Schuldverhältnisse

Debt relationships are relationships of obligations. The paper analyses debt relationships in civil law and economic ethics as well as in theology. It starts from the German word for debt and guilt relationships Schuldverhältnisse. The German term Schuld does not distinguish between debt and guilt and comprises all relationships of being indebted and being guilty. Guilt and indebtedness constitute obligations which are derived from the law of reciprocity. The gift relationship is usually not excluded from the expectation of reciprocity. Relationships of indebtedness form the core of economic and civil law relationships. Christian theology has used the law of indebtedness and the obligation to return the debt as the model for its theory of redemption in the theory of the satisfaction the redeemer pays for humanity’s Schuld, its debt and guilt, towards its creator. The paper examines the similarity of the theory of satisfaction usually ascribed to Anselm of Canterbury or Anselmo d’Aosta to the economic and civil law postulate that debts must be returned. It concludes that the element of giving satisfaction for the guilt or debt of humanity must be part of the theory of redemption since otherwise the passion of Christ loses its sense and redemptory effect. The relationship between the theological and the economic categories is neither accidental nor misleading as it is often claimed but is at the heart of understanding relationships of debt, guilt, and obligation in economics and in theology.