Book Review

How to Be a Sinner by Peter Bouteneff

  

             “Sin” is a word that carries with it an inordinate amount of baggage. There is good thinking about sin, and there is bad thinking about sin. There are ways of considering sin that are psychologically and spiritually healthy, and there are equally examples of the reverse. While most of us will admit that sin refers to moral behavior that consciously transgresses natural and divine law, when it comes to speaking about it clearly and coherently, often we feel embarrassed and tongue-tied. We have been taught that confessing our sins in the sacrament of confession is expected at least once a year, but even there it can be difficult to find the right words to express our sorrow and repentance. Sometimes we may even wonder if we really have anything significant to confess.

            All of this points to a pressing pastoral need for a book that speaks about sin in a theologically sound and compassionate way, that can be used by believers to help them towards greater self understanding. Fortunately for us, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press has recently published How to Be a Sinner by Dr Peter Bouteneff, the Seminary’s Professor of Systematic Theology. The strength of this book is that it succeeds in articulating an honest portrait of the Church’s language of sin and repentance in a way is accessible to any thoughtful reader. It does not beat around the bush about the reality of sin. It helps us to understand ourselves as “sinners” in a way that is healthy and not neurotic, that faces our broken reality at the same time as it is able to see the dignity and beauty of being created in the image of God. This leads us to a self-acceptance that is realistic and positive instead of narcissistic and self-indulgent. The author’s approach is intended to lead us further into wholeness and maturity. He is also quite straightforward about unhealthy and self-destructive applications of “sinner” language. He reminds us at several points in the book that God did not create us for self-hating misery, and he gives practical advice about how to use the Church’s liturgical and theological language in a way that deepens our self-knowledge and resolve to grow. 

            An aspect of the book that I appreciated was the author’s willingness to include himself in discussing the nature of sin and how owning his identity as a sinner came about for himself. It helps root the book in the reality of the human condition. While in no way making this a personal “confession,” he does describe how his thinking evolved through personal encounters with priests, retreats he made at various monasteries, and finally attending seminary.  Understandably, this evolution of thought has continued in his professional life. This gives the rest of his book poignancy because when he reflects on sin and how we appropriate that reality in our lives, it has the ring of truth: the topic is not lost in theory but skillfully relates to everyday human experience. This is why the audience for this book is broader than simply the Orthodox Church. Its aim is to speak meaningfully to any thoughtful Christian; while the examples are normally drawn from Orthodox patristic and liturgical texts, Dr Bouteneff is able to apply them broadly to human experience. This is not a book for Orthodox Christians alone.

            One of the more challenging concepts in the book is the treatment of compunction, of sorrow for our sins. Dr Bouteneff draws from patristic and monastic tradition to point out the importance of our feeling genuine sorrow for our sins. While this can potentially be misunderstood as wallowing in self-pity and self-deprecating behavior, the author points out that when we understand the gravity of sin there will be a natural sorrow that expresses itself as “penthos,” holy sorrow, and which positively motivates us to personal change and repentance. A truly repentant attitude is a sign of a healthy person.

            How to Be a Sinner fills a serious need in Orthodox and Christian pastoral literature. I highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to better understand the relationship of a mature understanding of sin with healthy human living. 

Brother Christopher