Practice Of Forgiveness Research Articles

Theorizing forgiveness from Nishida Kitarō’s account of love

ABSTRACT The present paper begins with an investigation of Nishida Kitarō’s discussion of love in Zen no Kenkyū. Nishida claims that love is a deep union of subject and object, where the self is casted off and unites with the other. In other words, love is the expression of the self dissolving into the other, in which the self negates itself in order to further the other’s awakening to no-self. This paper then argues that we can carve out an account of forgiveness based on Nishida’s view of love. That if forgiveness is a practice of a higher form of love, then love, as the groundwork of a self-contradictory standpoint, is nothing other than the practice of forgiveness, and forgiveness is nothing other than repeated acts of love. Contemporary human life is one of co-existence, but conflict and divisions seem to be more of the rule of the day, which speaks to the importance of recovering the lost art of forgiveness. This paper seeks to re-assert forgiveness, as drawn from Nishida’s view of love, in the attempt to heal and address the fragmentation that prevents dialogue between warring factions.

Ilustrasi Praktik Diskriminasi Pengampuan Penyandang Disabilitas Mental dan Tinjauan Maslahat dalam Hukum Islam

The discourse on the legal capacity of persons with mental disabilities is currently increasing among the observers of the rights of the disabled, including Islamic law observers. The present situation is driven by the demands of the disabled community who prefers the policy on giving parole to be abolished, and hopes for it to be altered with another newer policy known as ‘supported decision making’. Parole is considered to be discriminatory, as it violates human rights, and eradicates the rights of certain legal subject which such rights are categorized as the non-derogable rights. This article touches upon two issues, first, it illustrates the practice of offering parole in a way that is considered discriminatory for persons with mental disabilities. Second, it reviews the concept of benefit in Islamic law by looking at the practice of forgiveness that has been conducted. The method used in this research is empirical juridical. The research concluded that, firstly, the parole policy has had an impact on discriminatory practices, violating the rights of persons with mental disabilities, and should be abolished and replaced with a newer policy model, namely ‘supported decision making’, which means that persons with mental disabilities are not replaced (substituted) but facilitated by the creation of a system that provides support in the decision making, especially legal decisions. Second, in Islamic legal thoughts, the policy of giving forgiveness is considered not in line with the concept of benefit. Benefit means that the most essential feature in the legal system is the benefit, public interest, and positive outcomes resulting from the said system. An important conclusion in this research confirms that the parole policy has had a negative impact on persons with mental disabilities, thus should be replaced with a policy of ‘supported decision making’ which is considered useful, non-discriminatory, and in line with the rights of persons with disabilities.

Fornication and adultery in the city of Debrecen (1547–1625) compared with the morality of Geneva

To be sure, the more productive field of the international research on Protestantism is related to the subject of social history. In the case of the Calvin studies, for instance, readers will see, much has been written about the operation of the Genevan civil-church administration, consistorial discipline, sexual sins, and family-marital life. Their authors’ outstanding effort was to consult with the original manuscripts of the Genevan Archives. However, the early generations of Protestant preachers not only in Western, but in Central East Europe were trying to commit everything to renew the public morality of people, still the illumination of the Hungarian pastors’ views on the new spiritual and religious dimensions of family life, is still a neglected part of the research. Consequently, it would be interesting to scrutinize, for instance, the public morality related to the sexual crimes of local townsfolk of the city of Debrecen which apparently was the center of the Hungarian Reformation since 1562/63. Doing so, the present research deals with the operation of the law court, the number of cases, the crimes, and motives represented in the Registers of the Magistracy of Debrecen during the period of 1547–1625. Figures and statistics presented by the article point out how important was the practice of forgiveness in the religious life in Debrecen. It is taken for granted that the main results of the study permit to take a brief comparison of the sexual morality of the two Calvinist towns, namely: Debrecen and Geneva.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is based on the field of systematic theology. The study offers an attempt to understand sexual sins/crimes in their 16th and 17th century theological, judicial, and historical context.

Facilitation of Forgiveness: Impact on Health and Well-being.

Although the practice of forgiveness is encouraged, the healing properties of this virtue by health care professionals are often overlooked. Forgiveness is the voluntary, conscious decision to abandon negative feelings toward another who has caused hurt and replacing those feelings with unconditional love and compassion. It is not about forgetting the hurt or ignoring the pain; it is an actual transformation of the heart. The Enright Forgiveness Process Model and the Pyramid Model of Forgiveness are 2 models that facilitate the forgiveness process. By utilizing either of these pathways, the forgiver ultimately experiences peace of mind and a "release from emotional prison" that leads to holistic healing. As a result, the forgiver experiences lower levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression, which improves quality of life. In addition, physiological benefits such as decreased stress levels, lower blood pressure, and a lower heart rate have also been reported. Throughout the course of their careers, nurses encounter patients and families in acute or end-of-life care situations who want to forgive or be forgiven. As holistic health care providers, nurses should be able to facilitate and close this gap in patient care. This article attempts to raise awareness to the importance of forgiveness in health and well-being among nurses and other health care professionals.

Kristeva vis-à-vis Hegel

This article reconstructs and compares Kristeva’s account of psychoanalytic interpretation as a practice of forgiveness with Hegel’s account of the origin of Absolute Knowing in the forgiveness constitutive of mutual recognition. An emphasis on homologies between the memory-work of Kristevan psychoanalysis and the recollective process of Hegelian Absolute Knowing elicits deeper affinities between Kristeva and Hegel than have previously been supposed. Both Kristevan and Hegelian forgiveness operate as the healing of an originary guilt, achieved through the verbal confession and examination of the confessor’s particular biographical and historical past, negating and raising up—sublating or sublimating—the contradictions of consciousness. Psychoanalysis and Absolute Knowing both enact in the present the reconciliation which religion perpetually defers to an unspecified future. While not replacing the institution of legal punishment, Kristevan and Hegelian forgiveness qua personal and social renewal and rebirth provide for the possibility of radical political transformation.

Payback, Forgiveness, Accountability: Exercising Responsible Agency in the Midst of Structured Racial Harm

In a context of political conflict, the practice of vengeance, the paying back of harm in exchange for harm suffered, is obviously an ethical problem. The practice of forgiveness is equally though differently problematic when applied to political conflict despite the fact that it is a moral ideal. A third approach, the practice of moral accountability, is more ethically justifiable, yet it remains unclear what it is conceptually and what it would involve practically in a particular context. In this essay, the author develops a conceptual framework for moral accountability, grounded in a broader understanding of justice as responsibility to conflictual and unchosen relationships. Drawing on contemporary sources in Christian ethics, as well as insights from anti-racism community organizing, the author argues that practices of moral accountability restructure the pattern of these relationships, such that perpetrators and guilty bystanders are more likely to assume, rather than avoid, responsibility for causing structured racial harm.

Ambivalence About Forgiveness

AbstractOur ideas about forgiveness seem to oscillate between idealization and scepticism. How should we make sense of this apparent conflict? This paper argues that we should learn something from each, seeing these views as representing opposing moments in a perennial and well-grounded moral ambivalence towards forgiveness. Once we are correctly positioned, we shall see an aspect of forgiveness that recommends precisely this ambivalence. For what will come into view will be certain key psychological mechanisms of moral-epistemic influence – other-addressed and self-addressed mechanisms of moral social construction – that enable forgiveness to function well when it is well-functioning, but which are also intrinsically prone to deterioration into one or another form of bad faith. Thus forgiveness is revealed as necessarily containing seeds of its own corruption, showing ambivalence to be a generically appropriate attitude. Moreover, it is emphasized that where forgiver and forgiven are relating to one another in the context of asymmetries of social power, the practice of forgiveness is likely to be further compromised, notably increasing the risk of negative influence on the moral-epistemic states of either the forgiver or the forgiven, or both.

Rediscovering Confession The Practice of Forgiveness and Where it Leads, by David A. Steere

Rediscovering Confession The Practice of Forgiveness and Where it Leads by David A. Steere. Routledge, 2009. 296pp. Hb. $67.95, 9780415997461; Pb. $51.95, ISBN-13: 9781138881761.

Affective capitalism, humanitarianism and extractivism in Colombia: old and new borders for future times

ABSTRACT Contemporary Colombian conjuncture encompasses two dynamics. These incorporate social, economic, political and cultural aspects, whose related rationalities are yet to be mapped out and understood in their complex and multi-layered dimensions and registers. On the one hand, as I will explain throughout the text, we have been witness to on-going peace talks between the government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia guerrilla group, a whole set of practices of forgiveness, inaugurations of memory museums, the passing of the victims and land restitution law, as well as the recognition of victims and the effervescence of their movements and organizations. These factors have spiralled victims’ demonstrations and fuelled marches all over the country. On the other hand, there are increased rates of foreign investment in those regions that, until as little as a decade ago, were subject to appalling rates of internal displacement, massacres and disappearances, and which now constitute new borders where global capitalism has been able to reconfigure and increase its rates of capital accumulation. In this article, I analyse the processes referred to above and their complex relationships from the vantage point of a cultural studies interrogation of the affective and the popular, focusing on two Colombian regions: Montes de María and Mapiripán. My goal is to understand how different groups and actors are experiencing these processes in their everyday lives. Here, I include victims and their organizations but also government officials and entrepreneurs related to agro-industry initiatives – mentioned below – today refashioned within the new mantra of corporate responsibility. I want to understand the issue of where people are located and what they are doing, facing, consuming, or resisting in terms of these new challenges. Finally, I wish to offer an analytical study that can capture the everyday textures of these processes in a complex and concrete fashion.

Forgiveness Therapy in the Relief of Discomfort

Patients present with a myriad of complaints. These complaints cover a range from the physical to the psychological. Many of the presenting symptoms and ramifications of the disease process can be a reflection of the psycho-physical relationship in all human beings. The practice of forgiveness has been discussed throughout history usually through a religious lens, yet, research points to forgiveness as a means to reduce anger, depression, to improve health and happiness and to increase selfesteem. It is interesting to note that it is forgiveness work that enables individuals to enable lasting personal change and move forward in a positive fashion. It is also interesting to note that forgiveness therapy is a crucial part of the hypnotherapeutic interaction when dealing with pain and other discomfort.

Competing Discourses of Forgiveness: A Dialogic Perspective

The present study analyzed online narratives of forgiveness/transgression to explore how the interplay of competing discourses struggled to construct meanings of forgiveness. Grounded in the theoretical framework of relational dialectics theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011; Baxter & Montgomery, 1996), a contrapuntal analysis found that discourses of forgiveness struggled in three main ways: (a) outward practice versus inward process, (b) liberation for self versus liberation for others, and (c) long process versus epiphany. Struggling in direct and indirect ways, competing discourses constructed meanings of forgiveness. Connections to previous research and implications for studying the practice of forgiveness are discussed.

H. A. Marujo and L. M. Neto (Eds): Positive Nations and Communities: Collective, Qualitative, and Cultural-Sensitive Processes in Positive Psychology

Positive nations and communities should foster well-being and justice at the individual and collective levels. This ideal state of affairs implies that well-being must be present in the people that inhabit the nation, as well as in the very structures that constitute the community or state. Thus we can talk about the well-being of people and the well-being of institutions. When it comes to justice, we expect positive nations to promote fairness for all members of society through ethical, principled, and just institutions. In this framework, individuals and collectives are beneficiaries as well as agents of wellness and fairness. Using this lens, we can organize the contributions to the book edited by Marujo and Neto. Feelings of interpersonal well-being and sense of community are insightfully explored, for example, through the constructs of altruism, friendship, forgiveness, and the practice of Satsang, which are women’s singing groups in India. Occupational wellbeing is explored in the professional development of psychologists and students through the use of co-curricular activities. The chapters dealing with these issues touch also on psychological well-being, and how it might be enhanced by participating in chanting groups or extra-curricular activities. People acquire self-efficacy by practicing a skill or studying a trade in groups. Psychological well-being is also enhanced through the practice of forgiveness, altruism, and friendship. The economic well-being of nations is also discussed in the first chapter dealing with various paradigms of ontology and epistemology and in the chapter dealing with the nation of Bhutan, which is focused on promoting happiness, and not just economic growth. Not much is said in the book about the promotion of physical health and wellness, which in my view complements interpersonal, communal, occupational, psychological, and economic well-being. Applied Research Quality Life (2014) 9:449–451 DOI 10.1007/s11482-014-9313-7

Forgotten Virtues

Forgotten Virtues

Reflexiones sobre la naturaleza y la práctica del perdón en el contexto doctrinal no-teísta del Budismo

This article deals with the concept of forgiveness within Buddhist thought understood this concept as "a way to prevent negative thoughts, and therefore harmful, detrimental to peace, tranquility and mental health of the individual." The practice of forgiveness must necessarily be accompanied by feelings of love and compassion toward the offender and not motivated by a selfish desire to get admiration for the act of forgiving. The act of forgiveness is a difficult one but it is at the same time an important act of personal growth.

Reflexiones sobre la Naturaleza y la práctica del perdón en el contexto doctrinal no-teísta del Budismo

This article deals with the concept of forgiveness within Buddhist thought understood this concept as "a way to prevent negative thoughts, and therefore harmful, detrimental to peace, tranquility and mental health of the individual." The practice of forgiveness must necessarily be accompanied by feelings of love and compassion toward the offender and not motivated by a selfish desire to get admiration for the act of forgiving. The act of forgiveness is a difficult one but it is at the same time an important act of personal growth..

Counterfeit Phrases and Illusory Eschatons: Forgiveness inJude the Obscure

Abstract Complicating the dichotomy that critics have perceived between cruelty and charity in Jude the Obscure, this article argues that the practice of forgiveness in the novel mingles cruelty and charity in surprising and consequential ways. While Hardy's treatment of forgiveness in Tess of the d'Urbervilles has been repeatedly examined, critics have largely neglected the significance of forgiveness to Jude. With the help of Jacques Derrida's work on forgiveness, the first part of this essay reveals that Jude's characters regularly fail to find a common ethical language that answers the complexities of the moral frameworks of both participants in conversations about forgiveness. Lacking a shared language, Jude's characters instead counterfeit one another's respective uses of that language. Such scenes breed unstable compromises, which this study examines using John Milbank's analysis of human forgiveness as an illusory eschaton. The concluding section of the essay explores the significance of such ...

Questionable Associations: The Role of Forgiveness in Transitional Justice

Forgiveness has gained surprising prominence in transitional justice circles due, in part, to the impact of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, advocacy of forgiveness by educational and social psychologists and critiques of retributive justice in critical legal studies. Drawing on philosophy, psychology, literature, legal theory and records of transitional justice in situ, this article argues that while advocates claim significant personal and social benefits derive from forgiveness, transitional justice should not consider forgiveness an a priori good or as commensurate with either reconciliation or peacebuilding. Before advocating forgiveness as a form of personal healing or social reconciliation, artisans of transitional justice mechanisms should consider that the repression of anger or resentment may be psychologically harmful and that perceived pressure to forgive may cause significant psychic distress. They should carefully consider the ways in which rhetoric or practices of forgiveness may facilitate perpetrators’ ability to do harm, teach victims to make peace with their oppression and reinforce structures of inequality. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the drunkard Marmeladov cavalierly recounts to the novel’s hero, Raskolnikov, how his drunkenness has put his family into abject destitution; how he has grovelled for loans that he fully intends to squander on drink and has no intention of repaying; how he looks on lamely as his consumptive wife, Katerina Ivanovna, beats the children when they cry from hunger and coerces his adolescent daughter, Sonya, into prostitution; how he has stolen back from his wife the money earned through a briefly held job and been to Sonya to beg for more money. As Marmeladov lies on his deathbed, Katerina Ivanovna obstinately refuses to forgive him despite his pathetic pleas, instead confronting him with the devastating effects of his behaviour – the family’s wretched living conditions, his starving and ill-clothed children and a daughter who has prostituted herself – and storms off to ‘find justice.’ 1 Forgiveness, she insists, is not commensurate with justice, does not provide for her material needs or repair the harm done to her and her children and, while expedient for

Forgiveness and the End of Economy

This paper considers the economic effect of the Christian practice of forgiveness. In particular, the argument is that the gift of divine forgiveness in Christ, as articulated by Anselm, interrupts `economy' (with its logic of scarcity, debt, and finally death) and puts in place an aneconomic order (with its theo-logic of abundance, ceaseless generosity, and resurrection) that is full of the promise of deliverance from the affliction of capitalism. Also addressed here is the way that the human reception of divine forgiveness takes shape in the Works of Mercy, how these works are not rightly understood as `mere charity' at home within `economy' but in fact constitute the appearance of an order that heralds the end of economy, and, finally, how this practice of forgiveness redeems/ reconfigures what is commonly called `economic justice'.

Religion and Spirituality as Predictors of Well-Being Among Chinese American and Korean American Older Adults

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to understand the multidimensional aspects of religion, spirituality, and well-being among Asian American older adults with a primary focus on examining how much the effect of religion and spirituality can account for subjective well-being. Respondents were 145 older adults (76 Chinese and 69 Koreans). In an attempt to measure a broad range of religion and spirituality, the Multidimensional Measures of Religiousness and Spirituality (MMRS; NIA/Fetzer, 1999) were used. Utilization of religious coping skills was associated with greater life satisfaction. Greater practice of forgiveness contributed to improving life satisfaction and self-efficacy for older Korean and Chinese Americans. Religious support was associated with decreased depression and increased life satisfaction. In contrast, less private religious practice enhanced greater self-efficacy. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Religion and Forgiveness from a Hong Kong Chinese Perspective

This study investigated the relationship between religion and forgiveness in a sample of Hong Kong Chinese teachers (n=230) and students (n=714). Findings indicated some influence from Chinese cultural values in the conceptualization of forgiveness. Religious affiliation was the strongest predictor of concepts of forgiveness, whereas religious practice predicted attitudes toward “forgivingness” and the practice of forgiveness. No significant difference in forgiveness between believers and non-believers in real life situations was reported. Implications for future research on forgiveness are discussed.