Abstract
The politics of apologies and forgiveness is present in individual pastoral care and psychotherapy as well as in the broader context of the world in which we live. Forgiveness is a process that names harm and injustices while also offering possibilities for change, ultimately providing individuals, families, and communities with deeper and more profound ways of imagining relational justice. Such a perspective illuminates the ways in which harm and damage can be individual and systemic in nature, as well as how struggles over meaningful forgiveness are part of larger political realities. As one part of this process, apologies that account for the multiple ways power functions can assist individuals and communities in creating more justice-oriented forgiveness processes. Pastoral care specialists are wise to recognize that apologies and forgiveness always engage social, relational, political, and theological realities.
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Notes
Truth and reconciliation commissions take multiple forms and are designed according to the context. For information on global commissions, including some in the United States, see Amnesty International’s website: http://www.amnesty.org/en/international-justice/issues/truth-commissions, Accessed 20 April 2013. Note that there is a difference between reconciliation and forgiveness (Marshall 2005).
Diverse Christian theological perspectives have arisen in the literature surrounding forgiveness and psychology. See, for example, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Moral Courage (Browning & Reed 2004); Embodying Forgiveness (Jones 1995); Rediscovering Confessions: The Practice of Forgiveness and Where it Leads (Steere 2009); Forgiveness in Context (Watts & Gulliford 2004); and A Just Forgiveness: Responsible Healing without Excusing Injustice (Worthington 2009).
The therapeutic use of forgiveness is highly critiqued by many theologians, including Jones (1995). What strikes me about Jones’s critique is that he is basing his therapeutic understandings on models that many of us in the field would also suggest are highly individualized and not ultimately theologically grounded.
The tenor of this article suggests a postmodern theology of truth and an understanding of the various ways in which truth emerges. For more understanding of this, see Kenneth Gergen, Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community (2009).
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Marshall, J.L. The Politics of Apology and Forgiveness. Pastoral Psychol 63, 489–501 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-013-0578-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-013-0578-9