ABSTRACT

In Northern Ireland, work towards reconciliation long preceded careful reflection on the meaning and dynamics of reconciliation. Wherever reconciliation is addressed, a jumble of terms is likely to emerge, with forgiveness, repentance, apology, justice, truth, peace and, of course, reconciliation itself being among the most common ingredients of the reconciliation stew. Given the necessity of both repenting and forgiving for reconciliation and their complementarity, it is worth noting that the Christian tradition, and with it the broader Western tradition, is heavily weighted towards forgiving rather than repenting. Forgiving, like repenting, might be defined in terms of stages in a process. Ironically, in that very breadth lies the possibility, too often realised, of intellectual confusion that can limit the potency of forgiving in practice. The chapter explains two strands of forgiving, the first strand is forgiving as 'letting-go'. A second strand of the meaning of forgiveness is 'love given before'.