Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?

Pastor Keller (Hope in Times of Fear) delivers a thorough and eloquent apologetic for forgiveness. Keller anchors his study in the Christian parable of the unforgiving servant, in which a king forgives the debt of a servant who later refuses to remit a smaller debt owed to him by another servant and is punished for his hard-heartedness. Keller outlines the elements of forgiveness, which include being humble, wishing the offending party well, and understanding that “human forgiveness is dependent on divine forgiveness.” He pushes back against the rise of a contemporary “shame-and-honor culture” in which forgiveness is thought to weaken accountability and forestall justice, instead arguing that justice and forgiveness are yoked and that unity is enacted in Jesus’s crucifixion and request that his persecutors be forgiven. Parsing the teachings of Paul, Keller urges readers to pray for and maintain a relationship with evildoers because “evil wins when it distorts your relationship with others.” Christians whose theological understandings of the crucifixion differ from that of the author might not be persuaded by his arguments around the intersection of forgiveness and justice, but all will appreciate Keller’s lucid prose and gift for succinctly summarizing biblical wisdom. The result is a thought-provoking take on how to forgive. (Nov.)