Confession
In general, aconfessionis is when a person tells someone a thing that the other person usually does not know. In differentcontexts, the word has slightly different meanings:
- Inlaw,it is abouttelling a police officer or a lawyer about a crime.It might also about being awitness.In many law systems, people who confess a crime they committed will be punished less severely.
- Aconfession of faithis usually when people say that they belong to a specific religious group orreligion.This is usually done as aritual.
- In someChristian faiths,most notably,Roman Catholicism,Eastern Orthodox,andOriental Orthodox Churches,a confession is telling apriestabout one's ownwrongdoing(which may besinful). In certain circumstances, the priest can then forgive the sinful behaviour. Among the criteria are that the person who did wrong must be able to see that he or she did wrong, and they must be willing to correct the wrong to the best of their abilities.
Often, a confession is associated with an admission of amoralor legal wrong:
In one sense it is the acknowledgment of having done something wrong, whether on purpose or not. Thus confessional texts usually provide information of a private nature previously unavailable. What a sinner tells a priest in the confessional, the documents criminals sign acknowledging what they have done, an autobiography in which the author acknowledges mistakes, and so on, are all examples of confessional texts.[1]
Not all confessions reveal wrongdoing, however. For example, adeclarationof love is often considered positive both by the confessor and by the recipient of the confession and is a common theme in literature.[2][3]
There are several specific kinds of confessions that have significance beyond the social. Alegal confessioninvolves an admission of some wrongdoing that has a legal consequence.Confession in religionvaries widely across various belief systems. It is usually part of aritualby which the person acknowledges thoughts or actions consideredsinfulor morally wrong within the confines of the confessor's religion. In some religions, confession takes the form of anoral communicationto another person. Socially, however, the term may refer to admissions that are neither legally nor religiously significant.[4]
Some confessions are very notable. For example, the confession ofHenry II of Englandto the murder ofThomas Becket.
References
[change|change source]- ↑Jorge J. E. Gracia (1995),A Theory of Textuality: the logic and epistemology,pp. 94–95.
- ↑Giulio Marra,Shakespeare and this "Imperfect" World: dramatic form and the nature of nowing(1997), p. 69, describing "the distinction between 'to do' and 'to confess', between having thoughts of love and confessing one's love, between the indetermination of a feeling and its final definition", as a theme that "creeps into the various stories".
- ↑Charles Emil Kany,The Beginnings of the Epistolary Novel in France, Italy and Spain(1937), Volume 21, Issues 1-6, p. 19.
- ↑Roger W. Shuy,The Language of Confession, Interrogation, and Deception(1998), p. 2–10.