Faces of Forgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvation, The

Trinity Journal, Spring 2004 by Maier, Bryan N

F. LeRon Shults and Steven J. Sandage. The Faces of Forgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003. 269 pp. $17.99.

Face to face with Christ my Savior, Face to face what will it be When with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me?

Occasionally, theologians and psychologists teach courses together; it is even rarer when they write books together. However, fortunately for this type of genre, F. LeRon Shults -professor of theology, Bethel Seminary, and Steven J. Sandage -licensed psychologist and associate professor of marriage and family studies, Bethel Seminary, write in such a way that there is not the expected disjointedness or the feeling that one has just read two marginally related books pasted together between one cover. Both authors celebrate the emphasis on relationship in forgiveness, whether this is a "turn to relationality" in recent explanations of soteriological doctrine (Shultz, p. 148) or a new focus on "intersubjectivily" in psychological theory (Sandage, p. 31ff.). Either way, it is the joy of the intimate relationship with God (and therefore others) that forgiveness brings. As the title suggests, forgiveness understood properly not only takes care of the problem of sin but also (and this is the prominent theme of the book) elevates one to a position where one can be "face to face" with God.

The introduction provides a good summary of the literature on forgiveness both from a Christian and non-Christian perspective. Especially helpful is the taxonomy of forgiveness starting on p. 20. In the confusion of definitions, these categories provide some sense of which type of forgiveness (at least broadly) one is talking about. Forensic forgiveness, typically the domain of theologians, involves the concepts of debt, offense repayment, and punishment. The overall theme is one of payment for the offense and subsequent restoration. On the other hand, therapeutic forgiveness, a newer idea more tied to the field of counseling, extols the healing effect forgiveness brings to the victim, regardless of the response or disposition of the perpetrator. Even if the offender never repents, the victim still benefits from forgiving. The third category, "redemptive" forgiveness, is Shults's and Sandage's attempt to broaden and enrich the idea of forgiveness beyond the limits of the previous two semantic fields.

Although Shults is listed as first author, it is Sandage's chapter, Faces of Forgiveness in Psychology, that is presented first. I realize someone had to go first, but I wondered how the book would read if the theology section were presented first. By the time the reader gets to Shults's explanation of how the definition, of forgiveness needs to be expanded theologically, one already has Sandage's thoughts on how forgiveness is a relationally informed process echoing in the background. Then when Shults continues this theme by claiming that relationship with God (beyond the restrictive forensic and therapeutic ideas) is the key to understanding forgiveness in the Bible, the pump has already been primed. What Shults claims makes perfect sense in light of what Sandage has already written.

Following the original flow of the book, the overall theme of Sandage's section is that forgiveness has a lot to do with the face: the face of the victim, the face of the offender, and ultimately the face of God. "The capacity for forgiveness is formed in response to the face of the other" (p. 31). When we look into the face of another, we realize that we are dealing with another "subject" and not a mere "object." Thus, true intimate relationship consists of the "intersubjectivity" of two distinct persons facing one another without shame, hostility, or anxiety. To Sandage's credit, he does not overlook how difficult this process can be in the presence of traumatic evil such as childhood abuse. For this reason, attempts to pressure victims to produce some kind of superficial forgiveness through "simple conscious decisions are insulting" (p. 53). I agree. Pressuring someone to forgive prior to an understanding of what constitutes forgiveness only promotes more denial.

So what about the possibility of being face to face with God? Building on what Sandage has outlined in the first section about relationships involving an intersubjectivity, Shults goes on to build a case for "redemptive forgiveness" that creates the possibility for such a relationship with God. One significant barrier to grasping this fuller view of forgiveness, according to both authors, is evangelicals' addiction to the forensic construct of forgiveness. "Nowhere have the egregious effects of the domination of legal and financial metaphors of salvation been felt more deeply than in the understanding and practice of forgiveness in Christian life" (pp. 23, 103). In other words, thinking of forgiveness in primarily or exclusively monetary or forensic terms is somehow "egregious." What would prompt Shults and Sandage to make such a strong claim? The authors have at least three concerns with the forensic view of forgiveness: (1) Not true to the flow of the Old (pp. 125ff.) or the New Testament (p. 23); (2) Difficult to appreciate or incorporate more to the definition (p. 24); (3) Leads to anemic forgiveness (p. 103).