Christians' Beliefs About Justice and Forgiveness
In order to consider Christian beliefs relating to justice, it is first necessary to understand the meaning of justice. Justice means being concerned with what is right or fair. In addition, there should be equality of treatment and the law judged and applied impartially, Deuteronomy 1:16-18.
Christians believe that our relationships with others should be based on what is just and in turn this is based on the belief in a just God and in the teachings and actions of Jesus. God brought the world into existence not for chaos, but for order. In the sphere of human behaviour, order is preserved by customs and laws. However, the law must be
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The people in the Old Testament were very aware that laws should be fair and just. In Deuteronomy 24:14-22 we are warned, "… every man shall be put to death for his own sin."
Christians differ in their views of how justice can best be served, depending on which biblical texts they use, how they interpret these and which aims of punishment they emphasise. The purpose of punishment is a debatable issue for both Christians and non-Christians. Some believe it's objective is protection. Imprisonment keeps criminals away from the opportunity of crime and so protects society. For others, punishment will include an element of retribution as supported by the Old Testament teaching, "an eye for an eye". Yet in Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus challenged this and was radical in how he felt people should be treated. Again in Matthew 7:1-5, Christians are warned not to be too hasty in judgement. One of the aims of punishment could be deterrence against committing crime. Another possible objective could be vindication - that is, people must be punished so that the laws will be respected. However, for Christians, the main aim of punishment is not primarily any of these - it is for the purpose of reform and rehabilitation of the offender. The aim being to restore relationships and create amore peaceful society. People would recognise the damage they have done and aim to make amends.
As I was reading the chapter on forgiveness in Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by McMinn (2011), the personal life experience that jumped out to me was when I had to make the decision to truly forgive my ex-boyfriend and his parents for the emotional pain they caused me. After living in New Jersey for a month and spending time with my boyfriend and his family, working, and taking care of an elderly lady with dementia my world came crashing down on me. My ex-boyfriend’s parents discovered sin in his life and told me I could no longer pursue a relationship with him because of the sins he had committed. After finding out the sinful things my ex-boyfriend had done, I chose to forgive him. I also chose to give him a second chance at a relationship with me, but my effort to salvage our relationship was futile.
The author have shown his deep study about forgiveness. He writer has given names of the people who are working on this topic to gain reader’s attention. The writer also gives the result of whole research by the 2 researchers and states that
Often we are asked the question, can justice and forgiveness go hand in hand? A lot of people believe they can’t. That only one can exist not the other. For some it’s true, they only believe someone can either give forgive, or justice, neither both. Then there are the few people who believe they go hand in hand, one can’t exist without the other. That’s true as well. I’m not sure where I stand exact on the line for these two, maybe exactly on the line. I believe they go hand in hand and in some cases only one works, all depending on the situation. Now we’ve read a number of stories regarding this, but most of them doing with forgiveness and justice going hand in hand. I’m going to talk about a few of these stories, and see where you fall
The Renaissance was an era of discovery, and new innovations. It was a time of art, music, and inquiring minds.
What practical steps could be taken to build a relationship with a follower of this worldview who might be a co-worker, neighbor, etc.?
The claims made by the objections have some good points made such that resentment is problematic and it should naturally dissipate when forgiveness is in order. However, through further analysis on the subject matter as well as comparison between the contemporary philosophers and Confucian ideas, one can see the truth behind resentment and forgiveness.
Damian’s comparison and contrast of LTL’s case regarding forgiveness and Scripture, centered on transcendent, or servant, leadership and the beneficial by-products of forgiveness. Servant leadership not only lends itself to increased trust, as explained by Damian, but also enhanced performance. For example, one study identified that an outcome of servant leadership is a “climate of procedural justice” (Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014, p. 1435), which is dependent on leaders who consistently demonstrate and promote forgiveness (2014). When employees perceive leaders as having a balance of fairness and forgiveness, job attitudes are also enhanced (2014). Further, as leaders ascribe to servant leadership, they are essentially satisfying
The three Christian theories of atonement are cosmic conflict, satisfaction, and moral influence theories. Each of these theories basically in a way show us a metaphor for Christ and his work that he did while living on the earth most of which revolves around the cross. The first theory is the cosmic conflict which was grown around the battle metaphor which is disused in the New Testament passage of Colossians 2:15. In this theory it as looks at how the there is a battle of power between God and the evil force of Satan and his army in the world today.
What is forgiveness? Forgive is something you feel and do. You stop the madness and hostility to tell the person that you are no longer upset. Certain things in life are hard to forgive because things people do can damage you in a plethora of different ways. Being able to forgive someone at some point in your depending on what they did could feel impossible. Forgiving is forgetting and sometimes you have to forget because holding it against some could make you a bad person.
Atonement as any other literary work has major and minor characters who contribute in developing and changing the events of the story. The three main characters in McEwan’s Atonement are: - Briony Tallis: She is the heroine of the novel who is talented in writing short stories; she is thirteen years old, the youngest of Tallis family (Sernham, 2009). At the beginning of the novel, Briony sends Robbie, the house keeper’s son and her older sister Cecilia’s friend, to jail by claiming that he is Lola’s attacker (ibid.). At the age of seventy five, she realizes her guilt and tries to atone by writing her autobiography and confesses her wrong doing (Svandova, 2012).
Atonement by Ian McEwan dramatizes how perception creates reality, how a young girl misinterpreting events can ruin people lives, how easily our words and imagination are used to shape the world around us, and atonement. Life in the Tallis mansion is pretty normal, for a family (living in a mansion) in England 1935. Childhood friends and star crossed Lovers Cee and Robbie conduct an awkward romance dance under the distorted eye of young Briony. Briony is Cee’s little sister who does not truly understand love or how it plays outside of a little girl’s imagination; a rape witnessed by Briony forever changes everyone’s life, Briony accuses Robbie of the rape after earlier walking in on his intimate moment with Cee not being able to distinguish the intricacies of two similar acts with vastly different intent and emotions. Mistaking their act of love as wild maniac lust, Briony used your words and imagination to condemn Robbie One misinterpreted event ruined three lives.
Adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. In 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirise Ronan) changes the lives of her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and lover Robbie Tuner (James McAvoy). She accuses Robbie of a crime he didn’t commit, which has damaging consequences and guilt which affects Briony’s entire life.
There is something in my life that I believe in. I believe in forgiveness. I believe that no matter what someone does to lose a person’s friendship or respect there should always be an opportunity to forgive that person. Forgiveness is a very important thing I believe in because it doesn’t feel good to hate or even just dislike someone strongly. Also it has helped me become a better person too.
I had never given the word forgiveness a thought; in fact I cared less about its true meaning until the morning of 1 July 2010. On the evening of 31st June 2010 I received a call from my supervisor asking me to report to work at a different site the following day, one that was an hour's drive towards Washington DC from where I lived in Baltimore County. It was barely a month since I was employed as a full time electrician at the firm. This was a surprise as it was unexpected; I had been working at the Timonium site north of Baltimore for some time as a part time employee and never thought I would be relocated to a different site since the project I was involved with was still underway.
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