Most of the world’s major religions value
forgiveness. In Christianity, forgiveness is a commandment with a threat. The
forgiveness commonly referred to in the Bible is forgiveness of others;
however, recently, psychological scientists have studied self-forgiveness.
Self-forgiveness is the unique case in which people are both offenders and victims.
People are
often in the case of failing to live up to their moral standards, which results
in harm to themselves. They may have felt guilty for abusing drugs or acts they
performed against another. They rehearse the events and cannot seem to let them
go. In short, they do not seem able to forgive themselves even if they have
been forgiven by others or, advised by clergy that God has forgiven them.
This
issue of living with unforgiveness is not just a matter of religious beliefs or
argument because studies show that forgiveness is related to general and mental
health (e.g., see Worthington, 2020). Thus, self-forgiveness becomes and
important area of study.
Read more on Self-Forgiveness
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Recently, Frank Fincham and his team
examined religion and self-forgiveness. (Fincham, May, & Chavez, 2019).
They conducted two studies. The first study was based on findings from a survey
of young (M = 19.89, SD = 1.61) college students (n = 393).
The authors concluded:
Taken together,
the results obtained in this study provide evidence to suggest that religious
involvement and perceived forgiveness by God may influence self-forgiveness
(p.3).
In the second study, they conducted an
experiment with 91 young college students. In this study, the participants were
randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. In each condition,
the participants viewed four pictures: (a) images of an angry God, (b) images
of a benevolent God, (c) abstract impressionistic paintings. They rated the
images on a scale of artistry then completed a short survey of self-forgiveness.
Those in the angry God condition scored the lowest on self-forgiveness compared
to those in the paintings (control condition). The evidence did not support the
value of images of a benevolent God to influence self-forgiveness.
There are several limitations noted by the
authors. What might be of interest, if the findings are replicated and
extended, is the way clergy or Christian counselors present God to religious people
who struggle with forgiving themselves.
Read more on forgiveness and other virtues
in Living Well on AMAZON
and elsewhere.
Reference
Fincham,
F. D., May, R. W., & Chavez, F. L. C. (2019). Does being religious lead to
greater self-forgiveness? The Journal of Positive Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1615109
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