Treatises on penance : On penitence and On purity
Tertullian, William P. Le Saint (Translator, Annotator)
The judgment that one forms of the theory and practice of penance in Christian antiquity will be largely determined by the interpretation which one puts upon these two treatises. On Penitence dates from Tertullian's Catholic period, and is a sermon addressed to the faithful on the subject of repentance and forgiveness. On Purity is one of his most violent Montanist treatises. In it he criticizes the policy the church follows in granting pardon to serious sins
Ancient Christian writers, no. 28
Early works to 1800
vi, 330 pages ; 23 cm.
9780809101504, 0809101505
5530162
On penitence. Pagan penitence ; The Christian concept ; Sin and penitence ; Nature and divisions of sins ; God's pardon the fruit of penitence ; Conversion and relapse ; The penitence of catechumens ; Warnings against presumption ; Penitence of the baptized ; Scripture proofs of God's mercy ; Exomologesis ; Public penance difficult but salutary ; Value of bodily mortification ; Efficacy of exomologesis
On purity. In praise of purity ; A shameful edict ; Enemies of chastity ; The appeal to Scripture ; Remissible and irremissible sins ; An objection answered ; A question of terminology ; Gravity of adultery proved by the old law ; Inconsistency of the sensualists ; The old law and the new ; Biblical examples ; The parables of the lost sheep and the drachma ; Correct interpretation of the parables ; The prodigal son ; Some principles of exegesis ; The prodigal a type of the pagan sinner ; Concluding comment on the parables ; Penance and pardon necessary for pagans ; The shepherd of adulterers ; The example of Christ ; The apostolic decree ; The incestuous Corinthian not pardoned by Paul ; Hymenaeus and Alexander ; Points of contrast between First and Second Corinthians ; Further proofs that Paul did not forgive incest ; Consistency of the apostle ; Paul's attitude to marriage ; Condemnation of impurity ; Scripture refuses pardon to adultery ; St. John's teaching in the Apocalypse ; The evidence of his first epistle ; The Epistle to the Hebrews ; Prescriptions of Leviticus ; Privileges peculiar to the apostles ; The power of the keys is personal to Peter ; Martyrs and the forgiveness of sins ; A final word