Girded Loins: Albert the Great on Concupiscence, Physiology, and Moral Vigilance in Luke 12:35

This article examines Albert the Great’s interpretation of concupiscence in his Super Lucam (1264–1268), focusing on the exegesis of Luke 12:35 (“Sint lumbi vestri praecincti”). Albert dissects each term of the verse to construct a multi-layered anthropological and moral analysis of human desire, deeply informed by Scripture, patristic tradition, and Aristotelian ethics and psychology. The lumbi—the “loins” or bodily seat of concupiscible impulses—serve as a symbolic and physiological locus for the dynamics of temptation, moral weakness, and spiritual vigilance. Drawing on biblical passages and Aristotelian motifs, Albert develops a stratified taxonomy of human moral states, ranging from the sinner dominated by passion to the perfectus who attains freedom from temptation through grace.