The unreasoning repentance of those without God

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Tertullian opens the treatise by describing how people who do not know God misuse repentance, applying it even to good deeds.

This kind of people—and we ourselves were once among them, blind, without the Lord's light—know repentance by nature only, as a certain passion of the soul that comes from the offense of a worse opinion. But they are as far from its reason as they are from the very author of reason. For reason is a thing of God, because God, the founder of all things, has provided, arranged, and ordered nothing without reason, and has willed nothing to be handled or understood without reason. Therefore whoever is ignorant of God must also be ignorant of God's things, because no treasure at all lies open to strangers. And so they cross the whole course of life without the helm of reason, and they do not know how to avoid the storm that hangs over the world.

How irrationally they wander in the act of repentance will be clear enough from this one point: they apply it even to their good deeds. They repent of faith, of love, of simplicity, of patience, of mercy, whenever anything has fallen into disfavor. They curse themselves because they have done good, and they fix in their hearts that kind of repentance especially which is inflicted on the best works, taking care to remember not to do anything good again. But they lie more lightly upon repentance for evils. In short, they sin more easily through the same repentance than they do right.

Latin

Paenitentiam hoc genus hominum, quod et ipsi retro fuimus, caeci, sine domini lumine, natura tenus norunt passionem animi quandam esse quae veniat de offensa sententiae peioris. Ceterum a ratione eius tantum absunt, quantum ab ipso rationis auctore. Quippe res dei ratio; quia deus omnium conditor, nihil non ratione providit, disposuit, ordinavit, nihil non ratione tractari intellegique voluit. Igitur ignorantes quique deum rem quoque eius ignorent necesse est, quia nullus omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes imminentem saeculo procellam vitare non norunt. Quam autem in paenitentiae actu irrationabiliter diversentur, vel uno isto satis erit expedire, cum illam etiam in bonis factis suis adhibent. Paenitet fidei, amoris, simplicitatis, patientiae, misericordiae, prout quid in ingratiam cecidit. Semetipsos exsecrantur, quia benefecerint, eamque maxime paenitentiae speciem quae optimis operibus irrogatur in corde figunt, meminisse curantes, ne quid boni rursus praestent; contra paenitentiae malorum levius incubant. Denique facilius per eandem delinquunt quam per eandem recte faciunt.

About this text

Tertullian teaches what true repentance is, and warns Christians not to put it off or treat it lightly.

Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) wrote this treatise for Christians, especially newcomers beginning to hear divine teaching. He wrote to correct pagan misunderstandings of repentance and to warn believers against presumption that delays or cheapens it. His purpose was to instruct the church on the true nature and discipline of repentance as ordained by God.

The occasion is pastoral instruction within the church. Tertullian argues that repentance must be directed only toward sins, never toward good deeds, and that those who repent must not return to sin, since doing so insults God and exalts the devil. He warns newcomers not to presume on coming forgiveness by delaying repentance. For those who sin after baptism, God grants one further repentance, which must be carried out through public confession, a discipline of confession and humiliation that restores the sinner to God.

A reader will meet John the Baptist, who preached repentance before the Lord's coming, and Adam, the first human, whose sin brought condemnation and who was restored by public confession. Tertullian also cites Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king restored after seven years of penitential humiliation, and Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler who rejected repentance and perished in the sea. God's words are quoted directly, as are John the Baptist's, and Tertullian argues against imagined objectors who raise rhetorical questions. Tertullian uses the Old Latin version of Scripture, which follows the Septuagint for book names and Psalm numbering, so LXX Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 in modern numbering.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.