What do you think?
Rate this book
Just Forgiveness: Exploring The Bible, Weighing The Issues
Anthony Bash offers new insights into forgiveness from a biblical perspective, taking into account important findings in philosophy, politics and psychology. The book explores what the Bible says about forgiveness so that we can better experience its regenerative and renewing effects. It also looks at what the Bible says in the light of two thousand years of thought about forgiveness. It does so in the belief that, if forgiveness is to be meaningful, it must be just.
160 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2011
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 7, 2022
3.5 stars. Good overview and well worth reading, but his discussions of forgiveness and reconciliation in the Hebrew Bible and Judaism (not to mention Islam and Buddhism) are absurdly sketchy.
So are his off-the-cuff comments on baptismal regeneration and absolution. His views, though crudely put, may be defensible, but he explains them poorly and doesn't refer to sources that explain them better. Elsewhere, he shows how apparently divergent NT texts, though not in unison, are in harmony or counterpoint. When it comes to "the power of the keys," he just throws out the texts or, in desperation, suggests that they don't mean anything close to what they say.
As in much traditional Reformed theology, the Holy Spirit is almost entirely missing from his discussion. Bash is a Church of England priest and NT professor with a Reformed slant, but much of Paul Hinlicky's critique in "How the Holy Spirit Disappeared in Lutheranism" also applies to his treatment.
Finally, though his discussion of the Brighton bombing is insightful, its moral framework is cackhandedly biased in favor of British imperialism. To him, "collateral damage" from IRA bombings makes the act immoral and claims to the contrary are "sophistry"; collateral damage from British operations doesn't merit even a subordinate clause in a footnote. For him, killing of noncombatant civilians by British forces seems to raise no moral issues, no need for forgiveness or even comment.
I look forward to reading Bash's other books on forgiveness and hope they're better than this one.
So are his off-the-cuff comments on baptismal regeneration and absolution. His views, though crudely put, may be defensible, but he explains them poorly and doesn't refer to sources that explain them better. Elsewhere, he shows how apparently divergent NT texts, though not in unison, are in harmony or counterpoint. When it comes to "the power of the keys," he just throws out the texts or, in desperation, suggests that they don't mean anything close to what they say.
As in much traditional Reformed theology, the Holy Spirit is almost entirely missing from his discussion. Bash is a Church of England priest and NT professor with a Reformed slant, but much of Paul Hinlicky's critique in "How the Holy Spirit Disappeared in Lutheranism" also applies to his treatment.
Finally, though his discussion of the Brighton bombing is insightful, its moral framework is cackhandedly biased in favor of British imperialism. To him, "collateral damage" from IRA bombings makes the act immoral and claims to the contrary are "sophistry"; collateral damage from British operations doesn't merit even a subordinate clause in a footnote. For him, killing of noncombatant civilians by British forces seems to raise no moral issues, no need for forgiveness or even comment.
I look forward to reading Bash's other books on forgiveness and hope they're better than this one.
September 15, 2018
Very readable and thought provoking book. I know that I will be re-reading it again. I want to be a more forgiving person
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews