Title: An Outstanding Mini Encyclopedia on Penance
Review: This review applies to the first of the two volumes. The first volume covers the first few centuries of the church. The discipline of penance is covered in great detail. The Apostle Paul is described as exercising binding and loosing when he delivers one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that the sinner's soul can still be saved. One striking feature of the early post-Apostolic church was its severity in dealing with serious sinners and apostates. At first such individuals were summarily excommunicated from the church and thought to have almost no chance of reconciliation even with God Himself. Later on, one penance became available after baptism, and it sometimes involved years of self-humiliation. In time, the practice of regular and private confession to a priest had developed, and penances became more symbolic than austere.
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