Embodying Forgiveness by L Gregory Jones

...Jones's argument moves between theological claims which are relatively abstract and narratives of particular incidents which are compelling-ly concrete...

...Is self-sacrificing forgiveness, and even Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, derivative from something more fundamental, namely compassionate love and mercy...

...The problem is how, by means of theological reflection and practical examples, to help individual Christians, families, and congregations initiate and sustain that process...

...confession, repentance, and excommunication...

...Jones goes on to note that forgiveness calls for pardon in some circumstances, rectification of wrong in others, and sometimes even retributive punishment...

...The foundational document for Christian identity is structured around four narratives whose rich symbolism conveys similar yet distinctive portraits of God, Christ, and redemption...

...Rather, becoming "holy people, people of the Truth" seems to require hard work, discipline, and even a constant consciousness of the differences between Christians and other people...

...Jones's book could be complemented by Donald Shriver's An Ethic for Enemies (Oxford), which also begins by establishing the importance of forgiveness as part of Christian social ethics...

...Indeed, at the end of Embodying Forgiveness, Jones makes a similar narrative move by analyzing in more depth three literary accounts of forgiveness or its refusal...

...Still, forgiveness is above all integral to Christian belief in a triune God of self-giving communion...

...Yet the result of this multipronged approach to eucharistic practice seems diffuse...

...Indeed, the New Testament reminds us of the limits of systematic theological discourse as an instigator of Christian practice...

...Christian forgiveness is a way of living in God's Spirit under the power of the eschatological kingdom and in a relation of deepening friendship with God...

...In this way, Jones takes pains to differentiate Christian forgiveness from the therapeutic variety...

...Insofar as his first two chapters mount an attack on cheap grace and therapeutic forgiveness, Jones seems skeptical about the potential of a religious experience of God's love to make forgiveness spontaneous...

...Lisa Sowle Cahill L. Gregory Jones attempts to venture beyond the impasse posed by the alternatives of Christian pacifism and Christian realism by directing moral attention to the concrete practices that make reconciliation of enemies possible...

...He provokes the Christian imagination by relating how the African Masai integrated into eucharistic preparation their local custom of "passing grass" to resolve conflicts and establish peace among villagers...

...According to Jones, forgiveness flourishes within a specific set of Christian practices: baptism and Eucharist...

...Of course, habits of forgiveness occur across cultures and religions...

...As a consequence, what formalized Christian forgiveness-enhancing practices are actually supposed to look like in concrete communities is often difficult to discern...

...prayer and healing...

...In this context, Jones concludes that the biblical God can be wrathful, hell really exists, and righteous indignation and prophetic judgment are often justified...

...Narrative, poetry, imagery, and prayer as well as human relations and practices themselves, still seem the best way to engage our affections and motivate behavior...

...He adds inspiring human stories like the account of a Palestinian priest who locked the church doors during Mass one day and refused to administer Communion to his divided flock until they turned and made peace with their neighbors...

...Each of these accounts is detailed enough so that one can enter into its unfolding dynamic, although no one could serve as an absolute model for imitation...

...Her Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics will be published this year by Cambridge University Press...

...Forgiveness ought to be understood as a way of life that requires the cultivation of specific habits and practices," he writes...

...Perhaps paradoxically, however, he also insists that the Christian experience of "the God whose love moves to reconciliation by means of costly forgiveness" is ultimately incompatible with the cultivation of habits of hatred...

...In short, he places forgiveness within the texture of community...

...Having a more explicitly political orientation, Shriver develops three contemporary examples of how reconciliation was actually accomplished: between Germans and Americans, Japan and the U.S., and African-Americans and the enslaving culture...

...Drawing eclectically on the Bible, theology (Aquinas, Barth, Bonhoeffer), philosophy (Nietzsche, Alasdair Maclntyre), literature (Dostoevsky, Flannery O'Connor, Simon Weisenthal, Toni Morrison), film (Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven) as well as anecdotes and stories (from Auschwitz, Israel, Armenia, El Salvador, the African-American slave experience), Jones presents an interesting if complex argument...

...Lisa Sowle Cahill is professor of theology at Boston College...

...No doubt, concrete practices will have to be developed within and nuanced to particular communities...

...Second, can self-righteousness be better avoided if it is oriented empathetically toward the other before it is cultivated as a virtue of the self...

...This is an imaginative and provocative essay...

...For example, on the practice of Eucharist he writes, "[E]ucharistic practice suggests that, by encountering the real presence of the crucified and risen Christ in his forgiving love, we can bear the past truthfully...

...Two questions could be raised in response...

...The suffering of victims must not be trivialized, destructiveness must be lamented, and righteous anger must be given a powerful place in restorative love...

...Christians do not buy cheap grace by bypassing issues of sin, culpability, rightful anger, and punishment...