Morose pleasure

Morose pleasure (morosa delectatio or morose delectation) is a technical term in Christian theology designating the internal sin that consists in dwelling on sinful thoughts or imaginations, even without actively desiring to act on them. It involves taking a certain satisfaction in entertaining sinful ideas, distinct from simply having a fleeting, unwanted thought.[1]

The term morose here, from the latin morosa, derives from mora, "delay".

Saint Thomas Aquinas defined morose pleasure as follows: "Delectation is said to be morose not from a delay of time, but because the reason in deliberating dwells thereon, and fails to drive it away, 'deliberately holding and turning over what should have been cast aside as soon as it touched the mind,' as Augustine says (De Trinitate xii, 12)."[2]

Schadenfreude can be considered an example of morose pleasure, but so can many other unrelated phenomena, such as fantasies of murder or rape, or taking pleasure in pornographic representations of sexual acts one would not actually seek out in reality.

References

  1. ^ John Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary.
  2. ^ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II.1, q. 74, article 6.
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