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Cristian Mihut, Gracious Forgiveness: A Theological Retrieval, Oxford University Press, 2023, 198pp., $90.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780192873729.
Reviewed by Terence Cuneo, University of Vermont
Nearly twenty years ago in West Nickel Creek, Pennsylvania, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered a one-room schoolhouse and gunned down ten schoolchildren. Six of the children died. In the aftermath, the Amish community whose children were the victims, did not respond with demands for retribution. Instead, they extended forgiveness. They not only posthumously forgave Roberts, who had taken his own life, but also expressed compassion toward his family: during his funeral, they formed a crescent ring around his family in order to shield them from the media’s intrusions. Thoughtful and morally sensitive people have widely different reactions to the Amish response, including curiosity. What set of commitments could make sense of extending forgiveness in the face of such evil? And could any such commitments be…
