Forgiving As We've Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making Peace (Resources for Reconciliation) - Softcover

Jones, L. Gregory; Musekura, Célestin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0830834559 ISBN 13: 9780830834556

Publisher: IVP, 2010

Synopsis

Christians are supposed to forgive others as we've been forgiven. But hearing the call to forgive is different from knowing how to practice forgiveness at home and in the world. Forgiveness is about more than the isolated acts and words of individuals. To forgive and be forgiven, we need communal practices and disciplines for a way of life that makes for peace.Greg Jones and Célestin Musekura describe how churches and communities can cultivate the habits that make forgiveness possible on a daily basis. Following the Rwandan genocide, Musekura lost his father and other family members to revenge killings. But then he heard God tell him to forgive the killers. The healing power of forgiveness in his own life inspired him to work for forgiveness and reconciliation across Africa. Jones, author of Embodying Forgiveness, interacts with Musekura's story to show how people can practice forgiveness not only in dramatic situations like genocide but also in everyday circumstances of marriage, family and congregational life. Together they demonstrate that forgiving and being forgiven are mutually reciprocating practices that lead to transformation and healing.

About this title

About the Authors

L. Gregory Jones (Ph.D., Duke University) is vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He previously served as dean of Duke Divinity School. He also serves as president of leadership education at Duke Divinity, and as professor of theology. His books include Embodying Forgiveness, Transformed Judgment and Resurrecting Excellence.

Célestin Musekura (Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) is president and founder of African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM, Inc.), a ministry with African national staff training church and community leaders acrossEast and central Africa in leadership, conflict resolution, forgiveness and tribal reconciliation. He spent six years pastoring in Rwanda and serving in administration with the Association des Eglises Baptistes au Rwanda. He cofounded the Sudan Evangelical Alliance to help the persecuted churches in southern Sudan unite in their suffering and in outreach to their nation. He is the author of An Assessment of Contemporary Models of Forgiveness.

Reviews

Theologians Jones and Musekura combine their interpretive wisdom and experiences, and the result is a weighty little book on making forgiveness a daily habit. Musekura, who lost family members in the protracted aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has a naturally compelling story to share. He subsequently meets relatives of those who had slaughtered his relatives, and ultimately decides to seek their forgiveness for his anger toward them, who while they are relatives of murderers are also, Musekura says, "brothers in Christ." Jones outlines a theologically grounded process for seeking forgiveness that involves truth telling, remembering, repenting, and committing to change. Repenting is a key step that acknowledges the need to be forgiven and the sovereignty and grace of God's judgment. Neither says this is easy, but practice as a community is necessary: "Our choice is between forgiveness and nonexistence," Musekura writes. This persuasive little book, part of a series developed by the publisher and Duke Divinity School, where Jones teaches, has application to situations from New York to Nairobi. (Nov.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: IVP
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0830834559
• ISBN 13: 9780830834556
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140