The Development of Forgiveness

The psychology of forgiveness originated from the creative and important work on the development of justice initiated by Piaget in 1932 and extended by Kohlberg in 1969. The scientific study of forgiveness is quite new, having emerged in print in 1989, with an examination of the developmental progression in children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ thinking about the necessary conditions for them to offer forgiveness to another person. In this chapter, the authors first review the definition of forgiveness, followed by this early cognitive work. They then turn to a discussion of the measurement of forgiveness correlates of forgiveness. The practical application of this construct is seen in the development of forgiveness therapy and forgiveness education, which the authors discuss in light of the empirical findings. Future directions for forgiveness studies are considered.

Vergifnisonderwys: Die sleutel tot die ontlonting van ongelukkigheid oor sosiale onreg

Forgiveness education: The key to the dissipation of misery due to social injustice. Personal and global conditions have recently highlighted the importance for individuals and communities to be able to forgive other individuals and communities for a variety of transgressions. Social injustice has often been perpetrated also in educational context as can be illustrated with reference to South Africa, the Baltic and the Balkan where these countries are still struggling today with the heritages of respectively their apartheid and communist past. History abounds with such incidences. Although some people and communities are able to spontaneously and intuitively forgive those who have inflicted social injustice upon them, most of us do not possess a complete grasp of what it means to forgive, what the fruits of a forgiving attitude could be or what the results of a non-forgiving attitude might be. In view of this, it has become necessary to resort to education (e.g. in the shape of citizenship education) to teach young people (how) to forgive and thereby helping them contribute to a peaceful democratic society. The article concludes with a Scriptural view of forgiveness and forgiveness education.