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Overview
"Only the strong can forgive. God, who is strongest, forgives best," writes Dr. L. William Countryman in this fresh look at forgiveness. Unlike most books on the subject, Forgiven and Forgiving is not about a step-by-step process. Rather, it is about conversion. Once we truly understand the depths of God's love for us and know deep-down that we are forgiven, we begin to see the world anew through God's eyes. Only when we are able to accept God's forgiveness for ourselves can we offer forgiveness to others. Biblically based with sound academic research, yet written in a conversational style, Forgiven and Forgiving offers valuable insights for clergy, laity, and church study groups.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819224934 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morehouse Publishing |
| Publication date: | 03/15/1998 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 144 |
| File size: | 218 KB |
About the Author
L. William Countryman is a retired professor of New Testament from Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He has authored numerous books for scholars and laity, including How Can Anyone Read the Bible?: A Little Book of Guidance,Calling on the Spirit in Unsettling Times, and Living on the Border of the Holy: Renewing the Priesthood of All. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Read an Excerpt
FORGIVEN and Forgiving
By L. WILLIAM COUNTRYMAN
Church Publishing Incorporated
Copyright © 1998L. William CountrymanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8192-2493-4
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1Why Forgiveness?
Forgiveness is a critical topic for our time—and a very difficult one. I don't know whether we find it harder to forgive than people of other eras or whether we just have more to forgive, but the inability or refusal to forgive has become one of the great destructive elements in the modern world, both for individuals and for communities. We hold grudges. We seek revenge. We cultivate victimhood as an identity. We let the past rule the present and future. We find ourselves trapped in anger, resentment, spite, dread, and hostility—emotions that poison both our own lives and our relationships with others. Time and again, our hope for peace is short-circuited by memory of past wrongs held dear.
How can we make progress in dealing with these problems? I don't propose a simple solution here, some step-by-step process guaranteeing that if you complete all the steps in the correct order, you'll be a forgiving person. I don't think there is any such magical solution. But there are ways of approaching these problems that can bear fruit over time in a new sense of who we are, a new orientation that focuses on the present and future rather than the past, and a new sense of generosity that makes forgiveness possible.
Accomplishing this would represent nothing less than a personal transformation for most of us. Whether as individuals or as groups, we tend to make war more easily than we make peace, to harbor or even treasure up the wrongs done to us more easily than we turn them loose. Transformations, of course, are always at least a little scary. To be transformed implies letting go of our control for a while in the hopeful expectation that something worthwhile can result. It means taking the risk that our old certainties might be replaced by a new way of seeing the world.
I don't wish to minimize or underrate the risk involved when we begin to seek the spirit of forgiveness. But I think it is possible to take that risk in reliance on God, who intends for us only and always good. It is a time in our lives to let God set the agenda, even though that's an unsettling step to take. It's a time for reevaluation and change—or, to give these concepts their more traditional names, repentance and conversion.
Here is an important and helpful insight about repentance, in the words of William Temple, a great spiritual teacher who was archbishop of Canterbury during World War II. I include his words here because they tell us something important about the leap we will be taking if we really want to become forgiving people:
John [the Baptist] came, and after him Jesus came, saying, "Change your way of looking at life; the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." But we have lowered the term "repentance" into meaning something not very different from remorse ... Repentance does not merely mean giving up a bad habit. What it is concerned with is the mind; get a new mind. What mind? ... To repent is to adopt God's viewpoint in place of your own. There need not be any sorrow about it. In itself, far from being sorrowful, it is the most joyful thing in the world, because when you have done it you have adopted the viewpoint of truth itself, and you are in fellowship with God. (William Temple, Christian Faith and Life, 67)
The pursuit of a forgiving spirit will turn out to be a matter not just of adding one more virtue to our stock but of being turned completely around and getting a new and forgiving mind.
Like me, you have perhaps thought of forgiveness primarily as a duty. But—let me be blunt—that's the wrong place to begin. Christianity, whatever you may have heard, is not primarily about duty—not about trying harder, doing better, tidying yourself up for the great banquet in the sky by and by. The word gospel means "good news," not "pep talk." However hard we have worked over the centuries to reduce Christian faith to a matter of rules (be neat, clean, and obedient; never miss church; say your prayers; read your Bible), it is really about something much more fundamental and life-giving than duty.
Christian faith is about the change of mind and heart that Temple wrote about. It is a change that will eventually affect your whole life, because when you see things in a radically different light, you can't just keep on behaving in the same old way, as if you still thought the old verities were all there was to be said. What we're talking about here is conversion, which means "a turning around." I mean "conversion" not in the relatively easy, simple sense of changing from one denomination or religion to another, but in the more difficult sense of turning around and discovering that there's a whole world out there that you hadn't really been aware of Conversion is nothing less than having our minds transformed according to the mind of God. By God's grace, we see things differently. And conversion—this new grasp of the world we live in—makes forgiveness possible for us. The point isn't to acquire a technique of forgiving or to drive ourselves harder through sheer willpower, but to acquire a whole new way of relating to God, the world, and one another.
Can we do this—make God's mind our mind—for ourselves? No, of course not. It's an intrinsic impossibility, like squaring a circle. To say "My goal in life this year is to acquire the mind of God" would be completely absurd. We can't make that happen to us. God is the only one who can give that gift. We can, however, be open to it, and we do that through repentance—the kind of repentance Archbishop Temple wrote about. As we think together about forgiveness in this book, we need to talk about it in the same way Temple wrote about repentance: not as a set of rules or commandments but as an opportunity to change our minds, our perspectives, and our vision of ourselves, our world, and God.
CHAPTER 2Forgiveness—Not Quite What You Thought
What Forgiveness Isn't
If we are going to let ourselves in for the possibility of a change of mind, we should probably begin by looking at what sort of mind we bring with us to this topic. How do we conceive of forgiveness? What does it mean to us? For most of us, I think, our concept of forgiveness is a kind of muddle of several different, inconsistent, and inadequate notions. It will be helpful to identify some of them here.
One commonly shared misconception is that forgiveness is a matter of making nice. The motto of this sort of forgiveness is "They didn't really mean it." We think of forgiveness as a way to maintain the machinery of social interaction in operating order. To keep from disrupting it, we pretend that we have not been aggrieved by the behavior of others. We pretend that everybody's motives are entirely honorable, that everybody we deal with is basically good and rational. If people have in fact done us some harm, we assume that they didn't really mean it or that they were simply striking back at their dreadful childhoods and we had the misfortune to get in the way. We persuade ourselves that if others are treated with a little kindness, they'll all be perfectly nice.
As a means of social interaction, this way of thinking isn't entirely bad. If we confront one another constantly on every action that is less than perfect, we'll waste a lot of time pursuing the mirage of an unattainable ideal. Besides, none of us likes having our failings pointed out. We're more likely to get cooperation from one another if we cut each other a little slack. What is more, we can and do misread one another's motives. Sometimes actions that appear to be deliberately cruel turn out to have been merely thoughtless or inattentive. Sometimes what appears to be thoughtle
(Continues...)
Excerpted from FORGIVEN and Forgiving by L. WILLIAM COUNTRYMAN. Copyright © 1998 by L. William Countryman. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Why Forgiveness?
Forgiveness—Not Quite What You Thought
Forgiving Oneself
Forgiving One Another—Opportunity or Demand?
Forgiveness Builds the Future
Some Practical Problems
The Forgiving Spirit
Forgiveness and the Life of Faith
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
What People are Saying About This
"Countryman's lively style and his lucid insights into the nature of forgiveness make this a must read for clergy, laity, and general readers."
—Publishers Weekly
"In this fine book, Countryman sheds light on ‘the gracious and generous project of redeeming the world through the spread of forgiveness.'"
—Values & Visions
"Combining excellent theology, theory, and practical pastoral suggestions, Countryman explores the concept of forgiveness. Basing his work less on a step-by-step process and more on the concept of conversion, or change of perspective, the author helps readers understand what it means to know God's forgiveness first in their own lives and how that knowledge leads to forgiveness of ourselves and others. The writing is biblically based with solid academic research behind the ideas, making it helpful for clergy, but written in a conversational tone that will be appealing to laity and church study groups."
—ChurchNews
"The joy of Forgiven and Forgiving is the way in which Countryman leads us to take the life and message of Jesus seriously—joyfully seriously!—by reminding us of what we knew all along, that God begins by creating something good and breathing life into it."
—Pacific Church News
"In a world as fractious and broken as ours, this book is a much needed and welcome gift...When Countryman begins to unfold his text, one steps back with a deep sense of appreciation and admiration for how thoroughly comprehensive this little book is on this topic. This is a wonderful book...The depths of insight are worthy of many dips into the hands of everyone who is struggling to be a follower of God who sent his Son to reconcile us—and then make us his ambassadors of reconciliation."
—Sisters Today
"...pastoral theology at its best...beneficial tools for a priest and pastor to use in counseling and for any parish to use in an adult forum situation."
—Jeffrey Allen Mackey, Sewanee Theological Review
"This is a wise book about tough forgiveness—real forgiveness—that comes from God's love. At once practical and challenging, Countryman's insights help us to understand how knowing and sharing forgiveness as a way of life open us up to the future and bring strength and maturity to life's pilgrimage."
—The Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, Bishop of Los Angeles
"Forgiven and Forgiving appears on the scene at a time of some of the most contentious events in the Church and in society. Countryman opens up a whole new perspective on the meaning of forgiveness. As the author points out, forgiveness is an act full of power and true life-changing potential, not a superficial gesture of 'making nice.' If we could read this insightful book with an open mind and a determination to take its theology to heart, we would be much better off in our relationships with one another."
—Pamela Chinnis, President, House of Deputies, The General Convention of The Episcopal Church
"Biblically based with sound academic research, yet written in a conversational style, the book offers valuable insights for clergy, laity, and church study groups."
—East Tennessee Episcopalian