Metanoia (theology)

In Christian theology, metanoia (from the Greek μετάνοια, metanoia, changing one's mind) is often translated as "conversion" or "repentance," though most scholars agree that this second translation does a disservice to the original Greek meaning of metanoia. In Ancient Greece, this term originally meant “a transformative change of heart; especially: a spiritual conversion," a definition provided by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.^[1]

In Christianity, the Greek philosophical concept of metanoia has become linked with Christian prayer, in which a prostration is called a metanoia, with "the spiritual condition of one's soul being expressed through the physical movement of falling facedown before the Lord" as seen in the biblical passages of Matthew 2:11, Luke 5:12, and Luke 17:15–16.^[2] In this context, the term suggests repudiation, change of mind, repentance, and atonement.^[3]