Although history is replete with tales of revenge, Christian forgiveness provides an alternate response. In this volume, Pentecostal scholars from various disciplines offer their vision for forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. The essayists offer long-overdue Pentecostal perspectives through analysis of contemporary theological issues, personal testimony, and prophetic possibilities for restoration of individual relationships and communities. Though Pentecostals remain committed to Spirit-empowered witness as recorded in Luke-Acts, these scholars embrace a larger Lukan vision of Spirit-initiated inclusivity marked by reconciliation. The consistent refrain calls for forgiveness as an expression of God's love that does not demand justice but rather seeks to promote peace by bringing healing and reconciliation in relationships between people united by one Spirit.

Forgiveness: Learning How to Forgive by Julia Frazier White is a book for people who have been deeply hurt and caught in a vortex of anger, depression, and resentment. Julia White shares how forgiveness can reduce anxiety and depression while increasing self esteem and hopefulness toward ones future. This fresh new work demonstrates how forgiveness, approached in the correct manner, benefits the forgiver far more than the forgiven. Filled with wisdom and warm encouragement, the book leads the reader on a path that will bring clarity and peace. The act of forgiving is itself an exercise in restoring oneself to wholeness. When a heinous act is committed, sometimes one wonders if forgiveness is even possible. In this ground-breaking book, Dr. White gives us the seven steps that are taken in the forgiveness process. When we forgive, she says, we set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner we set free is us. In an easy-to-read yet astute analysis of the meaning and value of forgiveness, Dr. White teaches the reader that forgiveness is a way of healing. She takes as her model sound biblical principles and outlines the many subtleties involved in forgiveness, such as distinguishing anger from hate, and noting that we only forgive those we blame (including ourselves). Forgetting may be more difficult, but at least Forgiveness: Learning How to Forgive can help us along the path toward release and healing.

Forgiveness Is Always Difficult and Often Illogical. But It's the Only Remedy God Offers to Heal Our Hearts. With the experience of more than two decades in the ministry, Dr. Robert Jeffress has come to the conclusion that forgiveness is the bottom-line issue of life. Failure to receive God's forgiveness results in eternal hell; failure to grant forgiveness to those who have hurt us results in a living hell. While most people - especially Christians - esteem the concept of forgiveness in theory, few have mastered what one person has called "the art of forgiveness." As C.S. Lewis once said, "Forgiveness is a beautiful word, until you have something to forgive." When Forgiveness Doesn't Make Sense is an intensely biblical yet extremely practical approach to this crucial issue. Dr. Jeffress deals with the major misunderstandings about forgiveness: believing you cannot forgive those who never ask for it, confusing forgiveness with forgetting or with reconciliation, and believing that forgiveness automatically erases the consequences of harmful actions. Dr. Jeffress explains the process of our forgiveness by God, as well as the power of our forgiveness of others. Readers will also learn questions to ask themselves before they seek forgiveness from another, essentials of an effective apology, reasons others may refuse to forgive them, action steps for dealing with painful memories, a check-list to determine whether they have genuinely forgiven another, and much more. Forgiveness is difficult and often illogical. But When Forgiveness Doesn't Make Sense will equip and encourage readers to become more forgiving-and to experience God's forgiveness more deeply. At some time in our lives we will be hurt deeply by another person. It may be a family member who mistreats us, a business associate who cheats us, a child who rebels against us, a friend who betrays us, a mate who deserts us, or a God who disappoints us. While we can't control the hurts that come into our lives, we can choose what to do with those hurts. We can let them make us bitter, or we can release them through forgiveness. While forgiveness doesn't always seem to make sense, as Dr. Robert Jeffress explains in his important new book, it is the only way God has given us to effectively resolve the pain of our past. More importantly, it's the obligation of every Christian.

After the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles, are we truly living in post-racial, post-apartheid societies where the word struggle is now out of place? Do we now truly realize that, as President Obama said, the situation for the Palestinian people is "intolerable"? This book argues that this is not so, and asks, "What has Soweto to do with Ferguson, New York with Cape Town, Baltimore with Ramallah?" With South Africa, the United States, and Palestine as the most immediate points of reference, it seeks to explore the global wave of renewed struggles and nonviolent revolutions led largely by young people and the challenges these pose to prophetic theology and the church. It invites the reader to engage in a trans-Atlantic conversation on freedom, justice, peace, and dignity. These struggles for justice reflect the proposal the book discusses: there are pharaohs on both sides of the blood-red waters. Central to this conversation are the issues of faith and struggles for justice; the call for reconciliation--its possibilities and risks; the challenges of and from youth leadership; prophetic resistance; and the resilient, audacious hope without which no struggle has a future. The book argues that these revolutions will only succeed if they are claimed, embraced, and driven by the people.

Many endorse the idea of personal forgiveness without fully understanding its complexity and subtlety. This book is a careful and detailed theological exploration of personal forgiveness. It sets forgiveness in its ancient and biblical context, as well as drawing on contemporary debates among philosophers, psychological therapists, and international relations theorists. Forgiveness is written in a clear, accessible style for both the specialist and the non-specialist, and even the most difficult issues are clearly explained and their significance explored. Anthony Bash seeks to restore forgiveness to the center of Christian doctrine and practice, and to defend its place in personal and public life.

At a time when criminal justice systems appear to be in a permanent state of crisis, leading scholars from criminology and theology come together to challenge criminal justice orthodoxy by questioning the dominance of retributive punishment. This timely and unique contribution considers alternatives that draw on Christian ideas of hope, mercy and restoration. Promoting cross-disciplinary learning, the book will be of interest to academics and students of criminology, socio-legal studies, legal philosophy, public theology and religious studies, as well as practitioners and policy makers.

Many philosophers have recently claimed that unless certain conditions are met, criminal offenders deserve to be punished and we should resent those who have wronged us personally. Conversely, Margaret Holmgren posits that we should forgive those who have ill-treated us, but only after working through a process of addressing the wrong. Holmgren then reflects on the kinds of laws and social practices a properly forgiving society would adopt.

In current debates about coming to terms with individual and collective wrongdoing, the concept of forgiveness has played an important but controversial role. For a long time, the idea was widespread that a forgiving attitude — overcoming feelings of resentment and the desire for revenge — was always virtuous. Recently, however, this idea has been questioned. The contributors to this volume do not take sides for or against forgiveness but rather examine its meaning and function against the backdrop of a more complex understanding of moral repair in a variety of social, circumstantial, and cultural contexts. The book aims to gain a differentiated understanding of the European traditions regarding forgiveness, revenge, and moral repair that have shaped our moral intuitions today whilst also examining examples from other cultural contexts (Asia and Africa, in particular) to explore how different cultural traditions deal with the need for moral repair after wrongdoing.

The book refreshingly examines the history, consistency, and logic in God’s design of forgiveness for humanity from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane. The book is full of stories from a forgiveness perspective including the Bible, real-life examples, and Hollywood movies. This quest starts with the brief history of forgiveness right from Adam to all the patriarchs right up to Jesus’s teachings on forgiveness. You will uncover some of the greatest jewels of forgiveness, reconciliation, and growth mindset and also see the Christian response to some of the most common questions asked on the Internet. The book combines psychological concepts with Christian theology, offering a unique perspective on forgiveness. It integrates these areas effectively, addressing questions asked by millions worldwide about forgiveness, reconciliation, and the growth mindset. The book delves deep into the Old Testament and modern views on forgiveness, removing the clutter of the internet, AI, and secular definitions to provide a comprehensive understanding of this complex yet vital human asset. The author also covers all possible scenarios in which one can find oneself in the forgiveness journey questions like “I forgive only when I am asked to forgive” or “How to live when someone does not forgive me”. The next section covers ‘why’ obedience, love, forgiveness, and justice are interrelated and its importance against secular worldviews. Charles exposes and shows the need for this interplay to be understood as a prerequisite for a Christian growth mindset in the context of forgiveness. The section on restoration and reconciliation begins with various definitions and examines the nuances between forgiveness and reconciliation from both the secular and Christian worldviews. Also, some of the most asked questions on reconciliation on the internet are discussed in great detail including how we need to take care of God’s creation. The last section connects all these concepts and ties them to the Christian growth mindset compared with the fixed mindset and the secular definitions. The author explains these concepts with some good analogies of real-life examples. At the end of the book, you will get a good view of how God’s design of forgiveness is far better, logically and natural than the secular worldview, plenty of insights on the various facets of the Christian growth mindset along the forgiveness journey, ability to discern and calibrate your response to hurting and been hurt in a manner that protects you from guilt.