Reconciliation is a word that springs lightly from the mouths of politicians and pundits, perhaps because it never seems to have much concrete content. Forgiveness is a concept that seems shrot of its roots by the gradual disappearence of the sense of sinning against God and of the need for penance, reducing forgiveness to a social convention (as in "pardon me!"). The thought that either of these theological ideas might have some political relevance seems thoroughly unconvincing in the light of the apparently unforgivable horros of our time. This book grows out of the conviction that, as the author says, "it is necessary to think about forgiveness not in spite of Auschwitz but because of Auschwitz." Drawing on the biblical tradition and church history, Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz shows how the idea of forgiveness has been distorted, abused and largely lost, and why it is of ultimate importance to reclaim this healing art, not only in personal relations but specially also in the relation between nations and peoples. He devotes one chapter to careful analysis of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up after the end of apartheid in puth Africa and its relevance to many other situations of deeply rooted hostility and conflict in the world today.
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