Is there such a thing as "Christian Forgiveness"? Christians speak as though there is. But what would it be? How would it differ from forgiveness as a basic human enactment? And if there is a distinctive Christian forgiveness, what might it have to say to our world today? To answer these questions, the present work traverses three distinctive intellectual landscapes--continental philosophy, Anglo-American moral philosophy, and psychology--to establish a phenomenology of forgiving before turning to contemporary Christian literature. The multilayered dialogue that ensues challenges the assumptions of contemporary approaches--secular and Christian--and invites the reader to rethink the meaning of Christian forgiveness.

The United States has more people locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers than any other country in the history of the world. Exploring the history and foundations of mass incarceration, Dominique Gilliard examines Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion, assessing justice in light of Scripture, and showing how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles.

Is there such a thing as “Christian Forgiveness”? Christians speak as though there is. But what would it be? How would it differ from forgiveness as a basic human enactment? And if there is a distinctive Christian forgiveness, what might it have to say to our world today? To answer these questions, the present work traverses three distinctive intellectual landscapes—continental philosophy, Anglo-American moral philosophy, and psychology—to establish a phenomenology of forgiving before turning to contemporary Christian literature. The multilayered dialogue that ensues challenges the assumptions of contemporary approaches—secular and Christian—and invites the reader to rethink the meaning of Christian forgiveness.

The meaning of ‘forgiveness’ and its role within restorative justice are highly contested. This book offers analysis from practical and academic perspectives within Christian theology, against a rich canvas of related concepts, including victimhood, sin, love, and vulnerability. Critical friends of restorative justice, the authors argue that forgiveness – whether as journey or act, unilateral or mutual, conditional or unconditional – is necessary to achieving a fully restorative resolution to acts of harm. They also suggest that Christianity, with its meaning-giving metanarrative of restoration, and preference for communitarian approaches to justice, may have epistemic value for evaluating and even deepening the theory and practice of restorative justice.

God calls us to forgive those who have hurt us, but that's often easier said than done. Combining insights from his professional research and personal experience, Everett L. Worthington, Jr. shows what it takes (intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally) to move toward and beyond forgiveness and to cross the bridge to reconciliation.

Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.

The Philosophy of Forgiveness, Volume III: Forgiveness in World Religions is a collection of essays that explores the philosophy of forgiveness in different religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Each chapter scours one of these religions for insights on the concept of forgiveness, asking questions such as whether forgiveness is a virtue, whether it is conditional, whether God has standing to forgive, and whether it is permissible not to forgive some extreme wrongs. In some of the chapters, the concept of forgiveness in one religion is compared with that in another. In other chapters, the ideas of different traditions within a religion are compared and contrasted. Also, some chapters compare a religious concept to the views of a philosophical figure, such as Aristotle, Kant, or Derrida. The contributors to the volume come from various cultural and religious backgrounds and from different disciplines, such as philosophy, religious studies, and psychology. The collection is written for scholars, graduate students, and upper-division undergraduate students interested in forgiveness or comparative religious philosophy.