ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a variety of theoretical models progressively applicable to the association between forgiveness, health, and addiction. For example, Worthington’s stress-and-coping theory of forgiveness, Worthington and colleagues’ general model of the forgiveness–health association, including the notion of forgiveness as a component of the larger relationship between spirituality and health, other models of the relationship between spirituality and health, and ultimately the expansion of Worthington’s general model of the forgiveness–health association to explicitly address addiction and recovery as a particular manifestation of health and well-being. Updated forgiveness–health association modeling also is provided regarding additional issues particularly relevant to addiction and recovery; for example, anger, psychache, loneliness, and temptation. Also, research regarding demographic differences in forgiveness is discussed in general terms.
