The Christian Art Of Forgiveness

Master the art of forgiveness—practical strategies for opening your heart and living faithfully Cultivate a forgiving mindset and learn how to be truly compassionate to others. This thoughtful guide offers you easy-to-use tools that will help you let go of negativity and grow into the best version of yourself. By focusing on various types of relationships, you will be able to better understand why and when you should forgive, as well as how you can persevere through what can be a challenging journey. Filled with inspiring Scripture, stories, and exercises, you'll discover everything you need to become more forgiving in your everyday life. The Christian Art of Forgiveness includes: Actionable prompts—Learn fundamental forgiveness skills through simple exercises like meditating on how you've hurt others or reflecting on your personal values. Supportive scripture and stories—Better understand what it means to forgive through the Lord's wisdom, as well as illustrative sample stories that show forgiveness in action. Focused guidance—Explore how the unique challenges of forgiveness can change depending on who you're working to forgive—including family, friends, colleagues, community, and even yourself. Learn how to love like Jesus with The Christian Art of Forgiveness.

Master the art of forgiveness--practical strategies for opening your heart and living faithfully Cultivate a forgiving mindset and learn how to be truly compassionate to others. This thoughtful guide offers you easy-to-use tools that will help you let go of negativity and grow into the best version of yourself. By focusing on various types of relationships, you will be able to better understand why and when you should forgive, as well as how you can persevere through what can be a challenging journey. Filled with inspiring Scripture, stories, and exercises, you'll discover everything you need to become more forgiving in your everyday life. The Christian Art of Forgiveness includes: Actionable prompts--Learn fundamental forgiveness skills through simple exercises like meditating on how you've hurt others or reflecting on your personal values. Supportive scripture and stories--Better understand what it means to forgive through the Lord's wisdom, as well as illustrative sample stories that show forgiveness in action. Focused guidance--Explore how the unique challenges of forgiveness can change depending on who you're working to forgive--including family, friends, colleagues, community, and even yourself. Learn how to love like Jesus with The Christian Art of Forgiveness.

Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian Gospel. It goes hand in hand with love, mercy, and grace, the fundamental theological virtues. However, forgiveness is easier to define than it is to embody. This unique collection of essays brings together theologians, ethicists, and ministry practitioners into a constructive dialog which explores the complex and crucial concept of forgiveness: what it is, where it is to be found, and how it might be practiced. These essays reflect the perspectives of those from various traditions who nonetheless take the Christian Scriptures seriously, believe that forgiveness is central to living out the Gospel, and are creative in the ways in which forgiveness can be practiced. Forgiveness is an art and not simply a science; as such it requires trust, skill, and hope alongside love, mercy, and grace if it is to be embodied. This volume offers a unique window into the art of forgiveness and the faithful and innovative ways in which it is to be understood, embodied, and cultivated.

We know we’re supposed to forgive, but we just can’t forget. And it’s that struggle in our soul that keeps our hurts and hearts from being healed – creating a gap between our pain and the peace we’re so desperate for to seem completely unbridgeable. When it comes to forgiveness, we so easily confuse God’s love with our own and find ourselves frustrated and confused without a clear understanding of what God is really asking us to do. It’s through The Forgiveness Factor that you’ll come to clearly understand what God means when He says to ‘forgive’. And more than likely, it’s not what you think. It’s in uncovering the truth about forgiveness, by revealing the lies, that you’ll be set free from the burden that forgiveness seems to bring. You’ll realize that you’re only giving up your hope for a different past ... realizing that wrongs may never be made right, but they can be forgiven.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chair of The Elders, and Chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, along with his daughter, the Reverend Mpho Tutu, offer a manual on the art of forgiveness—helping us to realize that we are all capable of healing and transformation. Tutu's role as the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission taught him much about forgiveness. If you asked anyone what they thought was going to happen to South Africa after apartheid, almost universally it was predicted that the country would be devastated by a comprehensive bloodbath. Yet, instead of revenge and retribution, this new nation chose to tread the difficult path of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Each of us has a deep need to forgive and to be forgiven. After much reflection on the process of forgiveness, Tutu has seen that there are four important steps to healing: Admitting the wrong and acknowledging the harm; Telling one's story and witnessing the anguish; Asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness; and renewing or releasing the relationship. Forgiveness is hard work. Sometimes it even feels like an impossible task. But it is only through walking this fourfold path that Tutu says we can free ourselves of the endless and unyielding cycle of pain and retribution. The Book of Forgiving is both a touchstone and a tool, offering Tutu's wise advice and showing the way to experience forgiveness. Ultimately, forgiving is the only means we have to heal ourselves and our aching world.

This book grows out of the conviction that, as the author says, "it is necessary to think about forgiveness not in spite of Auschwitz but because of Auschwitz." Drawing on the Bible and church history, Geiko M�ller-Fahrenholz shows how the idea of forgiveness has been distorted, abused and largely lost, and why it is so important to reclaim this healing art, not only in personal relations but especially in the relations between nations and peoples. He devotes one chapter to a careful analysis of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up after the end of apartheid in South Africa, and its relevance to many other situations of deeply rooted hostility and conflict in the world today.