Hugo Grotius
Founds the governmental theory
The problem it faces
Socinus's dilemma only bites if God is a private creditor — but once you concede there's no strict payment, you seem pushed all the way to bare forgiveness, with nothing objective left for the cross to do.
The move it makes
He moves God from creditor to Ruler of a moral order. God may relax the strict penalty, yet stages Christ's death as a public demonstration upholding the law's authority — so he can pardon freely without sin looking trivial.
The new problem it opens
A demonstration that upholds the law's authority may not be a real satisfaction of justice at all — it looks like deterrent expediency that never touches anyone's specific guilt, and if the penalty can be relaxed, the bloody display starts to look superfluous.
Where this sits
Upstream
- Faustus Socinus answers by conceding
Downstream
- A Dissertation on Divine Justice hardens him
- The New Divinity refined into