The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

by Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu

Narrated by Mpho Tutu, Hakeem Kae Kazim

Unabridged — 6 hours, 37 minutes

The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

by Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu

Narrated by Mpho Tutu, Hakeem Kae Kazim

Unabridged — 6 hours, 37 minutes

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Overview

How do I forgive?

Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has witnessed some of the worst crimes people can inflict on others. So wherever he goes, he inevitably gets asked this question. This book is his answer. Writing with his daughter, Mpho, an Anglican priest, they lay out the simple but profound truths about the significance of forgiveness, how it works, why everyone needs to know how to grant it and receive it, and why granting forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves when we have been wronged.

They explain the four-step process of forgiveness-Telling the Story, Naming the Hurt, Granting Forgiveness, and Renewing or Releasing the Relationship-as well as offer meditations, exercises, and prayers to guide the reader along the way.

"With each act of forgiveness, whether small or great, we move toward wholeness," they write. "Forgiveness is how we bring peace to ourselves and our world."


Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/20/2014
Though ostensibly retired from public life, Nobel Peace Prize–winner and emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu still has much to say. His newest book on forgiveness in some ways extends and applies the lessons of his pathbreaking No Future Without Forgiveness (1999). Both books draw on his experience heading South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but this is freshly informed with experiences that include smaller slights and insults as well as more traumatic wrongs, among them the murder of the housekeeper of Mpho Tutu, daughter of Desmond Tutu. The father-daughter pair relate stories but also include instructions on how to forgive, as well as scientific and moral reasons to do so. No one is unforgiveable; it takes a moral icon such as Tutu to credibly assert this. The book may get a boost from the recent death of Nelson Mandela, about whom Tutu says, “It took 27 years for him to be transformed from an angry, unforgiving young radical into an icon of reconciliation…” This book belongs on nightstands, shelves, and altars everywhere. Agent: Lynn Franklin, Lynn C. Franklin Associates. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

A primer for not only finding the path for healing ourselves and the world, but for restoring balance in our biology, mind, and spirit.” — Deepak Chopra, author of What Are You Hungry For?

“Includes instructions on how to forgive, as well as scientific and moral reasons to do so. No one is unforgiveable; it takes a moral icon such as Tutu to credibly assert this. . . . This book belongs on nightstands, shelves, and altars everywhere.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“There is no one who embodies the virtue of forgiveness like Desmond Tutu. With this book, he and his daughter take forgiveness out of the realm of mystery and offer a handbook on forgiveness, revealing this most exacting and freeing of human capacities in all its complexity and transformative achievability.” — Krista Tippett, Host/Executive Producer of On Being

“What better guides and teachers on forgiveness than Bishop Tutu and his daughter who have lived faithfully through the hardest most demanding days of South Africa! This book meets an urgent need among us, and does so with wisdom, realism, and generosity.” — Walter Brueggemann, author of The Prophetic Imagination

“Desmond Tutu shows each of us how to transform our pain and sorrow into hope and confidence in the future. Whether you are the head of a country or the head of a household, you will cherish his words.” — Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

“For decades [Tutu] has been a moral titan—a voice of principle, an unrelenting champion of justice, and a dedicated peacemaker . . . an outspoken voice for freedom and justice in countries across the globe; a staunch defender of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.” — President Barack Obama

“[Tutu’s] unofficial legacy will be his life and the story of how this tiny pastor with a huge laugh from South Africa became our global guardian.” — TIME

“Archbishop Tutu has the ability to see our shared humanity in each person he meets, and to get us to do the same.” — Bill Clinton

“Archbishop Desmond Tutu, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before him, has offered us a luminous vision of love and hope. With his great warmth and compassion, Archbishop Tutu offers a spiritual message that if heeded can change lives as well as history.” — Jimmy Carter

“I have the highest regard for my good and trusted friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I admire him for the wonderful, warm person he is and especially for the human principles he upholds.” — Dalai Lama

“One thing I have learned from [Tutu] . . . is that he has that constant and persistent faith that things can be better and we can do something about it. We should not find excuses not to act or not to speak out.” — Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001

“Desmond Tutu has walked the talk all his adult life. We can all be grateful that, together with his daughter Mpho, he has now shared his secrets for why he has so much hope and joy.” — Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland

“I doubt there is anyone on this Earth with a deeper sense of God’s presence and goodness than Archbishop Tutu.” — Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews.

“[Tutu] was not just an anti-apartheid worker. . . . He was somebody who had thought very deeply about spiritual values and had applied them to what he was doing. In some ways that reminded me of Gandhi.” — Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

“Bishop Tutu and his daughter Mpho reveal groundbreaking insights as to how to acknowledge and resolve our lifelong burdens of anguish and pain towards a new paradigm of transformative healing.” — Annie Lennox

“I am lost for words to express my appreciation for this book … Desmond Tutu and his daughter show clearly that suffering, while always painful, need not destroy.” — Terry Waite, CBE

Walter Brueggemann

What better guides and teachers on forgiveness than Bishop Tutu and his daughter who have lived faithfully through the hardest most demanding days of South Africa! This book meets an urgent need among us, and does so with wisdom, realism, and generosity.

President Barack Obama

For decades [Tutu] has been a moral titan—a voice of principle, an unrelenting champion of justice, and a dedicated peacemaker . . . an outspoken voice for freedom and justice in countries across the globe; a staunch defender of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

Jimmy Carter

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before him, has offered us a luminous vision of love and hope. With his great warmth and compassion, Archbishop Tutu offers a spiritual message that if heeded can change lives as well as history.

Krista Tippett

There is no one who embodies the virtue of forgiveness like Desmond Tutu. With this book, he and his daughter take forgiveness out of the realm of mystery and offer a handbook on forgiveness, revealing this most exacting and freeing of human capacities in all its complexity and transformative achievability.

Dalai Lama

I have the highest regard for my good and trusted friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I admire him for the wonderful, warm person he is and especially for the human principles he upholds.

Nelson Mandela

Desmond Tutu shows each of us how to transform our pain and sorrow into hope and confidence in the future. Whether you are the head of a country or the head of a household, you will cherish his words.

TIME

[Tutu’s] unofficial legacy will be his life and the story of how this tiny pastor with a huge laugh from South Africa became our global guardian.

Deepak Chopra

A primer for not only finding the path for healing ourselves and the world, but for restoring balance in our biology, mind, and spirit.

Bill Clinton

Archbishop Tutu has the ability to see our shared humanity in each person he meets, and to get us to do the same.

Mary Robinson

Desmond Tutu has walked the talk all his adult life. We can all be grateful that, together with his daughter Mpho, he has now shared his secrets for why he has so much hope and joy.

Annie Lennox

Bishop Tutu and his daughter Mpho reveal groundbreaking insights as to how to acknowledge and resolve our lifelong burdens of anguish and pain towards a new paradigm of transformative healing.

Thomas Cahill

I doubt there is anyone on this Earth with a deeper sense of God’s presence and goodness than Archbishop Tutu.

Kofi Annan

One thing I have learned from [Tutu] . . . is that he has that constant and persistent faith that things can be better and we can do something about it. We should not find excuses not to act or not to speak out.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

[Tutu] was not just an anti-apartheid worker. . . . He was somebody who had thought very deeply about spiritual values and had applied them to what he was doing. In some ways that reminded me of Gandhi.

Terry Waite

I am lost for words to express my appreciation for this book … Desmond Tutu and his daughter show clearly that suffering, while always painful, need not destroy.

AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile

Resonant, heartfelt performances by the British-Nigerian actor Hakeem Kae Kazim and Archbishop Tutu’s daughter, Mpho, will transport listeners in a visceral way to that place and time when so much healing was needed in South Africa. With calm intensity, Kazim delivers the author’s melodic prose and thoughtful teachings; both narrators read the first-person stories of victims and perpetrators who are seeking peace from unthinkable crimes. It’s hard to understate the power of this message as delivered in these strong, complex performances. The gripping sermons of Billy Graham come to mind as we hear the authors’ invitations to hope and to become whole again by moving through a four-step process of forgiveness. In the aftermath of tragedy and evil, this is a spiritual path for healing broken hearts, especially for those who feel isolated in their suffering and need spiritual guidance to regain their humanity. T.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2014-02-02
A practical call for forgiveness from people who learned it the hard way. Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Anglican archbishop Tutu (God Is Not a Christian: And Other Provocations, 2011, etc.) teams up with his daughter, Mpho, also an Anglican priest, to advance the cause of forgiveness. Their work stems from a shared past steeped in South Africa's apartheid system. Mpho's experience is also informed by a personal tragedy: the murder of her family's housekeeper. For both authors, forgiveness has been a lifelong struggle, yet one which they both embrace and endorse. "There is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one undeserving of forgiveness," they write. Indeed, one of the authors' important points is that all people feel pain, and no one hurts another without having been a victim at some earlier point. They acknowledge that forgiveness is not easy; however, they are convinced that forgiveness offers peace, healing and an opening to a productive future. They guide readers through a "Fourfold Path" of forgiveness: telling the story, naming the hurt, granting forgiveness, and renewing or releasing the relationship. They also provide focus for individuals in need of another's forgiveness and those who need to forgive themselves. The book is almost entirely practical in focus, geared toward helping people come to grips with issues of anger, grief and loss. It includes meditations, rituals and journal exercises after each chapter. While potentially useful, the text is lightweight in relation to some of the examples of superhuman forgiveness punctuating the work—victims of grave crimes pardoning those who have caused such anguish. There is a disconnect between the gravitas of the surname Tutu in relationship to what is basically a self-help book. Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness (1999) is a far weightier and more worthy discussion of the topic.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940170411733
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 03/18/2014
Edition description: Unabridged
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