Abstract
The transformative potential of forgiveness has been lauded in theory but its outworking on the ground has proved more challenging. Drawing on a study with 122 Presbyterians in post-violence Northern Ireland, this article returns to debates on forgiveness. We propose a modest role for religious discourses on forgiveness, situated within a wider process of political forgiveness. We advance ‘gracious remembering’ as a contextual, faith-based, transitional concept for helping create conditions in which political forgiveness may become more likely. Drawing on our empirical study, as well as the work of Northern Irish public theologian Johnston McMaster, gracious remembering is orientated around a vernacular understanding of grace and utilizes a four-fold framework to guide grassroots and civil society dialogues about the past: (1) the rehumanizing of the other by acknowledging the human cost of violence, (2) giving victims a public voice, (3) engaging in self-critical reflection, and (4) listening to alternative interpretations of events. Overall, we seek to demonstrate that religious discourses and social scientific framings of political forgiveness need not be opposed; and forgiveness and remembering need not be opposed. Ultimately, we argue for the value of faith-based contributions in post-violence settings, but with ample recognition of their limitations.
Highlights
Forgiveness is a key concept in the study of religion, conflict, and peacebuilding (Brewer et al 2018; Leiner and Schliesser 2018; Schliesser et al 2020)
Scholarship on forgiveness has ranged from theological reflections to empirical, social scientific studies that emphasize that the meanings given to these concepts vary across time and place (Jones 1995; Lederach 1998; Robinson 2015; Tombs 2017)
Emerging work in the relatively new field of feminist trauma theologies may provide some scope for expressions of grief and anger (O’Donnell and Cross 2020); observations that dovetail with other work by McMaster (2006), in which he argues for the creation of spaces in which people can lament their losses
Summary
Forgiveness is a key concept in the study of religion, conflict, and peacebuilding (Brewer et al 2018; Leiner and Schliesser 2018; Schliesser et al 2020). Remembering past atrocities is understood as fuelling present-day resentments and violence (Reiff 2011, 2016); forgiveness, it would seem, is not possible without at least some forgetting In some contexts, it is religious actors who bring discourses and rituals of forgiveness and reconciliation to the public sphere, claiming that these should be included as part of wider processes of peacebuilding (Amstutz 2005; Philpott 2006). In the Northern Irish Presbyterian context, the emphasis on God’s grace as a gift serves as a counter to traditional theological approaches that make forgiveness conditional on repentance This underlines the value of religious actors’ ability to speak to (and potentially reform) their own traditions as part of dealing with their own pasts. The controversy meant that the event received far more media attention than would have been expected (O’Brien 2021), including live coverage by RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland television
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