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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: F. LeRon Shults and Steven Sandage have written a masterpiece in this book that deserves the consideration of all who would claim to have a biblical understanding of forgiveness. The book is called 'the Faces of Forgiveness' as an important part of the book is the concept of 'facing' each other in community and forigiveness which leads to true healing; salvation. Sandage looks at the psychological aspects of forgiveness in the first section of the book, LeRon focuses more on the theological aspects of forgiveness in the second part of the book, and finally the third section (co-written) presents case studies for the integration of the material in the book. The thrust of the book is really understanding what it means to have the fullness of being: "The Futurity of the biblical God of hope is revealed in the face of Christ by the power of the Spirit: this discloses the essential relationality of the divine Trinity, whose perfect Infinity embraces and calls human persons into the fullness of being" (p.210); the entire book is full of breathtaking material like this - get your hands on a copy!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: F. LeRon Shults and Steven Sandage have written a masterpiece in this book that deserves the consideration of all who would claim to have a biblical understanding of forgiveness. The book is called 'the Faces of Forgiveness' as an important part of the book is the concept of 'facing' each other in community and forigiveness which leads to true healing; salvation. Sandage looks at the psychological aspects of forgiveness in the first section of the book, LeRon focuses more on the theological aspects of forgiveness in the second part of the book, and finally the third section (co-written) presents case studies for the integration of the material in the book. The thrust of the book is really understanding what it means to have the fullness of being: "The Futurity of the biblical God of hope is revealed in the face of Christ by the power of the Spirit: this discloses the essential relationality of the divine Trinity, whose perfect Infinity embraces and calls human persons into the fullness of being" (p.210); the entire book is full of breathtaking material like this - get your hands on a copy!
Rating: 
Summary: Theology of Facing
Review: The authors state that their "overarching goal for the book is twofold: 1) to demonstrate the explanatory power of facial hermeneutics; and 2) to illuminate the transforming reality of forgiveness as we search for wholeness and salvation" (pg.24).
The authors had five things they felt their book said that had not already been said by other authors on the subject. These are: 1) to do an interdisciplinary work that attempts an implicit and explicit synthesis/integration on the subject of forgiveness; 2) to combine scholarship and clinical application; 3) to use the face motif and the "metaphorical realist" approach to forgiveness; 4) to try to integrate empirical psychological and psychoanalytical approaches; and 5) to add the systems/socio-cultural perspective so as to explore the "connections between forgiveness, power and justice . . ."
The authors state that there are three kinds of forgiveness: a) forensic; b) therapeutic; and c) redemptive. Redemptive forgiveness is when "a party agrees not to exact what the law requires" (pg. 20). Therapeutic forgiveness is a moral judgment that an offender is responsible for harmful actions, surveying the damage done by the hurtful actions and eventually remembering it differently (pg. 22). Redemptive forgiveness includes both forensic and therapeutic forgiveness but the "overarching meaning of [redemptive] forgiveness is manifesting and sharing redemptive grace" (pg. 23).
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