Lust

Lust is any intense desire or craving for self gratification. Lust can mean strictly sexual lust, although it is also common to speak of a "lust for life", "lust for blood (bloodlust for short)", or a "lust for power" or other goals. The Greek word which translates as lust is epithymia (επιθυμια), which also is translated into English as "to covet".

Etymology

The word is derived from the Old English term for desire, and ultimately from a Germanic which also originated High German lust ('wish, desire'). In German, the word Lust denotes simply "desire".

Obsolete uses include lust in the sense of pleasure, or relish.

Lust in the context of religion

Christianity—General

Christian tradition considers lust to be one of the main sins or vices.

Christianity—Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholic Church teaches that lust is one of the seven capital vices, popularly known as the seven deadly sins. A vice, according to this tradition, is a "habit inclining one to sin" [1]. The specific sins to which lust may lead are fornication, adultery, incest, criminal assault, abduction, sodomy, rape, and others. [2]. However, "Such guilt as [one] may have contracted in any case is charged directly to the sinful act, not to the vice;" [3] in other words, it is the specific sins, and not the vice itself, which deprive one's soul of sanctifying grace and make one deserving of God's punishment.

Punishment in the afterlife

According to some Christian sources [4], reprobates whose chief unforgiven sin is lust are punished in Hell by being "smothered in fire and brimstone." However, while most Christian traditions agree that at some point after death the damned individuals find themselves in a hell where they suffer punishment for their sins, most traditions also agree that one can only speculate regarding the precise nature of any punishment above and beyond the principal torment, which comes simply from being totally separated from God.

Repentance in Purgatory

According to The Divine Comedy, penance who are guilty of lust cleanse their soul of the sin by walking through flames, thereby purging their minds of all lustful thoughts.

Symbolic representations

A frequent visual symbol for the sin of lust is the color blue; for instance, that is the color of the cover of the book Lust in The Seven Deadly Sins series published by the Oxford University Press.

Another symbol of lust is the animal cow (or bull). An example of this appears in the engraving Shamelessness by the 16th century artist Georg Pencz.

See also

• Limerence
• List of ethics topics
• Sexual love: List of sexology topics, Sexual attraction, Libido, Seduction, Pornography
• Sexual function
• Brighella
• Sigmund Freud

References

• Froböse, Gabriele, Rolf Froböse, and Michael Gross (translator). Lust and Love: Is it more than Chemistry? Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006. ISBN 0-85404-867-7.

External links

• "The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust" National Public Radio feature