Université de Fribourg

Reconciliation with the Church and Interior Penance : The Contribution of Thomas Aquinas on the Question of the Res et Sacramentum of Penance = La réconciliation avec l’Église et la pénitence intérieure: l’apport de Thomas d’Aquin sur la question du res et sacramentum de la pénitence

Emery, Gilles

In: Nova et Vetera, English Edition, 2003, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 283-301

For Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), the first effect (res et sacramentum) of the sacrament of penance is “inner penance”. Aquinas does not juxtapose “reconciliation with the Church” and ”reconciliation with God”, as some medieval authors did, and as some 20th Century theologians suggested by considering “reconciliation with the Church” as the first effect of penance. For Aquinas,...