Henry J. Charles brings forgiveness into modernity as an integral moral imperative PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (Release Date TBD) When the concept of forgiveness takes the center stage, most Christian and Western culture-oriented people usually relate it to its religious connotation, in every likelihood drawing on the ultimate expression of forgiveness in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Author Henry J. Charles, though affirming the roots of forgiveness in the Biblical heritage, considers the notion in its broader dimensions as an ethical imperative, one also capable of geo-political application.
FORGIVENESS CONSIDERED first explores the word in its biblical and non-biblical meanings. It also clarifies the several misrepresentations and misconceptions of forgiveness in ordinary understanding. In other portions of the book, the author deals with forgiveness as a special process akin to a fundamental change in character. He also deals with implications of forgiving and forgetting, and the idea that certain acts can be considered unforgiveable.
The book finally looks to special geopolitical contexts, where nations attempt to come to term with histories of brutality and oppression, as a way to envisage and realize a more liberating future. He examines the realities of amnesty, forgiveness, and reconciliation in South Africa, in the light of the latter’s history of apartheid, in the hope that forgiveness and reconciliation may be accorded a much wider application in human affairs than repairing the serious breaches that occur in interpersonal relations.
