PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The obligation of satisfaction (satisfactio operis) in the Christian sacrament of penance made guilt productive in the Middle Ages because it required charitable and good works. These acts did not necessarily have to benefit the concrete victims but could also support other needy persons or society. Moreover, they could be performed on behalf of other sinners in acts of vicarious penance. Martin Luther fundamentally disputed this way of dealing with guilt in his doctrine of justification. In the wake of the Reformation, attempts to relieve a guilty conscience through action remain controversial, and a possible motivation for socially good deeds is lost. After a brief overview of the basic ideas of Christian penance, this chapter outlines the critiques of the mystic Meister Eckhart and the reformer Luther and describes the social consequences of the Reformation. The last section discusses the possibility of making guilt productive today using three current examples: volunteer service, vicarious activism, and charitable donations