Confession Of Sins Research Articles

Confession of Sins

Confession of Sins

Funeral Sermons and Assurance of Salvation: Conviction and Persuasion in the Case of William Lord Russell of Thornhaugh

The sermon became an increasingly important element of the English funeral during and after the Reformation. The chief explicit purpose of funeral rites was instruction of the living, not intercession for the soul of the dead. The sermon played a central part in this process. Preachers tended to present or interpret the behaviour of many godly Protestants, especially puritans, as a triumph over the pains of illness and the terror of death, a triumph which signalled to witnesses their elect status. This essay focuses on a narrative of a godly deathbed in which the last communion and confession of sins played an unusually large part. William Walker's sermon on his patron William Lord Russell of Thornhaugh contains one of the most dramatic of early Stuart deathbed narratives.

Pokuta w nauczaniu i praktyce kościoła dwóch pierwszych wieków

Analiza dokumentów Kościoła pierwszych wieków wskazuje na szczególne miejsce pokuty w jego nauczaniu i życiu. Zachowane teksty ukazują nam pouczenia Kościoła, który wskazuje na konieczność pokuty, przedstawia „katalogi” grzechów, mówi o odpuszczeniu grzechów i rozważa bardzo ważny problem praktykowania pokuty w odniesieniu do zbawienia. Analizowane dokumenty ukazują ponadto praktykę pokutną Kościoła, która obejmuje: wyznanie grzechów, wzajemne przebaczenie i pojednanie, braterskie upomnienie oraz jałmużnę, post i modlitwę.

Rond de schuldbelijdenis in de liturgie

This study deals with what happens in the first part of the reformed worship service on Sunday mornings. The article offers a historical review of confession practices in the liturgy, especially during the time of the Reformation, particularly concerning the ideas of John Calvin in liturgical respect. In this article it is argued that the first part of Calvin's order of liturgy (the part preceding the prayer serving to open God’s Word) formed an organic whole according to the triad: misery, deliverance and thankfulness. Calvin rightly emphasized the element of humility at the very beginning of the worship service. This humility is expressed in the confession of sins, which is to be followed directly by a word of comfort from Scripture and the declaration of forgiveness of sins for believers. Calvin followed this order in Strassbourg from which he was banished from 1538-1541. He, however, was not able to practise this procedure in Genéve after his return, although he advised the churches to keep this order. This study advocates the maintenance, c.q. re-introduction of this apt beginning of Calvin’s liturgy at Strassbourg.

De Sacramentis, de Mysteriis. Über die Sakramente, Über die Mysterien (review)

Reviewed by: De Sacramentis, de Mysteriis. Über die Sakramente, Über die Mysterien Knute Anderson Josef Schmitz , ed. and trans. Ambrosius. De Sacramentis, de Mysteriis. Über die Sakramente, Über die Mysterien. Fontes Christiani, 3. Freiburg: Herder, 1990. Pp. 279 44 DM Josef Schmitz, professor of liturgical studies at the Seminary of the Redemptorists at Hennef, near Bonn, and author of a full-scale historical study of the rites of initiation and of the Eucharistie liturgy in Milan at the time of St. Ambrose, entitled Gottesdienst im Altchristlichen Mailand (Cologne, 1975), has now produced a handy, portable edition of St. Ambrose's works On the Sacraments and On the Mysteries, comparable to that by Bernard Botte (Paris, 1961; SC 25 bis). Students and scholars alike will welcome this useful aid to interpreting these classical Patristic catecheses, a task which also offers its own share of crosses for interpreters. The volume includes the editor's new introduction (pp. 7-68) based on his larger work. The Latin text edited by Otto Faller in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Volume 73 (Vienna, 1955) is reproduced with its critical apparatus. That gives this edition a notable advantage over Botte's, which included Faller's Latin text (except for a few cases where Botte preferred other readings, which he justified by critical notes at the end), but without its apparatus of variants. The Latin text is accompanied by a facing German translation (pp. 69-255). The bibliography proper (pp. 260-268) cites editions and translations of Ambrose's other works as well as of related works of other Church Fathers (under "A. Quellen"); then contemporary scholarly literature ("B. Literatur"). The index lists Bible passages, persons, concepts (Latin words), and subjects treated (pp. 269-279). The first part of the introduction (pp. 7-14) treats of the authorship, form and content of the two works, their relationship, and dates of writing. The authenticity of The Mysteries (59 paragraphs long) has always generally been accepted. However, since the 16th century The Sacraments (six sermons), which had been held to be authentic from antiquity, was increasingly denied Ambrosian authorship. The studies published by Otto Faller since 1929 and Hugh Connolly since 1941-1942 have brought about a gradual change of opinion, so that now the only scholar writing against the authenticity of The Sacraments is Klaus Gamber, whose faulty methodology, Schmitz remarks, forfeits his reader's assent to his argument. Concerning the form of the two works, the editor states that for a very long time reference was repeatedly made to the differences between them, without sufficient attention to their extensive correspondences. So, when both of these are taken into account, one may say that The Sacraments is an unrevised transcript of baptismal catecheses which Ambrose delivered to the newly baptized during six successive days of an Easter Week which cannot be assigned a more specific data. The Mysteries on the other hand is a writer's product, which does indeed appear in the form of a spoken catechesis, but is actually a literary composition. The author of the introduction is suitably frank about the gaps in our information, and appropriately cautious about not going beyond the evidence. Concerning [End Page 98] dating, Schmitz writes that an exact date either for The Sacraments or for The Mysteries cannot be given; both works presumably come from the later years of the bishop, who died in 397. The major part of the introduction comprises a description of Christian initiation according to Ambrose. This consists of a survey of the preparation for the celebration of incorporating new members and of the celebration itself. Preliminaries included the catechumenate, a remote preparation, and the time as competentes, that is, a candidacy, the proximate preparation. This latter took place during the Lenten season, beginning on the sixth Sunday before Easter. Its elements were: enrollment (nomendatio), confession of sin, penance, catechesis, scrutinies, oral presentation of the Apostle's creed (traditio symboli), and recitation of this profession of faith (redditio symboli). The celebration of initiation in Milan at Ambrose's time took place during the Easter night; it consisted of baptism followed by the baptismal Eucharist. Baptismal ritual meant these ceremonies: opening of eyes and ears by...

On the Universality of the History of Art

The difficulties of writing about the methodology of the history of art are many: fear of being obvious, obscure, or doctrinaire; reticence in raising fundamental issues when established ways seem perfectly acceptable within the academy; a confusing tendency to borrow without reflection from fields such as anthropology or literature in which debates on intellectual procedures and interpretations are livelier; and the absence of a collectively accepted statement of what the history of the visual arts is supposed to be. Yet there is little doubt that, at nearly all levels—in undergraduate courses, meetings of contemporary artists, or august academic gatherings—the field of art history is seething with questions and concerns about its aims and its ways. What follows is neither a profession of faith nor a confession of sins, even if there are in it elements of both, but rather a tentative meditation on one issue, that of the intellectual and conceptual unity of a field of study, with the hope of stimulating further thought and discussion. Four observations serve as starting points for this meditation.

Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China

Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China

Invocation of Amida's Name and Confession of Sin in Honen's Jodo Buddhism

Invocation of Amida's Name and Confession of Sin in Honen's Jodo Buddhism

Reflections of a Governess: Image and Distortion in The Turn of the Screw

T_ _ HE GOVERNESS IN The Turn of the Screw judges her experiences in simplistic moral terms: Miles and Flora are threatened by diabolical fiends and can only be saved by her angelic intervention. In truth, however, the governess not only creates the activities of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel out of her imagination; it is she herself who is the intruding ghost at Bly, carrying out the functions and duties she ascribes to her supposed enemies.' Her puritanical morality requires that salvation can occur only after the confession of sins. And in order to wring a confession from the tortured children, she is forced to act out the parts of their fiendish tempters in order that she may then act out the part of the angelic deliverer and save them. She becomes convinced that Quint and Miss Jessel have returned to gain possession of the children, and, having developed a neat intellectual theory of their behavior, she proceeds unconsciously to fulfill their mission. The tale's tragic irony resides in the fact that the governess succeeds in the first half of her evangelical errand-she leads the children to an

A Study of the Classical Hebrew Verb Skl

A Hebrew verb used only eight times in the Old Testament hardly seems to merit a semantic study, but if the verb, as skl pi., hi. and ni., presents itself within its contexts as a key term, a more detailed discussion is justified 1). The contexts of the occurrences are quickly surveyed. The pi. is found twice, once in the impromptu prayer of David fleeing from Absalom when, he is told that his counsellor Ahithophel has defected to the rebel (2 Sam. xv 31), and once in a Deutero-Isaianic hymnic ascription of praise to the LORD (Is. xliv 25). The two hi. usages occur in two quite different contexts, once when Laban scolds Jacob for secretly running away (Gen. xxxi 28), and once when Saul acknowledges that he has sought David's life without cause (1 Sam. xxvi 21). The four remaining occurrences, all ni. and in the first or second person singular, are found in Samuel's reproach of Saul when the latter had not waited the stipulated full seven days for the seer to come and to perform sacrifices (1 Sam. xiii 13); it occurs again in David's confession of sin after he had insisted on the census against the warnings from Joab (2 Sam. xxiv 10 = 1 Chron. xxi 8), and in the sermon of the seer Hanani before King Asa (2 Chron. xvi 9). The seven Old Testament occurrences of the adjective s-dkdl and the eight of the nouns siklith, sekel are late and so do not provide an adequate starting point for our discussion: Two are found in post-exilic additions to the Book of Jeremiah (iv 22; v 21) and the others are concentrated in Ecclesiastes (i 17; ii 3, 12, 13, 19; vii 17, 25; x 1, 3 (bis), 6, 13, 14). The verb, however, appears inpre-exilic historical texts and in some of their post-exilic reflections. The search for cognates in other Semitic languages such as Ugaritic, Aramaic and Akkadian brings to light several occurrences of the

Guilt and Purification in Ancient Egypt*)

The sense of sin and guilt is a human feeling. Nobody escapes from realizing occasionally that he is sinning, by speaking, by performing acts, by nourishing thoughts which are bad. Thereby he incurs guilt. Yet his sense of sin and guilt can vary in strength. In some people, in certain periods and among the adherents of certain religions it is very strong, whilst it is nearly absent in other people and in other periods. Immediately after the Second World War psychiatrists were engaged for a long time in analysing feelings of guilt. No wonder: during that war many people had been forced to perform horrible acts which had violated their conscience. Christianity has always stressed the sense of sin and guilt in order to make man humble and to make him understand the significance of God's forgiveness. The other religions of the world have also nurtured in their followers the sense of their shortcomings. Even among illiterate people the consciousness of sin is not absent. This is proved by the extensive and interesting studies which the late Professor Pettazzoni, the first president of the I.A.H.R. devoted to the confession of sins, especially with illiterate people. 1) Thus, there is every reason to investigate the part played by the sense of sin and guilt in the religions of antiquity, in particular in Ancient Egypt. The first step is to conduct a linguistic inquiry into the Egyptian words which are used to indicate sin and guilt. It appears that the Egyptian language has at its disposal about ten words which can be translated by sin 2) and possesses about six words expressing the idea of guilt. 3) On closer observation it is found that both groups

The Task of the American Church Historian

It is part of our American folk-lore that sooner or later a criminal will return to the scene of his crime. And perhaps it is a bad conscience which brings me to this topic. Nonetheless, if indeed this paper be an exercise in the amendment of life, I take comfort in the fact that a confession of sin is hardly a profession of achievement. Consequently, if at the close of this paper I leave this topic no better than I found it, the effort will yet have been a phase in my amendment of life. I do not think that any of us will come easily or quickly to an adequate understanding of how greatly we all must change our ways. Nor will the change itself be accomplished by mere good intentions.

An Early Reformed Confession of Sin

An Early Reformed Confession of Sin

The Apocalypse of John and the Liturgy of the Ancient Church

Interpretations of the last book of the New Testament usually dwell upon its visions of things to come. Except for its prayers and hymns, however, little attention has been paid to its liturgical character. This fact is the more surprising since it is just in that respect that the Apocalypse of John differs mostly strikingly from other Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writings. Its visions are presented within a framework of liturgical activities, and toward the end of the book it is hardly possible to dissociate the acts of worship from the visions of the future. This close relationship shows that its liturgical portions are not a purely literary device. Rather in the Seer's mind they form part of the revelatory process itself representing the reaction of initiated creatures to the gradual disclosure of the saving purpose of God and its execution. From the historical viewpoint, this liturgical framework of the Apocalypse of John is interesting, because it contains a number of features which, in a similar manner, occur also in the liturgies of the Ancient Church. Thus it is from the liturgical character of the Apocalypse that the historical development of the Christian liturgy becomes intelligible. Out of the perplexing diversity of its types, the formative principle of its early stages emerges, and a number of motives become visible, some of which have determined its history to the present day. Others, which have no longer a vital role assigned to them, were, nevertheless, preserved on account of the significance originally attached to them. Among these features I mention the ideas of the Eucharistic Parousia, the Church's participation in the angelic worship, the emphasis placed upon the worthiness of the interpreter of Scripture, the connection between the Confession of Sins and the Eucharist, the separation of the believers and unbelievers prior to the heavenly meal, the celebration of the Eucharist as an act of the Church in its cosmic totality, the association of the Eucharist with the Judgment of the World, and the interpretation of the liturgy as a spiritual battle. It will suffice to single out two of these features, which for their lack of centrality in the liturgies are particularly apt to illustrate our point, viz. the participation of the Church in the angelic worship, and the worthiness of the interpreter of Scripture.

The National Catholic Almanac (review)

BOOK REVIEWS331 original Marxian form and its later developments, with a critical analysis of Dialectical and Historical Materialism, of the economic conceptions and the attitude in regard to religion. Three appendixes deal with: Philosophy and Communism, Religion in Soviet Russia, Communism in Brazil. Obviously written for the general reader, this slender volume summarizes ably the problems and states impressively the objections against communism. The sbort bibliography lists only publications in Portuguese. RUDOLF ALLERS Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. The National Catholic Almanac. Compiled by the Franciscan Clerics of Holy Name College, Washington, D.C. Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1949. Pp. 832. $1.50. The National Catholic Almanac compiled by the Franciscan clerics of Holy Name College, Washington, D.C. has become a fixture among Catholic publications in the United States. Any book that is published yearly for forty-three years must have undoubted merits. If you have ever consulted the Almanac you will know that the sentence on the cover "A Complete Catholic Library in One Volume" is not hyperbole. For both Catholic and non-Catholic citizens there is a wealth of information on topics of current and enduring interest, e.g., Church doctrine, practice, history and organization; religious orders; missions; recent developments in the field of religion; government matters and statistics; scientific information; sports records; general statistics; information on books and periodicals, etc. There is an especially wellwritten and concise digest of the events—secular and religious—of the past year. Perhaps among the most distinctive features of the Almanac are the short historical sketches on subjects such as "The Church- In Latin America". This reviewer happens to know, through personal contact with former editors of the Almanac how much painstaking work goes into these historical articles in an effort to keep them concisely correct. There is a section called "Catholic Ready Reference," however, which 332BOOK REVIEWS could stand a closer scrutiny in future editions. In this section, short definitions of words like "Abbess" "Alma Mater" "Beatitudes" "Tonsure" etc. are given. Some of these definitions are marvels of conciseness and correctness. But a few of them are a trifle ambiguous. For instance, "General Absolution" is called "a blessing of the Church to which a plenary indulgence is attached." In the next sentence, the text continues: "It also is given without confession of sin...to soldiers on the battlefield " (p. 206). Evidently these are not one and the same thing, although one could obtain that impression from the Almanac. On p. 213 under "Burial" the list of those to whom ecclesiastical burial is denied should have been qualified by the inclusion of the restrictive phrase contained in No. 1240 of Canon Law, sc, "unless they (apostates, schismatics, etc.) have given some signs of repentance before death". I hope the editors will take these criticisms in the spirit in which they are given. It is precisely because this "Ready Reference" is such an important and well-written section that even more care and attention should be given to each definition so that exactness and completeness will be evident to all the readers. May the Almanac keep up and even surpass the high standards set by this 1949 edition! MATHIAS KIEMEN, O.F.M. St. Joseph Seminary, Teutopolis, Illinois. La Filosofía de la ley según Domingo de Soto-. By Alfonso Zahar Vergara. Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1946. Pp. 173. The first two chapters of this small volume describe the intellectual and spiritual situation in Spain at the time of the Council of Trent, the leading personalities, especially of Francisco de Vittoria, Melchor Cano, and Juan de Mariana, and briefly, the life of de Soto. The other three chapters summarize de Soto's legal philosophy as laid down in his work De justitia et jure. The treatise follows closely the doctrine of St. ...

Confession of Sins and the Classics

In the first of his letters ex Ponto (vv. 51–58) Ovid mentions the confession of sins practised in the religion of Isis by the faithful (in the presence of a priest?). One man, seated before the altar of the goddess (Isiacos focos, v. 52), confessed that he had offended her divinity (numen violasse fatentem, v. 51); a second, deprived of his sight in punishment for some similar crime, went along the public road crying out that he had merited the castigation (se meruisse, v. 54). Ovid affirms that he had seen all this with his own eyes (vidi ego, v. 51). It may be that his vidi ego is purely rhetoric. Confession of sins, however, was certainly practised in Egypt ab antiquo, as is proved by a group of Theban inscriptions of the epoch of the XlXth Dynasty (about 1300 B.C.) dedicated to various divinities, amongst whom is a local goddess assimilated to Isis-Hathor. Moreover, ophthalmia was very common in Egypt.

A Confession of Sins, and a Prayer to Christ.

A Confession of Sins, and a Prayer to Christ.