Redemption. A historical-conceptual outline

The entry explores some aspects of the history of the concept of ‘redemption, focusing on its juridical background. Attention is given to the close relationship between the interpretation of Jesus' salvific action by early Christian authors, on the one hand, and the practical and theoretical tradition of the liberation of prisoners or debtors, crystallised in the Roman law institution of the redemptio, on the other. Such a relationship helps to better understand the broad and nuanced spectrum of the concept, which, far from being centred on a single significant event, seems to encompass a complex network of theological, social, political and economic relations.