%e NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER Forgiveness Whoever wishes to be saved must confess his sins and repent. To confess sins is to know what things are evils, to see them in oneself, to acknowledge them, to admit one's guilt, and to condemn one self on account of them. This, when done be fore God, is confessing one's sins. To repent is, after having thus confessed one's sins and in humility of heart implored remission (or forgiveness), to desist from them, and to lead a new life in accordance with the precepts of charity and faith. Declaring in only a general way that one is a sinner, and admitting guilt for all sins, with out carrying out self-examination, that is with out seeing one's own individual sins, is making confession, but it is not the confession that is of repentance. The man who does no more than this, has not arrived at a knowledge of his own particular evils, and so he continues to lead the same life as before. He who is living the life of charity and faith, daily carries out repentance, reflects upon, what the evils are, to which he is prone, ac knowledges them, is on his guard against them, and implores the Lord for help: for of himself a man is continually falling, but by the Lord he is being continually lifted up and led to good. (The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 159-163) April 14, 1956 Guilt and Forgiveness THE PARTIAL LIST PRINCIPAL FOREIGN NEW-CHURCH OF CHURCHES MISSIONS MESSENGER BALTIMORE, MO. STATIONS AND OUTPOSTS OF Official organ of The General Convention Culvert Street, near Chase THE GENERAL CONVENTION of the Mew Jerusalem in the United States of America. Convention founded in 1817. BATH, ME. 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Portugese Bend April 14,1956 PATERSON, N. J. 380 Van Houten Street of JFaitfj PAWNEE ROCK. KANS. Main Street PRINCIPAL CONTENTS PHILADELPHIA, PA. of OHp N?ro Otfjurrl) 22nd and Chestnut Streets Frankford, Paul and Unity Streets EDITORIALS: PITTSBURGH. PA. There is one God, and He is the Explanation Or Forgiveness? -.119 Sandusky St. near North Ave. Lord and Savior Jesus Christ PORTLAND, ME. 302 Stevens Ave. cor. Montrose ARTICLES: PORTLAND, OREGON The Word is Divine and contains The Luxury of Guiltiness 115 2037 S.E, Spruce Ave. a spiritual or inner meaning where Howard Davis Spoerl PRETTY PRAIRIE, KANS. East Main Street by is revealed the way of regenera We Are All Inadequate 117 RIVERSIDE CALIF. tion. 3S4S Locust Street Gynne Dresser Mack SAN DIEGO, CALIF. 4144 Campus Avenue FEATURES: SAN FRANCISCO. CALIF. Saving faith is to believe in Him Lyon and Washington Streets and keep the Commandments of Letters to the Editor 119 ST. LOUIS, MO. His Word. 620 N. Spring Avenue The Case of the Guilty Wife ...121 ST. PAUL, MINN. Outgoing and Incoming S.E. cor. Virginia and Selby Ave. Presidents 122 ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. Evil is to be shunned as sin 1915—5th Street, N. against God. Book Reviews 123 VANCOUVER. B. C. 2516 W. 12th Avenue • The National-Association 126 WASHINGTON. D.C. Human life is unbroken and con News 127 16th and Corcoran Sts. WILMINGTON, DEL. tinuous, and the world of the spirit Births, Baptisms, etc 128 Pennsylvania Avenuo and Broome Street is real and near. afiaifegateg^&lt^frafg^^^-s^^ffjgEjg;.^;^.^^ 114 THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER THE LUXURY OF GUILTINESS By Howard Davis Spoerl EVER since the promulgation of the "crisis reduction of the neuroticism itself, on the general theology" some 25 years ago various distin ly accepted principle that causes, rather than symp guished leaders of religious thought have in toms, are what require cure. From a social, moral, sisted that human existence can be understood and and spiritual point of view this task calls, among spiritually developed only from the starting-point other things, for a relocating of personal respon of acknowledging participation in universal guilt. sibility. The first world war had occurred in a supposedly In a general way it is quite true, as neo-orthodoxy Christian culture; God had authorized, or not pre claims, that individuals are ultimately responsible vented, or had permitted it. Western civilization in one way or another for the disintegration of seemed to be threatened with complete collapse. Western civilization; it is also true that this is a For many sensitive persons, faith itself seemed to concern of religion and an affair of the religious be a cruel, empty mockery. Thereupon some un life. But to suggest that 'sinfulness' coloring the derstandably distressed theologians reformulated total human situation is irremediable, a product of the infinity of God, undertook to preserve "faith" 'original sin' in its present-day theological guise, even to the extent of making it practically useless, or a function of 'total depravity' (that foo, has been and "discovered" the finitude of man, awareness of brought back under new-fangled names) is to re which is supposed, in neo-orthodox circles, to be place hope with essential despair and to make a the basis of pervasive and inevitable "despair." farce out of any intelligible conception of a divine Somebody found that the century-old writings of providence. The new orthodoxy 'saves' God by pric Soren Kierkegaard had already outlined the gen ing Him out of the market (thus Barth's insistence eral attitude; thus (somewhat oversimplified in the on the 'absolutely other'), and leaves mankind with telling) a new theological outlook was born. The the grim self-preoccupation of dealing with the uni second war helped it along by seeming to confirm versal sense of guilt. Neo-orthodoxy is well-namedi its doctrines; universal guiltiness became the watch or nicknamed; followers of Swedenborg will at once word for the atomic age. detect in it the implications (in a new form) of salvation by faith alone, the vicarious atonement, Is Breast-Beating Needed? and a number of other doctrines against which he Is it really news that if God is infinite, man is continually inveighed. finite? And is finite existence necessarily a source of anxiety? Surely it is possible to accept the Nurturing the Neurosis proposition that 'the fear of the Lord is the be The sense of guilt people are urged to cultivate ginning of wisdom' without going into a routine is no necessity.