Forgiveness

This chapter argues that there is a crucial difference in the ways Jesus and the Apostle Paul defined the practice of interpersonal forgiveness, which theologians have largely ignored or downplayed. Jesus and Paul present different models of what forgiveness means, what power it possesses, and its place in the dynamics of salvation. Paul rewrites what Jesus says is most important about interpersonal forgiveness and its relationship to divine forgiveness in a way that undermines what Jesus insisted on in emphasizing the role forgiveness should play in human interactions. That Biblical debate, in the moment that arguably constitutes the origins of the concept of interpersonal forgiveness, reveals how contemporary philosophy conceives of forgiveness when it debates its possibility and its function.