Ewige Freundschaft – Thomas von Aquins Versöhnungslehre

Versöhnung als trinitarisch begründetes Freundschaftsgeschehen zwischen Gott und Mensch

By (author) Christian Steiner

Book cover: Ewige Freundschaft – Thomas von Aquins Versöhnungslehre

Extent: 367 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Series: Beiträge zur historischen Theologie

Language: German

Hardback (Unspecified)

(July 2026)

ISBN: 9783162000309

6.1 x 9.13 inches

Price: $225.00

Out of stock

Christian KC6nig develops a systematic theological reconstruction of Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of reconciliation under the guiding concept of amicitia Dei. He shows that Thomas understands reconciliation not as a legal settlement or purely ethical model, but as a Trinitarian-based friendship between God and man.


Christian KC6nig develops a systematic-theological reconstruction of Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of reconciliation under the guiding concept of amicitia Dei. His central thesis holds that, for Aquinas, reconciliation is neither a juridical transaction nor a moral model, but a Trinitarianly grounded event of friendship between God and humanity. In this perspective, cross, incarnation, satisfaction, and grace appear as expressions of a divine initiative aimed at eternal communion. The author demonstrates that the concept of eternal divine friendship possesses both hermeneutical and conceptual strength: it integrates classical theories of atonement – satisfaction, moral, and penal theory – without reproducing their limitations, and unites key dogmatic loci – Trinity, creation, cross, grace, and consummation – within a coherent relational framework. The argument is specified in four theological focal points: justice is understood as the ordered form of love; Christ bears the cross in blessed and voluntary obedience; vicarious satisfaction is interpreted as the act of divine-human solidarity in friendship; and grace enables genuine human cooperation within the communio amicitiae. In this way, a Trinitarian soteriology emerges in which God’s self-communication is conceived as friendship. Christian KC6nig thus opens the view toward a theology that mediates between classical dogmatics and a personal-relational hermeneutic while offering new perspectives for ecumenically receptive and post-metaphysically responsible theologies of grace.

Einleitung 1. Der Forschungsstand 1. Die gegenwC$rtige philosophische Debatte: Ethische Freundschaft 2. Die C$ltere theologische Forschung: Gottesfreundschaft 3. Die Bedeutung von Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita 4. Die neuere theologische Forschung 2. Die Idee 1. Die Satisfaktionstheorie Anselms 2. Die Moraltheorie Abaelards 3. Thomas' Idee der versC6hnenden Gottesfreundschaft Erster Teil: Der VersC6hnungsgrund - Die wohlwollende Gottesfreundschaft Erstes Kapitel: Gottes gC

  • By (author) Christian Steiner