Other than to punish violators of the Catholic faith, Maureen Flynn stressed the purpose of the auto de fe to portray the eschatological sections of the Bible. Flynn cited a contemporary, Luis de Paramo, who claimed that the auto de fe represented the "tremendous drama of the Day of Judgment" and the sinners stood before the throne of God. Flynn used Biblical texts, including St. Matthew's gospel account of the judgment and New Testament descriptions of the Second Coming, to explain the specific imagery associated with the auto de fe. Citing the scholar Paul Ricoeur's The Symbolism of Evil (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), Flynn stressed the transformative nature of the auto de fe. She described the auto de fe as "a pilgrimage to an eschatological judgment," but also serving a similar function as the confessional but on a public scene. Those who were deemed sinners had to repent because sincere repentance was essential in dealing with crimes of the soul rather than the law.
Flynn, Maureen. "Mimesis of the Last Judgment: The Spanish Auto de fe." The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 291-297.
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