Books Healing the wounds of injustice and war
FORGIVENESS AND
RECONCILIATION Edited by Raymond G. Helmick and Rodney L.
Petersen Templeton Foundation Press, 440 pages,
$34.95 |
REVIEWED By GARY
MacEOIN
Over the past decade, civil wars have given way to at least
tentative peace in several parts of the world, notably in South Africa, East
Timor, Northern Ireland and Central America. In all these countries open wounds
remain that will probably take generations to heal. In this book 20
professional conflict negotiators offer their formulas for
promoting the process.
Forgiveness, Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu writes in a
foreword, makes it possible to remember the past without being held
hostage by it. Without forgiveness there is no progress, no linear history,
only a return to conflict and cycles of conflict. But what are the
essentials for forgiveness? What makes us ready to forgive?
Miroslav Volf, a native of Croatia and now a professor at Yale
Divinity, rejects the concept of Forgive and forget. Existing
injustices must first be removed before one can talk of reconciliation. It
would, he writes, be cheap reconciliation and a sin to give up on the
struggle for freedom, to renounce the pursuit of justice, to put up with
oppression.
Strict justice, however, is neither possible nor desirable. It is
not possible, because in any protracted conflict, there is no way to reach
consensus on the rights and wrongs of each discrete happening. It is not
desirable, because what the offended party normally seeks is not mathematical
return. If you in anger break my tooth, my first impulse might be to break
yours, but on reflection I think Id prefer you to pay my dental bill.
Several contributors discuss different aspects of the
extraordinary role of South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Public remembering in the form of thousands of excruciatingly painful stories
was valuable in forcing all South Africans to confront the horrors of the
apartheid system.
Not everyone, however, was in full agreement with the way the
truth commission functioned. Some felt that the truth commissions
rhetoric of forgiveness was more a reflection of Tutus dominating
presence than the spontaneous response of the victims. They believed that more
space should have been provided for people to express feelings of sadness and
rage.
Another criticism of the truth commission was that it emphasized
individual examples of gross violations of human rights more than the systemic
injustice of the system of apartheid. This allowed white South Africans to
allocate the blame to a few and not recognize their own part as a community in
defending an unjust system.
Aubrey Chapman, an ethicist who works for the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, insists that it is difficult, perhaps
impossible, to build a new society without coming to terms with the past in a
meaningful way. That calls for action to bring about greater economic
justice between beneficiaries and victims, an idea that may be applicable in
Northern Ireland and here in the United States in the ongoing discussion of
reparations for slavery.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation is not easy reading. There
is far too much academic jargon and not a little repetition. But for the reader
committed to practicing and promoting nonviolence, there are rewards at the end
of more than 400 pages, including detailed information on more than 70
organizations promoting forgiveness and reconciliation around the world.
Gary MacEoin, who has written extensively on issues of justice
in the developing world, lives in San Antonio.
National Catholic Reporter, January 25,
2002
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