Making confession, hearing confession
Subtitle: a history of the cure of souls
By: Annemarie S. Kidder
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Collegeville, Minn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 349
ISBN-13: 9780814654972
Description: "Is confession obsolete? Far from it, Annemarie Kidder has learned. At unexpected times and in unexpected places, we hear the 'confession' of a friend or a perfect stranger; at crucial times in our lives we tend to unburden ourselves of matters that trouble our conscience. While some churches offer opportunities for sacramental confession, others provide counseling outside the sacramental framework. Some confessional practices have been secularized, as in psychotherapy and professional counseling; others find expression in evangelisitc crusades and Christian 12-step programs. Meanwhile, the scope of 'confessors' has widened to include men and women religious and lay spiritual directors. Addressing this broad audience, Kidder reviews the origins and history of confession from biblical times to the early modern era, examines contemporary practices of confession, penance, and spiritual direction that have emerged in the twentieth century, and offers practical consierations for evaluating and improving one's own practive, either as confessor or penitent. Readers will be grateful for this concise historical overview of confession and Kidder's assurance that, despite its undervalued or misunderstood practice, this 'cure of souls' is anything but obsolete." -- Back cover.
Notes: "A Michael Glazier book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Setting the stage: the need for confession and its biblical beginnings; title: The early church and the rise of public confession; title: The rise of private confession and spiritual direction; title: The practice of private confession; title: Private confession in the monastery and in the church; title: Doing penance: its use and abuse; title: The rise of spiritual direction among the laity and the role of women in confession; title: Martin Luther and confession; title: The priesthood of all believers and mutual confession: pietism and methodism; title: Discipline and corporate confession in the Reformed tradition: Bucer, Zwingli, Calvin; title: The Church of England; title: Confession and spiritual direction in the Roman Catholic Church after Trent; title: Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits; title: Biblical antecedents, historical trajectories, and contemporary expressions; title: The decline of confession in the church; title: A contemporary theology of confession : Rahner, Bonhoeffer, Peterson, von Speyr; title: The choice of a confessor; title: Serving as (a good) confessor to others; title: What to confess; title: The nature of penance; title: A litany of private confession; title: Catechetical considerations.