Practicing God's Radical Forgiveness: Tracing the Practice of Forgiveness in History Scripture and in Our Own Time

Forgiveness marks one of the most important issues of our time. If the enormous number of books and articles are a measure then forgiveness--our forgiveness of others and forgiveness for ourselves--appeals to our deepest concern. Its a challenge to determine just what we mean when we speak of forgiveness. Any discussion will reveal that our shared understanding and practices of forgiveness quickly diverge. For example is it the same thing to forgive a child a criminal a malicious acquaintance or someone whos inadvertently done us harm? Likely no. Well discover in this book that how we understand and practice forgiveness has shifted and changed through history formed by cultural context. Even biblically our understanding of forgiveness has altered over time. Well unpack the importance of this cultural history and then turn to the three strands of forgiveness that together form our modern practice of forgiveness. First the personal and therapeutic forgiveness. Second the communal forgiveness thats valued for its power to resolve conflict renew relationships and restore peace. Finally the divine Gods absolute unconditional forgiveness a forgiveness well discover that undergirds every other way we understand forgiveness.