Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Published In

Grotiana

Keywords

Atonement theology, Satisfaction, Punishment, Thomas Aquinas, Britain, Catholic, Hugo Grotius

Abstract

Most readers believe Grotius failed to refute Socinus in De satisfactione. This paper argues that Grotius's failure was one of reception rather than argument. It is possible to read De satisfactione as Grotius adverted: a genuine (if subtle) concept of satisfaction, and a defence of the (small-c) catholic faith. Grotius does reject a necessitarian identical satisfaction, in which a repayment is equal to a debt, but like Aquinas, he embraces a teleological equivalent satisfaction, in which a punishment fits a crime. Yet Grotius’s catholic theory was predestined not to persuade a wartime Continental audience whose centre had not held and which sought definitive distinctions from the Roman church. His attempt to forge a broad middle way would succeed only later in Britain.

DOI

10.1163/18760759-03800006

Comments

This copy is the author's accepted manuscript version. The final publication is available at https://doi.org/10.1163/18760759-03800006.

Rights

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017

Download

Share

COinS