Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Anger, hatred, resentment, grudges—when the products of conflict smolder for years, decades, or centuries, the idea of peace may seem elusive and unrealistic. At the same time, people and societies need to move beyond these negative traumatic effects so they can heal. Forgiveness and Reconciliation explores in depth two different yet essential components of this peace-building process.


Unlike most books on the subject, which tend to focus on the individual’s development of forgiveness from a single perspective, Forgiveness and Reconciliation reaches across the spectrum of approaches—socio-psychological, biopsychological, therapeutic, developmental, and spiritual among them—to offer examples of intervention at the individual, community, generational, and national levels. This inclusiveness (and a range of real-world illustrations from U.S. race relations to the Armenian genocide) gives readers access to not only the core issues of forgiveness and the dialogic nature of reconciliation, but also the intersecting psychological and social processes involved as they affect all participants in conflict.


Highlights of the coverage:

Reconciliation efforts in Rwanda, Darfur, India, and Pakistan.

Restorative conferencing and its role in fostering forgiveness.

Lessons in empathy and repentance from lifers in prison.

Promoting reconciliation through arts and the media.

The potential for forgiveness despite revisionism, denial, and continued injustice.

Reconciliation in the divided society.



Forgiveness and Reconciliation breaks new ground as a volume that will enhance the work of social and peace psychologists, students and researchers in intergroup and international relations, and peace and conflict studies.