c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Forgiveness. It is both a central concept in many religions, especially Christianity, and one of the most difficult human acts to carry out sincerely.

But even as the word seems to attach itself to every major news story _ from the possible impeachment of President Clinton to building a new society in post-apartheid South Africa and moving beyond a ceasefire in Northern Ireland _ the dynamics of forgiveness remain oft-debated but often little understood.

There are growing signs, however, that the fledgling field of forgiveness studies is beginning to gain a foothold in academia _ and not just in the nation’s divinity schools and seminaries.

To further strengthen this foothold, the John Templeton Foundation has launched a comprehensive effort to fund studies on how people forgive each other, and what the world’s religions have to say about why we should.

The foundation, a Pennsylvania-based philanthropic and research institute, has given $5 million in awards to finance 29 research studies on different aspects of forgiveness. In addition, the foundation’s publishing house is about to release a collection of essays on the subject,”Dimensions of Forgiveness: Psychological Research and Theological Perspectives.” And it hopes its projects will make contributions to academic fields as disparate as medicine, psychology, religion and politics.

Following the Foundation’s philosophy that science and religion can and should be better integrated than they are right now, the studies encourage laboratory scientists to team up with theologians _ a task that won’t always be easy.”This program needs brave theologians,”said Charles Harper, who is the executive director and senior vice president of the Templeton Foundation. Such theologians, Harper said, must be willing to take up issues such as how forgiveness can help patients who are recovering from heart attacks _ one of the areas of study.”It’s not immediately obvious where a theologian can begin to engage that process,”Harper said,”They have to be incredibly nimble.” Other research topics include studies of forgiveness among chimpanzees, forgiveness in family relationships, forgiveness and health, the psychological dimensions of forgiveness and the effectiveness of forgiveness in volatile political situations, such as Rwanda and South Africa.

Many scholars of religion applaud the new effort, particularly in the way that it brings the resources of religion to bear on scientific and political issues.”For Jews or Christians, our understanding of God is a God who forgives for the sake of reconciliation,”said L. Gregory Jones, who is dean of Duke Divinity School and author of”Embodying Forgiveness”(Eerdmans, 1995).”But because this God is also the creator of the world, it shouldn’t surprise us that people that don’t believe in that God recognize the importance of forgiveness to sustaining our communities,”he said.

But not all theologians are convinced that forgiveness is a useful model for genuinely solving some social problems.

Referring to what he terms”the feel-good doctrine of automatic forgiveness,”Jewish writer and radio talk show host Dennis Prager criticizes what he sees as a disturbing trend among Americans _ they forgive without first demanding repentance.”This doctrine undermines the moral foundations of American civilization because it advances the amoral notion that no matter how much you hurt other people, millions of your fellow citizens will immediately forgive you,”Prager recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Prager said he believes repentance, not forgiveness, should be the cornerstone of conflict resolution because unearned forgiveness is useless and insincere.”It undermines penitence, it undermines responsibility, it undermines contrition, it undermines repayment,”he said in an interview with RNS.”Why do I have to make up to you when I’ve already been forgiven?” But the pioneers of the new forgiveness studies field argue forgiveness is not a magic wand that will make pain disappear and fail to hold people accountable for their actions. On the contrary, they argue, forgiveness is itself a painful process that is a starting point for wider healing and reconciliation.”Forgiveness can be an enormously important starting point,”said Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Elshtain, who has written on the international political possibilities for forgiveness, said that forgiveness must start with honesty and end with accountability.”The centerpiece of it is the requirement of truth,”she said.

But she said”too many people have the idea that if I forgive, there’s no price to be paid.”But genuine forgiveness, she said, just as it requires an honest admission of wrong-doing, requires accountability if a person breaks the law.”It doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.” Forgiveness, however, while not guaranteed in any situation, is a useful model for addressing personal and political conflicts, according to experts in the field.”If human relationships are conflictual and they leave behind them a trail of words, tears, and even blood, the only way to deal with those wounds is via forgiveness of the past,”said Croatian-born Miroslav Volf, a professor of theology at Yale Divinity School whose book”Exclusion and Embrace”(Abingdon) used the Balkan conflict to study of Christian reconciliation.

DEA END LEBOWITZ