Private Confession: A 20th-Century Issue Seen from a 16th-Century Perspective

Every knowledgeable theologian today is aware of the resurging interest in the question of private confession, i. e., auricular confession, or more precisely, the individual nature of confession. From professional theological journals to professional journals of psychology and psychiatry, from popular Time and Newsweek magazines to well-documented monographs and religious encyclopedia articles the question is being raised and answered in a variety of ways. The following is an attempt to permit the results of a thorough discussion of the issue more than four centuries ago in the decade from 1530 to 1540 to be of service in the contemporary search for the enduring value of individual confession and the basic theological foundation that could lead to its recovery