Repentance in Late Antiquity: Eastern Asceticism and the Framing of the Christian Life c. 400–650 CE by Alexis Torrance (review)

For some time now, a sizeable chorus of scholars has called for a New History of Penance (the title of a recent essay collection), including a revision of how we understand the development of Christian penance during late antiquity. It is in this earlier period, compared with work on medieval and Reformation-era penance, that so far more fault-finding than reconstruction has been accomplished. A number of historians, for example, including this reviewer, have voiced their doubts over whether a sudden decline in public penance during the fifth and sixth centuries created a “void,” as Cyrille Vogel once wrote, that Irish monks fortuitously filled with private forms of penance. But if not the fall of one and the rise of another form of penance, what sort of narrative can describe the evident change between ancient and medieval penance? The skepticism of at least one historian, writing recently in the premier issue of Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, has some justification, when she expresses her unease over how “the penitential landscape has appeared to flatten out.” But not for long. By challenging the virtually unchallenged dichotomy between lay penance and monastic repentance, searching back in time for the sources of penitential thought, and successfully avoiding the pull of medieval and modern categories of interpretation, Alexis Torrance shows us how rich and varied the historical terrain of penance might become. In his well-written and highly original study, Torrance does far more than analyze the penitential theology of four major contributors to Greek monastic literature (although this alone would have made a significant contribution). Rather, he also provides scholars an effective framework for interpreting penitential language in early Christian literature and the role of repentance in late antique culture generally. What is more, he demonstrates how his framework works, in two chapters surveying the history of repentance from the Septuagint to John Chrysostom.

Including as well a concise, up-to-date review of scholarship in the introductory chapter, the first half of the book is essential reading for anyone interested in the culture of repentance or the origins of penance (i.e., the liturgy or sacrament). The first half also lays the groundwork for the following three case studies, focused on the Greek monastic writers just alluded to: Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus. From his careful reading of these authors, Torrance identifies related but separable aspects of repentance, with which he constructs a “threefold framework” for understanding a total concept of repentance, one which he proposes to have been deeply rooted, long-lived, and influential. The strength of this interpretative framework grows apparent over the course of the book, as with something like magnetic force it is used to attract supporting evidence from a range of sources, and as its rather simple taxonomy coheres into the substantive parts of a penitential process, something an ancient person might actually have experienced, as well as expounded upon and extolled to others. First, according to Torrance’s progressive model, initial repentance marked the moment when people made a conscious break from a sinful, ignorant life and began anew, through either baptism in the case of new believers, or ecclesiastical penance in the case of strayed believers. Thenceforth, a life of existential repentance entailed an ongoing process of humility, correction, and atonement that could work for the salvation, not only of the penitent subjects themselves, but ultimately and ideally for others vicariously—what Torrance calls Christ-like repentance.

As useful as his framework proves to be, it is important to remember, as Torrance himself reminds us, that it is a device he has constructed—not that late antique authors did not think in similar terms or favor tripartite distinctions. Texts as early as The Shepherd of Hermas (pp. 71–72) emphasized the continual nature of repentance, punctuated...