Forgiveness Among Religious Peoples in the Light of Mindfulness Research

Abstract

Albeit a relatively young construct in psychological research, researchers have consistently characterized forgiveness as: 1) decisional forgiveness is the experience of granting forgiveness without eliminating the emotion (interpersonal act); 2) emotional forgiveness is forgiveness that includes changes in emotion and motivation toward the offender (intrapersonal predisposition). Forgiveness is at the core of Christianity and Christians understand the specific concept of the meaning of forgiveness. Most religious people suggest that forgiveness is limitless, repentance is unnecessary, but reconciliation is necessary for forgiveness (there is no consensus within psychology and psychotherapy and the general population). This suggests that forgiving maybe malignant and dangerous for religious peoples, especially in abusive situations. Many of them present with symptoms – from relationship discord to posttraumatic stress PTSD – that are complicated by guilt and shame over religious beliefs (specificity of the definition of forgiveness) and perceived wrongdoing (“I’m am guilty”, “It is my fault”). It is proposed that the presence of an apology, repentance, remorse, and a desire for reconciliation of the offender is the important part of forgiveness for religious peoples and forgiving can occur without any interaction with the forgiven (interpersonal act). It is argued that mindfulness trainings can be useful for Christian coping with stress and malignant consequences of the supposed definition of a forgiveness.