Unforgivable?

Stephen Cherry, Dean of King's College Cambridge, considers the place and importance of forgiveness in a troubled world.

To quote Peter Hitchens: "Why do we all hate each other?" It is certain that society needs healing, and that we are losing the capacity to forgive and to be reconciled with each other.

In this profound book, Stephen Cherry explores the central question: are there acts which are unforgiveable? Can those who do malicious harm to others - sexual abusers, political tyrants guilty of genocide, compulsive crooks - ever be forgiven?

Considering the complexities of such cases, Cherry shows that while it is in the Churches today that this is most urgent and that turning the other cheek is out of the question. The need to forgive affects all political, social and religious spheres.

With examples ranging from Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which has done so much to heal the wounds caused by oppression of black people by a white minority in South Africa, to Freud's assertion that men and women would never be free until they had forgiven their parents. This is a thoughtful, sensitive look at the importance of forgiveness in our tragically polarized society.

It also explores the practical, reflecting on the necessity of forgiveness for people of all creeds, races and disposition. Cherry sketches a way in which we can advocate a new appeal and promise for forgiveness in the 21st century.