redemption — engine

The wish (from the validated fiction). Redemption's wish: the relief of being made morally clean after guilt. But A Christmas Carol earns it through costly atonement — Scrooge actually makes amends:

"I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family" (Stave V, ll. 3848–3849); "He did it all, and infinitely more" (l. 3855)

Redemption's wish-valence guard (derived). Mirroring mastery: the absolution must be earned through costly atonement, not declared or purchased. The slot-2 turn must be real and cost something. The benign face enables real amends.

The hinge: the dark twin grants slot 3 while skipping slot 2. "Cheap grace" is the feeling of being washed clean without the atonement that earns it.

The counterfeit in the wild. The sale of indulgences — absolution as purchase, atonement skipped — preserved and condemned in Luther's 95 Theses (Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, Project Gutenberg #274). The pitch grants absolution for a coin:

"27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory]." (ll. 158–159)

the revenue/recruitment motive is named:

"28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box, gain and avarice can be increased" (ll. 161–162)

and the giveaway that it is cheap — relief without becoming better, i.e. atonement skipped:

"44. ... by pardons man does not grow better, only more free from penalty." (ll. 217–218)

Luther also states redemption's guard in the same breath — real contrition, not the purchased paper, is what earns remission:

"36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon." (ll. 189–190)

The dual-use point. Redemption's benign face is real moral repair through costly atonement (it enables the amends). Its counterfeit grants the feeling of being forgiven / washed clean / on the right side without the costly amends — which recruits because absolution-without-cost is intoxicating. Same wish (relief of being made clean), opposite value-flow. The indulgence and Scrooge's reformation run the same machine; only one pays the slot-2 price.

Value-flow gate (subjective, per the README). Benign when the absolution enables real amends; dark — recruitment — when the badge of "I am forgiven / one of the good" substitutes for the amends and licenses moving on without repair.

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