"Celestin Musekura had just begun doctoral studies in Dallas when he learned that many of his own family members had been killed in a wave of genocide reprisals back home in Rwanda. Revenge would have been understandable, but he said, 'I have preached forgiveness, and now it is my turn to practice it. To my family I say, I will pray for those who brutally murdered you, and I will care for their children.' It should come as no surprise that Celestin's understanding of forgiveness, well expressed in these pages, is restoring communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa. He knows and practices that of which he speaks. This book sets a course for realistic, collective transformation."-Robert A. Pyne, Th.D., Director, Peace and Justice Center, St. Norbert College --Book Jacket.
In this well-researched and ethical study, Vee Chandler combines insight gathered from the writings of scholars and Christian philosophers with personal observations and biblical perspectives to examine the nature and value of forgiveness and help those struggling with the concepts of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Chandler begins by exploring key questions such as, When does God forgive and not forgive? and, What is God’s wrath and mercy? and then attempts to answer these questions by first defining terms according to their scriptural usage. She then examines the relationship between repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation according to the biblical model. In the second section, Chandler exegetically scrutinizes scriptural texts related to interpersonal forgiveness as well as passages concerning how God’s people should relate to their enemies and to evil persons. Finally Chandler examines the ethics of forgiveness from a moral and philosophical point of view, and ultimately establishes a model for forgiveness and reconciliation based on the biblical pattern and defended from a logical and ethical perspective. Biblical Boundaries of Forgiveness embraces the contribution of Christian philosophers while examining the nature and value of forgiveness from spiritual and moral viewpoints.
In a well-researched and ethical study, Vee Chandler, PhD combines insight gathered from the writings of scholars and Christian philosophers with personal observations and biblical perspectives to examine the nature and value of forgiveness and help those struggling with the concepts of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Dr. Chandler begins by exploring key questions such as When does God forgive and not forgive? and What is God’s wrath and mercy? and then attempts to answer these questions by first defining terms according to their scriptural usage and then examining the relationship between repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation according to the biblical model. In the second section, Dr. Chandler exegetically scrutinizes scriptural texts related to interpersonal forgiveness as well as passages concerning how God’s people should relate to their enemies and to evil persons. In conclusion, Dr. Chandler examines the ethics of forgiveness from a moral and philosophical point of view, and ultimately establishes a model for forgiveness and reconciliation based on the biblical pattern and defended from a logical and ethical perspective. Biblical Boundaries of Forgiveness embraces the contribution of Christian philosophers while examining the nature and value of forgiveness from spiritual and moral viewpoints.
Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow explores the ethical demands of leadership and the dark side of leadership. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from many fields of research to help readers make ethical decisions, lead with integrity, and create an ethical culture.
Forgiveness was a preoccupation of writers in the Victorian period, bridging literatures highbrow and low, sacred and secular. Yet if forgiveness represented a common value and language, literary scholarship has often ignored the diverse meanings and practices behind this apparently uncomplicated value in the Victorian period. Forgiveness in Victorian Literature examines how eminent writers such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde wrestled with the religious and social meanings of forgiveness in an age of theological controversy and increasing pluralism in ethical matters. Richard Gibson discovers unorthodox uses of the language of forgiveness and delicate negotiations between rival ethical and religious frameworks, which complicated forgiveness's traditional powers to create or restore community and, within narratives, offered resolution and closure. Illuminated by contemporary philosophical and theological investigations of forgiveness, this study also suggests that Victorian literature offers new perspectives on the ongoing debate about the possibility and potency of forgiving.
Demystifying an unrealistic ideal Maria Mayo questions the contemporary idealization of unconditional forgiveness in three areas of contemporary life: so-called Victim-Offender Mediation involving cases of criminal injury, the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa, and the pastoral care of victims of domestic violence. She shows that an emphasis on unilateral and unconditional forgiveness puts disproportionate pressure on the victims of injustice or violence and misconstrues the very biblical passages—especially in Jesus’ teaching and actions—on which advocates of unconditional forgiveness rely.
Sin, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Christian and Muslim Perspectives is a collection of essays and scripture passages studied at the 2014 Building Bridges seminar. Thoughtful and provocative, the book begins with the complete texts of the opening lectures by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and Jonathan A. C. Brown and contains essays by Christoph Schwöbel, Ayman Shabana, Susan Eastman, Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Philip Sheldrake, and Asma Afsaruddin. Peppered throughout with relevant scripture passages and commentary, the text concludes with an extensive account of the informal conversations at the seminar that conveys the lively and respectful dialogue that is the hallmark of this meeting.
Through a fresh investigation of the relationship between faith and identity, this diverse group of international contributors offers an engaging discussion of human identity—and specifically, Christian identity. From a biblical foundation, they address theological discussions of identity and contemporary cultural themes, such as migration, ethnicity, embodiment, attachment, and gender. Straightforward and thought-provoking, The Self Examined is an accessible guide to this wide-ranging and important issue.
The fourth installment in a wide and deep constructive theology for our time This fourth volume in Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s ambitious five-volume systematic theology develops a constructive Christian pneumatology and soteriology in dialogue with the diverse global Christian tradition and with other major living faiths — Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
Adoption activist Jean Paton (1908–2002) fought tirelessly to reform American adoption, dedicating her life to overcoming American society’s prejudices against adult adoptees and women who give birth out of wedlock. From the 1950s until the time of her death, Paton wrote widely and passionately about the adoption experience, corresponded with policymakers as well as individual adoptees, promoted the psychological well-being of adoptees, and facilitated reunions between adoptees and their birth parents. She also led the struggle to re-open adoption records, creating a national movement that continues to this day. While “open adoption” is often now the rule for adoptions within the United States, for those in earlier eras, adopted in secrecy, the records remain sealed; many adoptees live (and die) without vital information that should be a birthright, and birth parents suffer a similar deprivation. At this writing, only seven of fifty states have open records. (Kansas and Alaska have never closed theirs.) E. Wayne Carp’s masterful biography of Jean Paton brings this neglected civil-rights pioneer and her accomplishments into the light. Paton’s ceaseless activity created the preconditions for the explosive emergence of the adoption reform movement in the 1970s. She founded the Life History Study Center and Orphan Voyage and was also instrumental in forming two of the movement’s most vital organizations, Concerned United Birthparents and the American Adoption Congress. Her unflagging efforts over five decades helped reverse social workers’ harmful policy and practice concerning adoption and sealed adoption records and change lawmakers’ enactment of laws prejudicial to adult adoptees and birth mothers, struggles that continue to this day. Read more about Jean Paton at http://jeanpaton.com/
