Everett Worthington, Jr., a well-known expert on the emotional and psychological dimensions of forgiveness, has given us a book so many need: forgiveness applied to more than just interpersonal dimensions. His new book is called A Just Forgiveness: Responsible Healing Without Excusing Injustice
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He makes this statement about a situation that was provoked for me a few months back when I heard from a pastor-friend about relations breaking down in a church: “Most people who leave their job in frustration and anger don’t do so because of unfairness of pay, perks or privileges. They leave because they have unresolved conflict with a co-worker or boss. It just gets to the place where they don’t feel like going to work and they start looking for a new job. I wanted to help people resolve workplace unhappiness and hurts.”
Anyway, here are the topics discussed in this most practicable of books:
Understanding forgiveness through understanding humility, justice, forgiveness and dealing with wrongdoers. He uses a “REACH” theory: Recall the hurt, empathize, altruistic gift of forgiveness, commit publicly to forgive in a way that can be observed, and hold on to forgiveness.
And living out a just forgiveness in the:
Family
Church
Communities and Society
World
What can we do? is his last question.