being but a bad quality, the privation of good or a wound. He admitted that sexual concupiscence () might have been present in the perfect human nature in paradise and that only later it became disobedient to human will as a result of the first couple's disobedience to God's will in the original sin. In Augustine's view (termed "Realism"), all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit.
Pelagius
The main opposition came from a monk named Pelagius (354–420 or 440). His views became known as Pelagianism. Although the writings of Pelagius are no longer extant, the eight canons of the Council of Carthage (418) provided corrections to the perceived errors of the early Pelagians. From these corrections, there is a strong similarity between Pelagians and their Jewish counterparts on the concepts of concupiscence. Pelagianism gives mankind the ability to choose between good and evil within their created nature. While rejecting concupiscence, and embracing a concept similar to the yetzer hara, these views rejected humanity's universal need for grace.
Catholic teaching
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that Adam and Eve were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice" (CCC 375, 376 398), free from concupiscence (CCC 377). The preternatural state enjoyed by Adam and Eve afforded endowments with many prerogatives which, while pertaining to the natural order, were not due to human nature as such. Principal among these were a high degree of infused knowledge, bodily immortality and freedom from pain, and immunity from evil impulses or inclinations. In other words, the lower or animal nature in man was perfectly subject to the control of reason and the will subject to God. Besides this, the Catholic Church teaches that our first parents were also endowed with sanctifying grace by which they were elevated to the supernatural order. By sinning, however, Adam lost this original "state", not only for himself but for all human beings (CCC 416).
According to Catholic theology, man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right: the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, and the vision of God in the next life. God the Father, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family. A prince can confer a hereditary dignity on condition that the recipient remains loyal and that, in case of his rebelling, this dignity shall be taken from him and in consequence from his descendants. It is not, however, intelligible that the prince, on account of a fault committed by a father, should order the hands and feet of all the descendants of the guilty man to be cut off immediately after their birth.
As a result of original sin, according to Catholics, human nature has not been totally corrupted (as opposed to the teachings of Luther and Calvin); rather, human nature has only been weakened and wounded, subject to ignorance, suffering, the domination of death, and the inclination to sin and evil (CCC 405, 418). This inclination toward sin and evil is called "concupiscence" (CCC 405, 418). Baptism, the Catechism teaches, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God. The inclination toward sin and evil persists, however, and he must continue to struggle against concupiscence (CCC 2520).
Today, the Catholic Church's teaching on original sin focuses more on its results than on its origins. As Cardinal Ratzinger had intimated in 1981, and as Pope Benedict XVI clarified in 2008: "How did it happen? This remains obscure.... Evil remains mysterious. It is presented as such in great images, as it is in chapter 3 of Genesis, with that scene of the two trees, of the serpent, of sinful man: a great image that makes us guess but cannot explain what is itself illogical."
Methodist teaching
The Wesleyan–Arminian theology of the Methodist Churches, inclusive of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, teaches that humans, though being born with original sin, can turn to God as a result of prevenient grace and do good; this prevenient grace convicts humans of the necessity of the new birth (first work of grace), through which he is justified (pardoned) and regenerated. After this, to willfully sin would be to fall from grace, though a person can be restored to fellowship with God through repentance. When the believer is entirely sanctified (second work of grace), his/her original sin is washed away.