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Books

Failures of Forgivenes by Myisha Cherry

Ben Almassi learns that to forgive is complex.

Myisha Cherry invites us to practice forgiveness more expansively. This is not to say that she thinks we should be more forgiving. Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better (2023) is not an ode to the magic of forgiveness, and her argument is not that the world is better when we offer forgiveness freely and easily. The failures of forgiveness that concern her are not so much missed opportunities to forgive, as cases of forgiveness done wrong: forgiveness coerced or even commanded, sometimes at the wrong times, from the wrong people, in the process disrespecting victims and causing them more harm. The problem as Cherry sees it is that many of us view forgiveness too narrowly while also expecting too much from it.

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