Religious Forgiveness Research Articles

The Politicalvs. the Theological: The Scope of Secularity in Arendtian Forgiveness

ABSTRACTThe conventional interpretation of Hannah Arendt's accounts of forgiveness considers them secularistic. The secular features of her thinking that resist grounding the act of forgiving in divine criteria offer a good corrective to religious forgiveness that fosters depoliticization. Arendt's vision of free politics, however, calls for much more nuance and complexity regarding the secular and the religious in realizing forgiveness for transitional politics than the secularist rendition of her thinking allows. After identifying an area of ambiguity in Arendt's thoughts that invites further investigation of religious forgiveness, this study seeks to relieve her misgivings about religion's role in politics by engaging with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology, which emphasizes worldliness and altruism in religious faith. Through constructive engagements with both thinkers, the article presents a balanced Arendtian position that is neither solely secularist nor complacent about religion in politics.

Framing Forgiveness: An Analysis from the Offender's Point of View

This article examines (1) how offenders (i.e., death row inmates) express forgiveness at the moment of imminent death, (2) why certain expressions of forgiveness are used more frequently than others, and (3) whether there is any change over time in the hierarchy of preferred forgiveness expressions. Offenders frame forgiveness in religious terms for the most part and they prioritize forgiveness primarily by seeking religious forgiveness from others, and secondarily by seeking forgiveness from God for themselves. From there, a declining share of offenders use their final words to forgive others (religious context), and seek forgiveness from others (religious context). Religious coping theory explains this hierarchy as essentially an attempt to gain intimacy with others, followed by a need to establish control and gain comfort and closeness to God. The few nonreligious attempts to seek forgiveness from others are interpreted as efforts to gain empathy with one's victims, express adaptive guilt, and engage behaviors of reparative action, while nonreligious attempts to offer forgiveness to others are interpreted as efforts to enhance psychological well-being. Analysis of change over time reveals an increase in expressions of religious forgiveness that parallels the implementation of policies that allow the family and friends of murder victims to witness an offender's execution. The implications of these findings for the future study of forgiveness are discussed.

Religious Beliefs and Public Support for Prisoner Reentry

The sustainability of the modern prisoner reentry movement may rest heavily upon public support. Although little is known about how public opinion toward reentry is shaped, religion is potentially a key contributor. Several studies indicate that religious perspectives affect public attitudes toward punishment and rehabilitation. The current study aims to determine whether religious beliefs contribute to support for or opposition against three distinct approaches to prisoner reentry. Using survey data obtained from a randomly selected sample of a nationally representative Midwestern state, multivariate regression models were used to examine whether feelings of religious forgiveness and belief in a punitive God affected attitudes toward transitional programming, transitional housing, and assisting post-release offenders through housing agencies. Respondents who felt greater religious forgiveness and had less belief in a punitive God more strongly supported transitional programming and transitional housing and expressed greater opposition to denying housing assistance for recently released offenders. Both advocates and opponents of reentry initiatives should consider religious beliefs when attempting to gain support for their respective positions.

Clemency and the Unitary Executive

President Obama’s use of enforcement discretion to achieve important domestic policy initiatives – including in the field of criminal law – have sparked a vigorous debate about where the President’s duty under the Take Care Clause ends and legitimate enforcement discretion begins. But even with broad power to set enforcement charging policies, the President controls only the discretion of his or her agents at the front-end to achieve policy goals. What about enforcement decisions already made, either by his or her own agents or actors in previous administrations, with which the President disagrees? The Framers anticipated this issue in the context of criminal law and vested the President with broad and explicit back-end control through the constitutional pardon power. But while centralized authority over enforcement discretion at the front-end has grown, the clemency power finds itself falling into desuetude.This Article explores the fall of the clemency power and argues for its resurrection as a critical mechanism for the President to assert control over the executive branch in criminal cases. While clemency has typically been referred to as an exercise of mercy and even analogized to religious forgiveness, it also serves a more structurally important role in the American constitutional order that has been all but overlooked. It is a critical mechanism for the President to control the executive department. Those in favor of a unitary executive should encourage its more robust employment. But even critics of unitary executive theory should embrace clemency as a mechanism of control because, whatever the merits of other unitary executive claims involving military power or oversight over administrative agencies, clemency stands on different footing. It is explicitly and unambiguously grounded in the Constitution’s text, and it comes with an established historical pedigree. It is also a crucial checking mechanism given the landscape of criminal justice today. The current environment of overbroad federal criminal laws and excessive charging by federal prosecutors has produced a criminal justice system of unprecedented size and scope with overcrowded and expensive federal prisons and hundreds of thousands of individuals hindered from reentering society because of a federal record. Clemency is a key tool for addressing poor enforcement decisions and injustices in this system, as well as checking disparities in how different United States Attorneys enforce the law.

A Study on the Relationship between Religiosity and Forgiveness among Students

The objective of the research is the determination of relationship between religiosity and forgiveness. This study is based on the description-correlation method. 148 students (61 females & 63 males) were chosen through cluster, multi-staged and random sampling at the university. They filled out two questionnaires on religiosity, based on Glock-Stark model, and the tendency toward forgiveness. The data was analyzed via correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Between the variables of religiosity (ideological, ritual, experimental, and outcomes) and forgiveness, and its components (self, others, and situation), there is only forgiveness which has found no meaningful association with religious components. The results of regression analysis indicated that the total score of forgiveness and two subscales of forgiveness and forgiveness of situation have been predicted by the religious forgiveness. The results of the study are meant to confirm the findings which conceptualize forgiveness and religiosity as related constituents. These results are also useful for the experts who are looking for the patterns of preventing and treatment of mental and behavioral disorders.

Spirituality and coping with life stress among adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the role of spiritual coping in adult survivors’ responses to current life stressors. Although there has been research on general coping and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), there has been no work done on spiritual coping behaviour and survivors’ current adjustment. Method One hundred and one adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse volunteered to participate in this study. Survivors were recruited through advertisements placed in various community venues. Survivors completed questionnaires on abuse descriptors, the coping resources of social support and general cognitive appraisal, spiritual coping and current distress. Spiritual coping was assessed in relation to a current negative life event. Results In general, spiritual coping predicted the current distress of adult survivors beyond the contribution of demographics, severity of abuse, cognitive appraisal and support satisfaction. For example, self-directed ( β = .27), active surrender ( β = .32), and passive deferral ( β = −.35) significantly contributed to the prediction of anxious mood, [ F(15, 60) = 3.31, p < .0001], while only spiritual discontent ( β = .26) predicted depressive mood, [ F(15, 60) = 3.66, p < .0001] beyond the contribution of other factors. Negative forms of spiritual coping (e.g., spiritual discontent) tend to be related to greater distress, while more positive forms of spiritual coping (e.g., spiritual support) were related to less distress. For instance, spiritual discontent coping was related to greater depressive mood, while active surrender coping and religious forgiveness coping (i.e., seeking God's help to relinquish negative emotion) were associated with lower levels of depressive mood. Conclusions The results highlight the importance of making a distinction between negative and positive forms of spiritual coping when investigating the role of spirituality in the current life functioning of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The religious path toward forgiveness

Researchers designing forgiveness interventions often ignore religious contributions to the forgiveness process, even though many individuals draw upon their religious faith when trying to forgive. This article describes some of the similarities and differences between secular and religious forgiveness interventions, using a group intervention for divorced individuals as an example. Research findings comparing secular and religious forgiveness interventions are briefly examined. This article also examines ways in which religion might impede the forgiveness process. Finally, suggestions are provided for addressing religious issues in group interventions.

Can group interventions facilitate forgiveness of an ex-spouse? A randomized clinical trial.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of 2 versions of an 8-session forgiveness group intervention for divorced individuals. Participants (randomized, n=192; analyzed, n=149) were randomly assigned to a secular forgiveness condition, a religious forgiveness condition, or a no-intervention comparison condition. Measures of forgiveness and mental health were obtained at pretest, posttest, and 6-week follow-up. Participants in both intervention conditions increased significantly more than comparison participants on self-reported forgiveness of an ex-spouse and understanding of forgiveness. Participants in the secular condition showed a greater decrease in depressive symptoms than comparison participants. Intrinsic religiousness did not moderate intervention effects.

Patterns of Positive and Negative Religious Coping with Major Life Stressors

This study attempted to identify positive and negative patterns of religious coping methods, develop a brief measure of these religious coping patterns, and examine their implications for health and adjustment. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, positive and negative religious coping patterns were identified in samples of people coping with the Oklahoma City bombing, college students coping with major life stressors, and elderly hospitalized patients coping with serious medical illnesses. A 14-item measure of positive and negative patterns of religious coping methods (Brief RCOPE) was constructed. The positive pattern consisted of religious forgiveness, seeking spiritual support, collaborative religious coping, spiritual connection, religious purification, and benevolent religious reappraisal. The negative pattern was defined by spiritual discontent, punishing God reappraisals, interpersonal religious discontent, demonic reap praisal, and reappraisal of God's powers. As predicted, people made more use of the positive than the negative religious coping methods. Furthermore, the two patterns had different implications for health and adjustment. The Brief RCOPE offers an efficient, theoretically meaningful way to integrate religious dimensions into models and studies of stress, coping, and health.