Rethinking Christian Forgiveness

Book excerpt: Is there such a thing as "Christian Forgiveness"? Christians speak as though there is. But what would it be? How would it differ from forgiveness as a basic human enactment? And if there is a distinctive Christian forgiveness, what might it have to say to our world today? To answer these questions, the present work traverses three distinctive intellectual landscapes--continental philosophy, Anglo-American moral philosophy, and psychology--to establish a phenomenology of forgiving before turning to contemporary Christian literature. The multilayered dialogue that ensues challenges the assumptions of contemporary approaches--secular and Christian--and invites the reader to rethink the meaning of Christian forgiveness.