Repentance

Repentance is a change of mind and conduct that turns a person away from wrongdoing toward a religious or ethical commitment. It can involve remorse, confession, restitution, and resolve to change.

Remorse: Remorse is distress arising from awareness of having done wrong. It can motivate repentance, though repentance also requires turning toward changed conduct.
Sin: Sin is an act or condition understood as violating divine law or a religious moral order. In many religious traditions, repentance begins with recognizing an action as sin.
Teshuva: Teshuva is the Jewish concept of return to God through repentance and renewed conduct. It presents repentance as a return that includes confession, resolve, and repair.
Remorse without change: Remorse without change is regret over wrongdoing that does not lead to altered conduct. It lacks the behavioral turn that makes repentance more than sorrow.
Confession: Confession is the acknowledgment or disclosure of wrongdoing to another person or community. Naming the wrong can make repentance accountable and open a path to repair.
Ethics: Ethics is the study and practice of principles concerning right and wrong conduct. Repentance can arise from ethical commitments even outside religious frameworks.
Tawbah: Tawbah is the Islamic practice of turning back to God after wrongdoing. Its emphasis on turning back makes it a central Islamic account of repentance.
Rationalization: Rationalization is the construction of seemingly reasonable explanations that defend questionable actions or beliefs. It protects the wrongdoer from acknowledging the wrong that repentance confronts.
Restitution: Restitution is the return or replacement of what was wrongly taken or damaged. Repentance may require repairing material harms rather than expressing regret alone.
Intention: An intention is a commitment or plan to perform an action or pursue an end. A resolve to change gives repentance a forward-looking direction.

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