“Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory

Worthington, Everett L.; Rueger, Sandra Yu; Davis, Edward B.; Wortham, Jennifer

doi:10.3390/rel10010044

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“Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory

Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

^1,*

Sandra Yu Rueger

²,

Edward B. Davis

² and

Jennifer Wortham

Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Box 842018, Richmond, VA 23284-2018, USA

School of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA

Department of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Religions 2019, 10(1), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010044

Received: 19 November 2018 / Revised: 20 December 2018 / Accepted: 3 January 2019 / Published: 10 January 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Spirituality and Health: Forgiveness in Health, Medicine and Social Sciences)

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Abstract

Forgiveness is a central theme within the Christian faith, yet Christian traditions sometimes vary in how they understand and approach the forgiveness process. Nevertheless, in this paper, we present an ecumenical model of Christian forgiveness that highlights the essential components that are shared across most Christian traditions. Importantly, rather than using a theological lens to develop and describe this model, we have primarily used a psychological lens. Specifically, we have adopted stress-and-coping theory as the psychological framework for understanding a Christian conceptualization of forgiveness. We identify four types of forgiveness (divine forgiveness, self-forgiveness, person-to-person forgiveness, and organizational–societal forgiveness) and describe a Christian conceptualization of each one, filtered through the psychological perspective of stress-and-coping theory. View Full-Text

Keywords: forgiveness; stress; coping; Christian

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Worthington, E.L., Jr.; Rueger, S.Y.; Davis, E.B.; Wortham, J. “Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory. Religions 2019, 10, 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010044

AMA Style

Worthington EL Jr., Rueger SY, Davis EB, Wortham J. “Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory. Religions. 2019; 10(1):44. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010044

Chicago/Turabian Style

Worthington, Everett L., Jr., Sandra Y. Rueger, Edward B. Davis, and Jennifer Wortham. 2019. "“Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory" Religions 10, no. 1: 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010044

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“Mere” Christian Forgiveness: An Ecumenical Christian Conceptualization of Forgiveness through the Lens of Stress-And-Coping Theory

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