Why Forgive?

by Johann Christoph Arnold

Book Overview

In Why Forgive? Arnold lets the untidy experiences of ordinary people speak for themselves--people who have earned the right to talk about forgiving.

Some of these stories deal with violent crime, betrayal, abuse, hate, gang warfare, and genocide. Others address everyday hurts: the wounds caused by backbiting, gossip, conflicts in the home, and tensions in the workplace. The book also tackles what can...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874869420
• ISBN13: 9780874869422
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: Plough Publishing House
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Required reading for the health of your spirit

A powerful, emotionally driving book, "Why Forgive" provides a framework of forgiveness that not only defines why it is important to forgive, but also how not forgiving eats at us like a cancer until it kills our happiness and our very essence. With true life stories of amazing acts of forgiveness, the book shows how forgiveness is required before truly moving on to complete healing when you have been wronged. The extremely powerful stories show how forgiveness has allowed individuals to regain their lives after severe tragedy has entered their lives. Instead of taking the easy path and allowing anger and hate to destroy them, they make a choice that results in a deep peace. Pick up the book, learn to forgive, learn how it is necessary for true peace, choose the road less travelled and choose forgiveness. If there is a book that should be required reading for everyone, this is a contender for that book.

A moving book

Why Forgive? Hard as it may be this book shows in a simple and powerful way that the only way to true freedom is through forgiveness. While bitterness seems the roads to take and hatred towards those who have hurts us the excepted emotion, Arnold dares to tells us the true stories of people who choose the road less travel and in the end found the freedom to let go and change their world by forgiving. He also gives us a look into the lives of those who choose to be angry, only to destroy themselves. This book is moving and powerful, it is a striking lesson of something most people and talkshows refuse to speak about. I only pray that people out their struggling with bitterness and revenge read this book and know there is another way.

Powerful Examples

The great power of Arnold's book is in the real world examples of forgiveness he offers. Some of the examples have an "everyday" kind of quality to them while others are staggering in terms of the ability of people to somehow cut through their hurt, anguish and rage to come to the point of forgiveness. Arnold avoids the "Oprahzation" of forgiveness by reminding the reader that forgiveness takes both truth and grace into account He neither diminishes nor denies the hard realities with which people must live. Arnold devotes much space to the self-interested nature of forgiveness. We forgive because such an act works toward our own good. I would have liked to have seen him devote a bit more space to those instances in which people forgive because they see it as a way to display something of the character of God even when they themselves may never find peace through forgiveness. My only critique of the book is that author does not provide bibliographical references. The book is full of wonderful quotes and stories. I would like to have known the sources. Further, a recommended list of readings would have been helpful. However, having said all of that, this is the kind of book that makes you want to take off your shoes as you read...you recognize that you are on holy, holy ground.

Sr Ann Laforest, Carmelite nun, letter to the author

The beauty of the book mesmerized me instantly, and I could not put it down. Your message seems very focused on today's milieu. Not everyone can understand forgiveness. You have taken people where they are. You say between the lines that you respect them where they are. You show them where the light at the end of the tunnel can be found, but you do not blind anyone with the light. You allowed them to take whatever time they may need to let their eyes get "light-adapted." You show them how the next step may be taken when they are ready, and that it will lead them toward the light. This is quite remarkable pastorally. The stories are marvelous. John Plummer's tearful embrace of Kim is indelibly etched in my memory. The story of Mottlingen has ever fascinated me. I pray this book will be a source for changing many hearts...

This is a totally uplifting book.

I've already read the book through twice. The first time in one sitting. I ordered another copy for a friend, but I'm keeping mine to read again. This is a totally uplifting book. Definitely a five-star!"Why Forgive?" brings a simple, but powerful message. Every time we experience something painful, it opens the door to choose either bitterness or compassion. If we choose bitterness and hatred, we give other people the power to ruin our lives. If we choose compassion and forgiveness, we find an inner peace that no one can take away from us. Arnold brings many stories to support this simple point. Some are tragic stories far outside the normal experience of most people. Some are almost mundane stories from the everyday lives of ordinary people. The combination illustrates how forgiveness is just as important in small grudges as in the dramatic life stories of faraway people. I'm totally inspired.Thomas Martin Koblenz, Germany