The Church as Forgiving Community: an Initial Model Essay

Before the question of forgiveness can be answered something to consider is what does it mean to forgive. The act of forgiveness can be seen as many things, for example it can be seen as the pardoning of an action done by one person by another. It can also be seen as the letting go of feelings of resentment and vengeance against another person. According to Hans Habe in The Sunflower, “Forgiveness is the imitation of God” (163). This

“ What makes the power of forgiveness comparable to God? The very nature of humans is to get angry and feel resentful towards those who have hurt us or did some harm to us in any way.”

Inversely, according to Ingersoll-Dayton, & Ha (2009), forgiveness regarded replacing negative behaviors and thinking towards the offender in hopes of rendering inner

Forgiveness is not just practiced by saints and not only benefits its recipients but have strong connection with person’s physical, mental and spiritual health. It plays a great role in the health of families, communities and nations. Forgiveness provides common ground for love, acceptance, harmony and true happiness Most spiritual and religious leaders of the world will agree that forgiveness of oneself and others is one way to clear the mind, heart and soul and may result in a feeling of increased peace and happiness.

Forgive today, live in peace tomorrow. Forgiveness; one of the many hardships we encounter throughout life. As Marianne Williamson, an American author, stated, “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” Forgiveness leads to peace because it lets go of all the negative feelings and allows freedom from disturbance to take place.

The book was very well put together with principal concepts, but it was not always easy to follow and some sections had to be read twice for clear comprehension. The message could have been portrayed using straightforward writing that would enable undergraduates and others that are not seeking higher levels of education to process the information. In simpler terms, this book can be essential to pastors, for personal relationships, and other professions if the language is simplified and made more user-friendly.

Life has ups and downs, it may stab you in the back, but it’s a choice to forgive and forget about it. Forgiveness is something that helps people move on. For every person, the word forgiveness has a different meaning, for me it means leaving behind actions from my past. Personally, I like to think that forgiveness is a way to start over whether in a friendship or in life. If the opportunity presented itself to me to explain the word, forgiveness, to someone I would simply reply that it is the idea of setting yourself free from all the hate one has been holding.

2. According to the article, forgiveness is granting unconditionally grace to those who have cause suffering and pain and accepting what they did and not letting that affect the love they show to that person. Forgiveness is central for racial reconciliation because forgiveness is the first step of mending the relationship with others. It also allows God to do a work between the two groups. When there is forgiveness God can change hearts and create amazing things to happen out of tragedies.

As one grows from infant to adult an even elderly age, we experience many events in life. One only grows from mistakes that are inevitable to happen. Like the Yin Yang theory, for instance, shadow cannot exist without light. Therefor forgiveness comes into play, it is defined as the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. In The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. It discusses the moral ethics of the matter of forgiveness. Questions are asked by Wiesenthal, what would you do? If a dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness? Forgiveness can often be influenced by religious belief, psychological, and political point of view, one is always capable of asking for forgiveness or granting forgiveness to another, granted or not, one makes a choice and lives with that decision.

Hesburgh explains, “My whole instinct is to forgive. Perhaps that is because I am a Catholic priest. In a sense, I am in the forgiving business… I think of God as the great forgiver of sinful humanity” (169). Prager further explains these religious divides, “It is only meant to explain why to Jews it is so patently obvious that it is morally wrong to forgive a man who has burned families alive, and to Christians it is equally obvious that one ought to” (230). Buddhism also argues for forgiveness as well. Ricard states, “For a Buddhist, forgiveness is always possible and one should always forgive” (235). Lastly, there is an argument that without forgiveness it is difficult to move on to the future. Tutu succinctly states, “Without forgiveness, there is no future.”

Forgiveness is letting go; whether it be letting go of small things or big things, it helps people move on. Each person has their own definition of what forgiveness truly means. Its logical for people to be forgiven because no matter what they do, they're human; humans make mistakes. It can be hard not to forgive, but it's also necessary to put away your differences and reunite with former enemies. It makes sense to ask for forgiveness.

Forgiveness has been defined in many ways by psychologists and researchers with no one universal definition. Hill (as cited in Maltby, Day and Mackaskill 2001) state that it is widely agreed that forgiveness involves a willingness to abandon resentment, negative judgement and indifferent behaviour towards the person who has hurt them Although research is recent, from the last 15 years, it has helped develop our understanding of forgiveness . Research has shown that forgiveness gives positive mental health and prevents the development of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress. Two major models of forgiveness are Enright’s model and Worthington’s (2001) pyramid model to REACH forgiveness. Both these models involve steps and

Others may argue forgiveness is not possible without justice.People believe justice is essential because not everyone chooses to do it.Sometimes justice makes it easier to forgive.It creates a safe environment for people to live in.Without justice, there would be nothing to stop genocides and rapes.It will not prevent people from doing things against what has been proved as good.Sometimes forgiveness does not work, justice is all it takes.However, that is not always true, justice does not mean a person is forgiven.The victim can still choose to not forgive him.There is no forgiveness with justice, but there is forgiveness without justice, it is an action between the soul and mind.For example, In the story “Let South Africa show the world how to forgive,”it states,”retribution leads to a cycle of reprisal, leading to counter reprisal in an inexorable movements, as in Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and in the former Yugoslavians.The only thing that can break that cycle, making impossible a new beginning, is forgiveness.Without forgiveness there is no future.” (Page -638.Paragraph 14, Pearson).An analysis of this reveals that forgiveness is a dedication to an individual's life and a new start.It is important to give a person another chance, others every soul in this world would go seek for justice which will lead to a disaster in the society.Another example for this can be found on page 638,”They used to have what people regarded as an intractable problem.They are now resolving

In general, self-forgiveness is identified by a common ability to exhibit self-respect in spite of the acceptance of wrong-doing (Hall, J., Fincham, D., 2005). I never considered the distinction between interpersonal forgiveness and intrapersonal forgiveness. While they share many similarities, there is even greater evidence of the differences between the two. One significant difference involves the consequences of withholding forgiveness from self. It is likely that intrapersonal unforgiveness can be much more detrimental than interpersonal. Hall & Fincham state “ Self-forgiveness often entails a resolution to change” (2005). It is this process of acceptance of one’s own imperfections and sinful nature that catapults a desire for self-improvement and growth. This is a critical component of healing the soul and beginning the journey to spiritual and mental health. Also enlightening was the declaration that one can experience pseudo self forgiveness by failing to acknowledge any wrong doing and convincing him/herself that they are without fault. Finally, I was struck by the notion that self-forgiveness will typically

Forgiveness is a bunch of mixed behaviors and emotions that humans express in their life-time. Many people are motivated to forgive because of their morals and how humans feel towards one another. There are different ways of how people express forgiveness. A way people show forgiveness is when they accept, and respect of the reality of what happened and to find a resolution. People’s actions are based on the feelings towards someone who caused harm to another. Some people find forgiveness a hard thing to do because of how they cope with it. Experts from Stanford University Forgiveness Project shows that forgiveness can give sense of relief such as reduce stress, anger, depression and other forms of negative