Lust: the human person as affected by disordered desires

Abstract

This article defends two ideas. First, Augustine’s teaching that we are born as slaves of sin, in bondage to lust, makes good sense of our experience. This lust can be seen especially in terms of disordered desires. God created us with natural desires but sin has twisted these into inordinate and disordered desires. This is an important part of what it means to be a human person in the present age. Secondly, this plight can rightly be seen both as the consequence of and as God’s punishment of the primeval sin.