Do I need empathy to forgive?
Empathy is the ability to “step inside the shoes” of others and to see the world from their viewpoint. Empathy does help in the forgiveness process, but forgiveness goes well beyond empathy. Empathy is morally neutral. In other words, you can “step inside the shoes” of another person and see nastiness inside there. As you see the world from the other’s viewpoint, you could develop disgust rather than sympathy. Forgiveness challenges us to respond morally and work to see the inherent worth of the other, to see either goodness or at least the potential for goodness in the other. This goes beyond the moral neutrality of empathy.
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