In current debates about coming to terms with individual and collective wrongdoing, the concept of forgiveness has played an important but controversial role. For a long time, the idea was widespread that a forgiving attitude ― overcoming feelings of resentment and the desire for revenge ― was always virtuous. Recently, however, this idea has been questioned. The contributors to this volume do not take sides for or against forgiveness but rather examine its meaning and function against the backdrop of a more complex understanding of moral repair in a variety of social, circumstantial, and cultural contexts. The book aims to gain a differentiated understanding of the European traditions regarding forgiveness, revenge, and moral repair that have shaped our moral intuitions today whilst also examining examples from other cultural contexts (Asia and Africa, in particular) to explore how different cultural traditions deal with the need for moral repair after wrongdoing.
Author(s): Maria-Sibylla Lotter, Saskia Fischer
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 375
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Introduction: Forgiveness and Other Elements of Moral Repair
1 Forgiveness and the Human Condition
2 The Global Career of an Inconsistent Idea
3 Further Controversies on Forgiveness
4 Diversifying Methods of Moral Repair
References
Overview of Contributions
Part I: Western Traditions of Conceptualizing Forgiveness
Forgiving Sin
References
Interrupting the Cycle of Violence Without Forgiveness? The Story of Joseph in the Bible and Early Jewish Literature
1 The Biblical Story of Joseph
2 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
3 Conclusion
References
“You are Better than Your Deeds”: The Modern Theory of Forgiveness and Its Christian Background
1 The Modern Theory of Forgiveness
2 Forgiveness According to the Greek Understanding
3 Augustine: The Foundation of the Modern Concept of Forgiveness
References
A Christian View: Joseph Butler on Resentment and Forgiveness
1 Introduction: Christianity and Forgiveness
2 Butler’s Qualified Defence of Resentment
3 Butler on the Command to Forgive
4 Forgiveness as a Virtue
References
Verzeihen but not Vergeben: A Distinction Drawn from German Language Usage
References
Amnesty—Amnesia—Anamnesis: Temporal Relations and Structural Antagonisms in the Moral Economy of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
1 Introduction: Structural Problems of Reconciliation by Proxy Within Spaces of Social Resonance
2 Amnesty—Amnesia—Anamnesis: The Temporality of Processing the Past in the Wake of Dictatorships
3 Between Obstinacy and the Readiness for Forgiveness: The Inner-German Engagement with the Burden of Dictatorship
4 Concluding Remarks: Toward a Culture of Clemency
References
Just Another “Legend of the Forgiving Jew”? The Art of Coping with Wrongdoing and How Literature Can Assist
1 Forgiveness Versus Resentment: A Deadlocked Situation?
2 Writing the Holocaust: Guilt, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation
References
On Revenge: The Other of Forgiveness
1 Revenge as the Eerie Modern Antithesis of Forgiveness and Justice
2 Revenge and Forgiveness in the Context of Acephalous Societies and Revenge Cultures
3 Hidden Vengeance in Today’s Culture
4 Revenge and Moral Repair
References
Part II: Cases and Concepts of Moral Repair and Forgiveness from Diverse Cultural Viewpoints
Karma in Buddhism and the Problems of Cross-Cultural and Cross-Religious Comparison of “Guilt” and “Forgiveness”
1 Introduction
2 Object and Process of Comparison
3 Family Resemblance
4 Karma
5 Is It Possible to Delete Karma?
6 Does the Law of Karma Describe a Vicious Cycle?
7 Conclusion 1
8 Conclusion 2
References
Forgiveness in Neo-Confucianism
1 Introduction
2 Classical Confucianism: A Brief Overview
3 The Neo-Confucian Perspective
4 The Emotion of Shame and Cosmic Hierarchy
5 Punishment, Revenge, and the Possibility of Pardon
6 Conclusion
References
Practicing Forgiveness in Chosŏn Korea: With Some Observations on Confucian Normative Discourse
1 Guilt and Reconciliation in Contemporary Korea
2 Forgiveness in Premodern “Vernacular” Culture
3 Confucian Literati’s Ambivalent Stance
4 Guilt and Forgiveness in Dealings with the Dead
5 Bonding through Resentment
6 Distinct Codes of Communication in a Shared Moral Universe
Appendix: Chinese Confucians between Forgiveness and Rigidity Heiner Roetz
References70
The Place of Forgiveness in Conflict Management: Scale-Bound Institutional Arrangements in the Moroccan Nomosphere
1 Introduction
2 Frameworks and Arenas of Forgiving
3 Ethnography of a Fatal Car Accident
4 Institutional Arrangements
5 Infrastructures of Conflict Processing and Their Potential to Fail
6 Institutionalized Forgiveness
7 Embedded Forgiveness
8 Forgiveness, Promise, and Future-Making
9 Concluding Remarks
References
Negotiating Truth-Seeking, Ritual Television, and Healing in Mozambique
1 Introduction
2 Symbolic Structures and Embodied Accountability in Gorongosa
3 Civil War Violence and the Emergence of Gamba Spirits and Gamba Healers
4 Mass Media Technologies and Divination Practices in the Post-War Era
5 A Case of Serious Offense Perpetrated During the Civil War
6 Divinatory Television: Sounds and Sights of Movement
7 Follow-Up of the Ritual Film
8 Clients as Producers and Consumers of Knowledge
9 Conclusion
References
Balancing Individual Dignity and Communal Indignation in African Religious Ethics of Forgiveness
1 Discourse on Forgiveness: Personal and Political
2 Healing Through Social Forgetting and Public Silence: Mozambique and Sierra Leone
3 In Defense of Forgiveness: Tutu
4 Reconciliation Through Restitution: Soyinka
5 Conclusion: Interfacing Tutu and Soyinka
References
Index
