Concept
Repentance
Overview
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a commitment to personal change and the resolve to live a more responsible and humane life. In other words, being sorry for one's misdeeds. It can also involve sorrow over a specific sin or series of sins that an individual feels guilt over, or conviction that they have committed. The practice of repentance plays an important role in the soteriological doctrines of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Analogous practices have been found in other world religions as well. In religious contexts, it often involves an act of confession to God or to a spiritual elder (such as a monk or priest). This confession might include an admission of guilt, a promise or intent not to repeat the offense, an attempt to make restitution for the wrong, or in some way reverse the harmful effects of the wrong where possible.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Repentance is discussed.
It is clear that repentance is likewise included in this class; that is to say, it is one of those principles which are an indispensable element in the creed of the followers of the Law. For it is impossible for man to be entirely free from error and sin; he either does not know the opinion which he has to choose, or he adopts a principle, not for its own merits, but in order to gratify his desire or…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
I may be misled by too good an opinion of others, or want of knowledge of the relative value of the good things of life, or some abstract dogma in which I have since lost faith, and thus I may act less egotistically than is in keeping with my character, and lay up for myself repentance of another kind. Thus repentance is always corrected knowledge of the relation of an act to its special intention. When the will…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
They cannot believe a promise which has not been given to them. _Regeneration and Conversion._ Those whom the Holy Spirit has brought to repentance and faith are in a state of regeneration and conversion. The change which has taken place in them is called a new birth or regeneration, [John 3:5, 6] because a new life has been planted in them. [II Cor. 5:17+] It is called conversion, [Acts 3:19] because they have been…
Martin Luther, An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
But I can see little force in this objection. My critics do not define what they mean by remorse, and I can find no definition implying more than an overwhelming sense of repentance. Remorse seems to bear the same relation to repentance, as rage does to anger, or agony to pain.
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
names the idea; opens on it
Repentance is not a virtue, that is to say, it does not spring from reason; on the contrary, the man who repents of what he has done is doubly wretched or impotent. For, in the first place, we allow ourselves to be overcome by a depraved desire, and, in the second place, by sorrow.
Benedictus de Spinoza, The Philosophy of Spinoza
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Repentance
Related ideas
- Vedas
- Judaism
- Soteriology
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Oceania
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Original sin
- Lutheranism
- Orthodoxy
- Mahayana
- Sin
- The Buddha
- Pali
- Islam
- Catholic Church
- Dharma
- Culpability
Place in the tradition
Part of Gnosticism.