Making Confession, Hearing Confession: A History of the Cure of Souls

Is confession obsolete? Far from it, Annemarie Kidder has learned. In Making Confession, Hearing Confession she reviews its origins and history from biblical times to the early modern era and examines contemporary practices of confession, penance, and spiritual direction that have emerged in the twentieth century while offering practical considerations for evaluating and improving one s own practice, either as confessor or penitent. Readers will be grateful for this concise historical overview of confession and Kidder s assurance that, despite its undervalued or misunderstood practice, this cure of souls is anything but obsolete.