Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The debate about forgiveness
- 2 The case against forgiveness
- 3 A third way?
- 4 The case for forgiveness I: what the psychologists say
- 5 The case for forgiveness II: meeting the objections
- 6 The case for forgiveness III: the positive arguments
- Further reading
- Index
5 - The case for forgiveness II: meeting the objections
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The debate about forgiveness
- 2 The case against forgiveness
- 3 A third way?
- 4 The case for forgiveness I: what the psychologists say
- 5 The case for forgiveness II: meeting the objections
- 6 The case for forgiveness III: the positive arguments
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
My personal task is to justify a psychic condition [resentment] which has been condemned by moralists and psychologists alike. The former regard it as a taint, the latter as a kind of sickness …
[But] when I st and by my resentments … I still know that I am the captive of the moral truth of the conflict. … The Flemish SS-man Wajs, who – inspired by his German masters – beat me on the head with a shovel handle when-ever I didn't work fast enough, felt the tool to be an extension of his hand and the blows to be emanations of his psychophysical dynamics. Only I possessed, and still possess, the moral truth of the blows that even today still roar in my skull … my resentments are there in order that the crime become a moral reality for the criminal, in order that he be swept into the truth of his atrocity …
(Améry 1980: 64, 69–70)Anger drained away, in its place came a welling of compassion for both Nagase and for me, coupled with a deep sense of sadness and regret. … Forgiveness became more than an abstract idea: it was now a real possibility. … I began to appreciate how damaged he must have been by what he had done. … Nor was his concern to make reparation an occasional thing; it was truly almost a way of life. …
He looked up at me; he was trembling, in tears, saying over and over “I am very, very sorry”. […]
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- Information
- Forgiveness , pp. 83 - 106Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2010