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Guest Thinkers

How and When to Forgive Someone

How to keep hope alive? Without a constructive answer to toxic anger and immobilizing guilt, we seem doomed to despair about chances for renewal. One answer is forgiveness.

Why forgive? What makes it the commendable thing to do at the appropriate time? It’s not simply a matter of lifting the burden of toxic resentment or of immobilizing guilt, however beneficial that may be ethically and psychologically. It is not a merely therapeutic matter, as though this were just about you. Rather, when the requisite conditions are met, forgiveness is what a good person would seek because it expresses fundamental moral ideals. These include ideals of spiritual growth and renewal; truth-telling; mutual respectful address; responsibility and respect; reconciliation and peace.


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