Maria Mayo

In 1999, Archbishop Desmond Tutu published a memoir from his time as Chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, "No Future without Forgiveness." His observations about forgiveness are widely quoted, including his charge that forgiveness is a necessary ingredient for society: "Forgiveness is not some nebulous thing. It is...

A few years ago, I attended a biblical studies conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At a reception on Friday night, I sat at a table with several friends. When I asked one of my friends if I could get him a glass of wine, he raised his hand to me....

"How many times should I forgive my brother or sister?" Peter asks Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. "As many as seven times?" Jesus' reply is often cited as the ultimate instruction for Christian forgiveness: "Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy-seven times." For Matthew, the instruction ends here,...

On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush spoke to a grieving nation: "The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. None of us will ever forget this day, yet...

The Bible has plenty to say about forgiveness. Where the Old Testament focuses mainly on God's forgiveness of individuals or groups, the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels also address how human beings can and should forgive each other.

Those teachings, however, are a precarious guide for 21st-century human relations....

When I teach church classes about forgiveness, I begin with a question: What do you think the Bible says about forgiveness?

The first thing someone calls out is usually "70 times seven," a reference to Jesus' instruction to his disciples that they must forgive without bound. Next, students mention the...