Home›Open Questions›Is penal substitution a development of Anselm's satisfaction account or a departure from it?Open QuestionsIs penal substitution a development of Anselm's satisfaction account or a departure from it?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Is penal substitution a development of Anselm's satisfaction account or a departure from it?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/is-penal-substitution-a-development-of-anselms-satisfaction-account-or-a-departure-from-it.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Is penal substitution a development of Anselm's satisfaction account or a departure from it?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/is-penal-substitution-a-development-of-anselms-satisfaction-account-or-a-departure-from-itCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-is-penal-substitution-a-development-of-a, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Is penal substitution a development of Anselm's satisfaction account or a departure from it?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/open-questions-index/is-penal-substitution-a-development-of-anselms-satisfaction-account-or-a-departure-from-it}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionAnselm framed punishment and satisfaction as alternatives and chose satisfaction, while the Reformed doctrine makes the satisfaction consist in the punishment being borne, and moves the setting from a court of honour to a criminal one. Both a continuity reading and a discontinuity reading are argued by serious historians of doctrine, and each has a stake in the answer: continuity supports the claim of an unbroken Western tradition, discontinuity supports the charge of a sixteenth century innovation.What would resolve this A study of the sixteenth century Reformed texts tracing exactly where the penal vocabulary enters, which medieval sources those writers were reading, and whether they understood themselves to be restating Anselm or correcting him. Their own statements about what they were doing have not been collected in one place.OpenHistorical theology; Reformation studies; medieval intellectual historyF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnPenal Substitution, Doctrines Well-attested Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)tier 1SourcesThe Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editiontier 1F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year