Repentance

Literally "to change direction", repentance has came to mean facing up to and feeling remorse for some negative action/emotion and making a new start. It is seen as a necessary pre-requisite for spiritual and emotional health; the soul breaks away from the past so as to set out on ethical reformation. Thus it is man's nature as a moral being and his power of self-judgement that makes him capable of repentance. Socrates said that only by being convinced of one's own ignorance could one gain knowledge; and Plato that the potential faculty within everyone to distinguish the lesser from the greater good made it possible to renounce the lesser for the greater.

In Judaism, Islam and Christianity, repentance is not just a first step but a permanent condition for spiritual achievement. Indeed, Luther maintained that the whole of life should be a penitential act - sorrow for sin and faith in Christ; while repentance was a true change of mind. Repentance is thus the answer to the question of past sin, as to how the individual can be freed from the burden of wrongdoing done of free will and the creation of free spiritual activity. Repentance for past wrongdoing shows that the sinner has risen above his previous personality; what he condemns in himself cannot be his true self and this leaves the true self free to repent or, as in Islam is the meaning of the word "tawbah", to "turn to God". In Sufism, this turning to God is a favour granted by God. Repentance from sin leads to contrition which supplies the moral strength needed on the way to God.

True repentance brings new insight and illumination; not only the anxiety to make atonement for the person wronged or the spiritual order violated, but also a readiness for any task. There is an insight into duty and a new energy and inspiration of will.