Evangelical sub-culture has over-negativised the New Testament concept of ‘repentance’.
In Biblical Hebrew, the idea of repentance is represented by two verbs: שוב shuv (to return) and נחם nicham (to feel sorrow). In the New Testament, the word translated as ‘repentance’ is the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia), “after/behind one’s mind”, which is a compound word of the preposition ‘meta’ (after, with), and the verb ‘noeo’ (to perceive, to think, the result of perceiving or observing). In this compound word the preposition combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by ‘after’ and ‘different’; so that the whole compound means: ‘to think differently after’. Metanoia is therefore primarily an after-thought, different from the former thought; a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, “change of mind and heart”, or, “change of consciousness”.
To ‘repent’ is to change. To shift. The last few months has been a season of enforced change for me, involving both sorrow and regret.
Some people who have known me for a long time say that its not that I have shifted to an entirely new place, but more that I am I have ‘returned’ to the place I was before.
Below are a few examples of ’shifts’ that have taken place in my life recently. Please note that not all of them involve deep repentance!
Blog: hitchmo – to – flow
Newspaper: The Telegraph – to – The Independent
Drink: Real Ale – to – The Real Thing
Comforts: cigars (& the occasional ciggie) – to – Sherbet Dip Dab’s
Music: everything – to - Country, and everything
Theology: conservative & closed – to – orthodox & open
Faith: certain – to – questioning
Spirituality: charismatic – to – charismissional
Vision: tunnel – to – wide-angle
Status: clown - to – fool
God-relationship: servant – to – friend
