Abstract
This article examines what repentance might mean on the part of conscientious violent extremists, who commit very serious violent crimes, intending their acts to advance a political or ideological cause and firmly believing their acts to be morally permitted or required. The article looks at remorse, repudiation of one’s conduct, repudiating aspects of the self, and resolving to make amends. The article presents a modest conception of what should be accepted as repentance in such contexts. Repentance can come in degrees, and it should usually be enough that the extremist is genuinely remorseful and repudiates their violent actions against innocent people, even if it would be better in many cases if they also abandoned extremist thinking and dropped their commitment to their ultimate cause.
