Forgiveness

Some of Jones' theological reflections on Christian forgiveness and his critique of therapeutic forgiveness:

In therapeutic forgiveness "an individual's psychic health replaces the goal of substantive Christian community lived in faithfulness to the Triune God; sin--though not named such--is something that others do to me (typically "despite their best intentions") rather than a more complex reality that pervades our lives and relations as well as afflicting specific behaviors; and a false compassion without attention to repentance and culpability reflects a failure to exercise a discerning judgment oriented toward graceful reconciliation."

~L. Gregory Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, pp. 66-67

"We need an eschatological understanding of Christian forgiveness. Christian forgiveness is not simply a word of acquital; nor is it something that merely refers backward. Rather, Christian forgiveness--and more specifically, forgiven-ness--is a way of life, a fidelity to a relationship of friendship, that must be learned and relearned on our journey toward holiness in God's eschatological Kingdom. It is a way of life that requires the ever-deepening and ever-widening sense of what friendship with God and with God's creatures entails. It is ever-deepening and ever-widening precisely because we must continually find ways--in communion with God, one another, and the whole creation--to unmask our deceptions of ourselves, of others, and of the world through the lives of forgiven-ness."

~L. Gregory Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, pp. 52-53

I think Jones has slightly discounted the personal motivating factors of forgiveness such as increased mental health and has created a slightly idealistic view of humans being able to forgive because of completely selfless reasons. But I do like a lot of what he says.

Anyway, here are some of my own personal scribblings on the matter in my notebook during class. There's some good stuff in here about what forgiveness is and what it is not.

1. Forgiveness is a way of life to be embodied...it is not just something we do when we are hurt.
2. Forgiveness should be viewed as a "craft" instead of a behavior.
3. For Christ, the point of forgiveness (his death on the cross) was not for God to feel good, but rather, to reconcile us to Himself.
4. Therefore, forgiveness should be a path to reconciliation (or at least open the door to it)
5. People may start the forgiveness process because of their own pain...and that's okay. God can use that too. When someone has been deeply wronged, they may not be at a place to embody selfless Christian forgiveness.

I find that therapeutic forgiveness and Christian forgiveness can not be so easily separated as Jones likes to make it. I think one is realistic and one is something to be strived for. I'm not sure I have it all figured out...in fact I know I don't.