Is it possible to have too much forgiveness?
Like kindness, love, and justice, forgiveness is a moral virtue. Let’s rephrase the question: Is it ever possible to have too much justice? No, is the response. How can someone have too much fairness? Is it possible to be too brave? Once more, the response is no. By partaking in one of the vices linked to a certain virtue, we might skew courage—or any other virtue. Reckless bravado is one vice that is linked to courage. For instance, a person who is not able to swim might bravely jump into a wild sea to save a drowning puppy. This is reckless bravado, an unwise response, not courage. Therefore, just as we established with our example of justice that we cannot have too much of a true virtue, it would appear that we, too, cannot have too much forgiveness. Goodness in abundance is not a negative thing.
The vices connected to a certain virtue are what we need to avoid, as demonstrated by the courage example. Excessive submissiveness, where we allow others to take advantage of us, is one such vice associated with forgiveness. However, as we can see, the issue here is not forgiveness per se, but rather the way forgiveness is distorted.
