"Traité de la concupiscence" by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet is a religious treatise written in the late 17th century. It offers a forceful spiritual and moral exposition of the biblical warning “Love not the world,” analyzing how desire works through the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life to draw souls from God. Drawing on Scripture and Augustine, it urges Christians to renounce sensual pleasure, vain curiosity, ostentation, and self-exaltation, and to seek holiness through moderation, prayer, and humble love of God.
The beginning of the treatise is framed by an editor’s introduction that presents the work as a compact guide to the spiritual life, situates it beside Bossuet’s other devotional writings, notes its Augustinian tone, and briefly recounts its publication history and editorial choices. Bossuet then opens with 1 John 2:15–17, defining “the world” as those who prefer the visible and passing to the invisible and eternal, and he addresses believers of every age with a warning against three corrupting loves. He first treats concupiscence of the flesh: bodily pleasures enslave the soul, the body’s “weight” breeds turmoil and passions, and only temperance, fasting, prayer, and rightly ordered marriage (with special praise of chastity) restrain this disorder that pervades all senses. Next he turns to concupiscence of the eyes, condemning restless curiosity (idle news, history for show, vain or superstitious “sciences,” novels and entertainments sought at the expense of duty), as well as ostentation, avarice, and theatrical spectacles, urging instead the contemplation of creation and the adornment of God’s temple. Finally, he introduces the pride of life as a deeper root than vanity: self-love makes the self a false god, whereas true charity loves God to the contempt of self; self-love weakens and blinds, and pride even delights in disobeying, so true freedom lies in humble submission to God. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
