{
  "id": "dict_001398",
  "term": "desire",
  "slug": "desire",
  "letter": "D",
  "entry_type": "doctrine",
  "entry_family": "doctrine",
  "tier": 2,
  "aliases": [],
  "short_definition": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks.",
  "simple_one_line": "In Christian theology, desire means the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks.",
  "tooltip_text": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks",
  "lede_intro": "Desire is a doctrinal category that should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the biblical storyline, and stated with clear theological limits.",
  "at_a_glance_definition": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks. This doctrine should be read from the passages that establish it and kept distinct from nearby theological claims.",
  "at_a_glance_key_points": [
    "Desire should be defined from the biblical texts that establish it rather than from slogan-level shorthand alone.",
    "It belongs within the larger witness of Scripture and the history of redemption, so related doctrines must be distinguished carefully.",
    "A sound account states what this doctrine affirms, what it does not require, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship."
  ],
  "description_academic_short": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks. As a doctrine, it should be stated from the passages that establish it and distinguished carefully from adjacent theological claims.",
  "description_academic_full": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks. This doctrine should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the larger storyline of Scripture, and stated with care in relation to nearby doctrines. Responsible use clarifies what the term affirms, what limits belong to it, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.",
  "background_biblical_context": "desire belongs to Scripture's teaching on holy life, worship, and covenant obedience and should be read within that moral-spiritual setting rather than as a generic virtue term. Its background lies in the moral order of creation, covenant obligations, wisdom instruction, and the Spirit-shaped life of God's people, so the doctrine is formed by Scripture's account of holy love, obedience, and worship.",
  "background_historical_context": "Historically, discussion of desire developed where Christian thinkers tried to describe human life before God, the distortions introduced by sin, and the ways grace redirects desire, conduct, and communal practice. Patristic moral teaching, medieval anthropology, Reformation accounts of corruption and renewal, and modern pastoral theology all contributed to the term's historical profile.",
  "background_jewish_ancient_context": null,
  "key_texts_primary": [
    "2 Cor. 4:16",
    "Ps. 8:3-8",
    "Prov. 4:23",
    "Gen. 1:26-28",
    "Gen. 2:7"
  ],
  "key_texts_secondary": [
    "Ps. 139:13-16",
    "Gen. 9:6",
    "Matt. 22:37",
    "Heb. 4:12"
  ],
  "original_language_note": null,
  "original_language_terms": [],
  "theological_significance": "desire matters because doctrinal precision in this area protects the church’s speech about God, the gospel, the church, or the last things and helps prevent distortions that spill into neighboring doctrines.",
  "philosophical_explanation": "At the philosophical level, Desire presses questions about nature and formation, inward disposition and outward act, and the ordering of loves. Discussion usually centers on nature and formation, freedom and desire, virtue and vice, and the relation between inward disposition and outward action. Its philosophical value lies in explaining how persons are formed, not merely how isolated choices are classified.",
  "interpretive_cautions": "Do not define desire by polemical shorthand, confessional overreach, or a single disputed proof text. Distinguish moral condition, culpability, agency, and pastoral application, so the doctrine is neither reduced to psychology or sociology nor inflated beyond what the scriptural argument actually secures. State the doctrine at the level of what Scripture and responsible historical theology can warrant, and name secondary disputes as secondary rather than turning them into tests the text itself does not impose.",
  "major_views_note": "Desire is broadly affirmed as a biblical and theological category, but traditions differ over its anthropological meaning, moral reach, and role in sanctification and pastoral theology. The main points of disagreement concern the depth of corruption, the shape of obedience, the role of desire and conscience, and the relation between nature, agency, and sanctification.",
  "doctrinal_boundaries": "Desire must be framed within Scripture's account of creation, fall, embodied agency, and moral responsibility rather than reduced to psychology, sociology, or bare rulekeeping. It should neither excuse moral agency nor treat fallen desire as morally neutral, yet it must also avoid collapsing human life into therapeutic description or social mechanism. It should name sin as genuinely culpable while still accounting for habituation, weakness, and the need for grace. Used rightly, desire marks the moral and theological fence lines within which repentance, discipleship, and holiness can be taught with clarity.",
  "practical_significance": "Practically, a sound grasp of desire keeps Christian faith from becoming abstract at the point of real obedience and suffering. It keeps spirituality rooted in truth and obedience, so affections and actions are formed by God's word rather than by impulse, technique, or self-display. In practice, that teaches the heart to be reordered by truth rather than merely managed by willpower.",
  "related_entries": [],
  "see_also": [],
  "meta_description": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks.",
  "jsonld_description": "Desire refers to the loves and longings that move the human person toward what it seeks. This doctrine should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the larger storyline of Scripture, and stated with care in relation to nearby doctrines. Responsible use clarifies what the term affirms, what limits belong to it, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.",
  "source_basis": "scripture-led synthesis",
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