Repentance in Late Antiquity

The OED defines repentance as ‘sorrow, regret or contrition for past action or conduct’. Repentance is the closest English word for the Greek term μετάνοια, which includes this sense of sorrow for sin, but at its core means a ‘change of mind or direction’, a notion fundamental to the thought-world of early Christians that remains basic to the canon law of both East and West. Alexis Torrance has made a study, not just of the terminology, but of the concept of repentance in the Greek-speaking world of the Christian East, and shows it to be central to early Christian self-understanding. His study focuses in particular on key Greek monastic texts, which are considered representative of, and influential within, the tradition of Eastern Christianity. As the Greek term suggests, the meaning of repentance is much more than the narrow definition of the OED. It is complex and multilayered. In Western...

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