Forgiveness Considered (ePub)

Book Explains the Concept of Forgiveness

Henry J. Charles brings forgiveness into modernity as an integral moral imperative
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (Release Date TBD) When the concept of forgiveness takes
the center stage, most Christian and Western culture-oriented people usually relate it to its religious
connotation, in every likelihood drawing on the ultimate expression of forgiveness in the death of Jesus
Christ on the cross. Author Henry J. Charles, though affirming the roots of forgiveness in the Biblical
heritage, considers the notion in its broader dimensions as an ethical imperative, one also capable of
geo-political application.

FORGIVENESS CONSIDERED first explores the word in its biblical and non-biblical meanings. It also
clarifi es the several misrepresentations and misconceptions of forgiveness in ordinary understanding. In
other portions of the book, the author deals with forgiveness as a special process akin to a fundamental
change in character. He also deals with implications of forgiving and forgetting, and the idea that
certain acts can be considered unforgiveable.

The book finally looks to special geopolitical contexts, where nations attempt to come to term
with histories of brutality and oppression, as a way to envisage and realize a more liberating
future. He examines the realities of amnesty, forgiveness, and reconciliation in South Africa, in
the light of the latters history of apartheid, in the hope that forgiveness and reconciliation may be
accorded a much wider application in human affairs than repairing the serious breaches that occur
in interpersonal relations.