  In this paper we compute the radiative correction to the mass of the kink in
$\phi^4$ theory in 1+1 dimensions, using an alternative renormalization
program. In this newly proposed renormalization program the breaking of the
translational invariance and the topological nature of the problem, due to the
presence of the kink, is automatically taken into account. This will naturally
lead to uniquely defined position dependent counterterms. We use the mode
number cutoff in conjunction with the above program to compute the mass of the
kink up to and including the next to the leading order quantum correction. We
discuss the differences between the results of this procedure and the
previously reported ones.
