Tagged: “Dr. Robert Enright”
Is forgiveness basically getting rid of anger toward someone who treated you badly? I was told recently that many scholars see forgiveness this way.
Getting rid of anger is **part** of forgiveness, but it cannot be the whole story if forgiveness is a moral virtue centered on goodness toward those who offend. For example, you can reduce anger or even get rid of it by thinking that the offending person is less than human. That kind of condemnation of the other as a person could lead to you feeling sorry for this person. In other words, you may be distorting the reality of who this person actually is, not seeing him as possessing inherent worth despite some bad behavior. When someone defines forgiving only as getting rid of anger, this is philosophical reductionism or reducing forgiveness to less than what it actually is.
My dictionary gives this definition of forgiving: “to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake.” What is your response to people who tell you that they don’t agree with your definition of forgiveness, which encompasses both positive and negative aspects of emotions, cognition, and behaviors toward those who have treated you unjustly?
If forgiveness is a moral virtue, what does the word “to forgive” entail? It cannot be both a moral virtue and only thought control to aid oneself. This is because no other moral virtue is exclusively about oneself. Virtues flow from one person to others for their good. If we insist that forgiveness is not a moral virtue, then it is imperative that those so insisting tell us what it is (and break with about 3,500 years of thinking on this matter). If I only cease with resentment, then I can demonstrate tolerance and cease to resent. I can demonstrate indifference and cease to resent. So, how can we distinguish forgiveness from these other ideas? We do so by defining it in such a way as to honor the “moral virtue” aspect of forgiveness. All moral virtues involve goodness toward others. What is the goodness that forgiveness offers? When a person forgives, that forgiver deliberately offers the goodness of understanding, kindness, respect, generosity, and even love toward the offender. Of course, people need not completely fulfill this definition to be forgiving. We all fall short of perfection in expressing any virtue. Our human imperfections do not invalidate what forgiveness is.
Can anger increase as a person begins the forgiveness process and begins to examine the offender’s life through what you call the personal perspective?
Yes, it is possible that anger can increase in the short term, especially if the one forgiving has denied the depth of the anger. Yet, as our research consistently shows, anger tends to decrease with practice and over time.
What is the basic difference between engaging in relaxation training, so that I feel no anger while relaxed, and forgiving someone as a way of reducing anger?
Relaxation training is effective in the short term. You are not angry as you relax, but once you stop relaxing, the anger can return. Forgiving is a way of actually curing the anger so that it reduces over the long term.
If I forgive and say to myself, “Everything now is ok,” might this increase my repression of what happened as I try to move away from it?
When you forgive, you do not proclaim to yourself that “everything is ok.” Instead, you stand with courage that what the other person did was unfair, is unfair, and always will be unfair. You see the injustice for what it is, without repression, because you know you can overcome the anger and sadness that are effects of the injustice against you.
