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Document Details : Title: Sin and Concupiscence in Augustine's Confessions Subtitle: An Analytical Overview of the Relevant Texts and Some Conclusions Author(s): VAN OORT, Johannes Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 68 Issue: 2 Date: 2018 Pages: 193-207 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.68.2.3285680 Abstract : This article discusses the many aspects of sin and concupiscence in Augustine’s Confessions. It first analyses how these concepts function in the narrative about his early years, and then explores the story of Augustine’s early and later adolescence. From several references in Books 3 and 4, it is concluded that Augustine had strong – albeit temporary – homoerotic feelings. The following books evidence his lasting longing for concubitus with a woman, first experienced with his Una and later with an interim concubine. This sinful concupiscential desire (several times referred to as his ‘disease’) even beset the monk and bishop Augustine at the time when he wrote his literary masterpiece: in Book 10 he confesses nocturnal emissions caused by his sex dreams. Although particularly in the later parts of Book 10 (esp. 10,41ff.) Augustine describes concupiscentia as having a rather broad spectrum of meanings, its ‘sinful’, sexual meaning prevails in the whole of his Confessions. The same appears to go for a related concept such as libido. All this leads to the conclusion that confessio in the sense of ‘confession of sexual sins’ is an essential feature of Augustine’s work. |
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