Confession

TENNY THOMAS

The term “confession” has several mean­ings. Confession of faith was an integral part of the baptismal ceremony (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Orations 2.4) and is represented today in the creeds still used in the liturgies. When infant baptism became more common, it was still required that someone should speak the confession on behalf of the child (Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition 21). The close association of confession and witness made it a term that after the 3rd century came to be closely associated with the most particular witness (martyrium) that the Christian was expec ted to give when arrested and questioned by hostile magistrates. Those who survived trial and imprisonment and returned to the community enjoyed great positions of honor. They were referred to as “confessors.” Until the early 4th century, those who confessed the faith under perse­cution were considered as “ordained by God.” Confession is also an ancient term that denotes the tomb of a Latin martyr. Not least, the popular sense of the word refers to an acknowledgment of sin by an individual, made either privately or publicly. Confession (Greek, Exomologesis) is one of the major sacraments of the Orthodox Church. Its various elements include (1) individual private prayer, spoken or unspoken; (2) spoken confession by individuals discreetly before a priest; followed by (3) individual or group absolution.

Tertullian is one of the first, in the late 2nd century, to speak of the idea of public confession (On Penance 9). A system of public confession was put in place by the ancient church after the many lapses occur­ring during the era of the persecutions. This system (reflected in the early canons of the church which are very severe regarding pen­itents) was relaxed by the late 4th century (fading away in most churches) and was replaced by a more individual system of “penitence” and confession of the sins of the heart (whereas the ancient system dealt with public and scandalous sins), a development probably originating from the monastic practice of opening the heart out to the elder of a monastic community, and which extended outwards to the laity as a spiritual praxis.

The forms of absolution in use in the Orthodox Church today are slightly different in Slavic and Greek usage; so too does the frequency vary with which con­fession is approached – it being a much more normal part of Slavic church life than Greek.

SEE ALSO: Elder (Starets); Excommunica­tion; Repentance

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Cullman, O. (1949) The Earliest Christian Con­fessions. London: Lutterworth.

Ferguson, E. (1987) Early Christians Speak. Abilene: Christian University Press.

Fitzgerald, A. (1988) Conversion through Penance in the Italian Churches of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. Studies in Bible and Early Christianity 15. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.

McGuckin, J. (2004) “Confession – Confessor,” in The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology. London: Westminster/John Knox Press.

Palmer, P. F. (1959) Sacraments and Forgiveness.

Westminster, MD: Newman Press.

Watkins, O. D. (1920) A History of Penance, 2 vols. London: Longmans Green.

Plate 12 The Orthodox confession service. Photo © Sergey Lavrentev/istockphoto.