SPIRITUAL FOCUS ON BOOKS March 30, 2009 Issue

FORGIVENESS AND HEALING

KIM SHIPPEY, SENIOR WRITER

ENGLISH JOURNALIST Michael Henderson has written about forgiveness for more than ten years. No Enemy to Conquer is his third book on the subject, and a companion to The Forgiveness Factor and Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate.

Once again Henderson takes readers across the globe to share remarkable accounts of forgiveness that has led individuals, families, and national leaders to places of hope and healing. Unambiguously and without sentimentality, he makes the point that where vengeance finds resistance, forgiveness blossoms. He suggests that forgiveness is like a muscle that is strengthened through exercise. It's not about theory, but about the hard-won experience of real people—courageous men and women who reach out across religious, cultural, and political boundaries to talk with one another. He observes that when people acknowledge responsibility for wrongs done by them or their communities, allowing victims to heal, they move beyond the desire for revenge and help stop the cycle of violence.

Henderson mentions a fellow journalist in London who spent his entire career reporting on human behavior at its worst, only to find he couldn't retain his belief in God in the face of so much "wanton savagery." Henderson explains that he, personally, continues to believe, because of the positive developments he's witnessed in similar settings—"humankind at its best," he says. "The readiness of men and women to forgive ... in the most trying circumstances is awe-inspiring." And this anthology of personal observation blended with excerpts from books, essays, and speeches by international figures shows you why.

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