My book on repentance continues to slowly come together. I'm 2/3 of the way through, at 449 pages manuscript-style (it'd be around 240 pages publication). The book is divided into three parts: (1) laying the groundwork for defining repentance, (2) defining repentance, and (3) looking at the practice of repentance. Tomorrow I hope to knock out the first chapter (Ch. 12) of the last third of the book. The layout of the second section looks like this:
Chapter Six: Repentance: False Trails (8 pgs). This chapter is about three popular misconceptions regarding repentance. (1) repentance as feeling sorry for sin, (2) repentance as simply changing one's mind about Jesus, and (3) repentance as the actual change of behavior.
Chapter Seven: The Meaning of Repentance (20 pgs). With the misconceptions out of the way, in Chapter Seven I define repentance as turning from love of self/idols to love of God.
Chapter Eight: Repentance & Loving God (8 pgs). This chapter takes some of the principles laid down in Chapter Seven and expands upon them, first and foremost the question of what it means to love God. I contrast love of self/the world with love of God, examining both in the context of how they are revealed in one's life. This leads to the conclusion that loving God is basically the same thing as devotion to God. This chapter is actually an essay, rewritten and revised, that I wrote back in February this year.
Chapter Nine: Repentance & Faith (21 pgs). This chapter is one of the longest of the book, and I'm shocked that I literally wrote it in a single night (from 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM). I define faith in Christ as commitment, loyalty, and allegiance to Christ. This is the chapter I'm most proud of, and it serves as a sort of framework for the next book on this series, "Re:framing Faith." At the end of this chapter I bring the threads of the last two chapters--repentance and loving God--into a coherent shape. Loving God means being devoted to him. Devotion speaks of loyalty and allegiance. Thus repentance is the decision to put one's loyalty and allegiance in God, revealed in Jesus Christ. That's a really brief summary, but I take it quite thoroughly and step-by-step in the chapter.
Chapter Ten: The Consequences of Repentance (43 pgs). While Chapter Nine is one of the longest of the book, Chapter Ten whoops all the others in its length. I didn't intend for this chapter to be so long, and despite much summarizing, it still turned out being the longest. This chapter examines the consequences of repentance/not repenting--and I mean "consequences" as the results of something, not necessarily negative results as the term often connote. I examined what one could expect, temporally and eschatologically, if he or she repented (or didn't repent).
Chapter Eleven: The Choice of Repentance (24 pgs). This is one of the weakest chapters, I'll admit, but it is still integral to the book, and it has its high points (I'm too much of a perfectionist sometimes). Here I look at several reasons why people choose to repent and several reasons why people choose not to repent. I also tackle the question of predestination/free will and the role of the Holy Spirit in the decision to repent.
With the second section done, I'm eager to launch into the last part of the book, though I know this will be the most difficult. I'm not too good with practical things. Give me abstractions and concepts, and I'll excel. Give me concrete, pragmatic things, and I'll end up confused and, most often, physically injured. I'm still trying to decipher a coherent manner of piecing together the last third of the book. So far each chapter has built upon the next, the book barreling along like a sweltering crescendo; but there are so many interwoven themes and different angles of approach that such a process would just leave the reader in a cesspool of confusion. *sigh* I'm sure I'll figure it out.
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