Repentance in Christian Theology

Front Cover
Mark J. Boda, Gordon T. Smith
Liturgical Press, 2006 - 425 pages

This collection of essays on the theme of repentance/penitence emerged from an assembly of biblical scholars, systematic theologians, and church historians at the 2003-2004 meetings of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature. Walter Brueggemann, one of the respondents to the project, calls this collection a wondrous and rich collage of historical and contemporary probes into the specific teachings and practices of penitence.

This volume is a major resource for the interpretation, theology, and practice of communal and individual penitence. Each chapter begins with the examination of a particular aspect of the theme 'repentance in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts, private confession in the German Reformation, a Pentecostal understanding of penitence, the Catholic call to conversion. Implications of that aspect to the overall theme are given, along with a list of further readings and interpretative reflections by the assembly on the results of the project.

This volume gives teachers, preachers, and serious students of theology an exhaustive source of information and inspiration for renewing the initial call of Jesus to Repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15).

Mark J. Boda, Ph.D., is a professor of Old Testament at McMaster Divinity College, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. One of his areas of expertise is the penitential prayer tradition in the Old Testament.

Gordon T. Smith, Ph.D., is president of reSource Leadership International and an adjunct lecturer in spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His interests include the nature of conversion and spiritual discernment.

From inside the book

Contents

Repentance in the Torah Mark J Boda
3
Repentance in the Former Prophets Terence E Fretheim 25
25
Penitence and Repentance in the Epistles Stanley E Porter
127
Penitence in Early Christianity in Its Historical and Theological
153
Eastern Orthodox Perspectives
211
The Catholic Call to Conversion
231
Assent and Penitence in the Reformation
251
An Evangelical Perspective
267
Middle Eastern Perspectives and Expressions
307
Penitence as Practiced in AfricanAfrican American
329
A Reflection
347
Implications of This Books Insights
371
The Jolly Penitent Religious Leadership
387
List of Contributors
395
Author and Name Index
403
Index of Biblical and ExtraBiblical Citations
411

A Pentecostal Understanding
287

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 105 - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Page 8 - For he saith to Moses; I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Page 62 - Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah11.
Page 63 - I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD...
Page 25 - Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Page 65 - O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Page 96 - A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Page 95 - And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go. "Which of the two did the will of his father?

About the author (2006)

Mark J. Boda, Ph.D., is a professor of Old Testament at McMaster Divinity College, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. One of his areas of expertise is the penitential prayer tradition in the Old Testament. Gordon T. Smith, Ph.D., is president of reSource Leadership International and an adjunct lecturer in spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His interests include the nature of conversion and spiritual discernment.

Bibliographic information