Monday, August 10, 2020

Sin as both aversio and conversio

"Punishment is proportionate to sin. Now sin comprises two things. First, there is the turning away from the immutable good [(aversio ab incommutabili bono)], which is infinite, wherefore, in this respect, sin is infinite. Secondly, there is the inordinate turning to mutable good [(inordinata conversio ad commutabile bonum)]. In this respect sin is finite, both because the mutable good itself is finite, and because the movement of turning towards it [(conversio)] is finite, since the acts of a creature cannot be infinite. Accordingly, in so far as sin consists in turning away from something [(Ex parte .  . . aversionis)], its corresponding punishment is the 'pain of loss [(poena damni)],' which also is infinite, because it is the loss of the infinite good, i.e. God. But in so far as sin turns inordinately to something [(Ex parte inordinatae conversionis)], its corresponding punishment is the 'pain of sense [(poena sensus)],' which is also finite."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, ST I-II.87.4.Resp., trans. FEDP.

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