The 2010 National HIV/AIDS Strategy outlined three important goals for managing the current HIV pandemic in the U.S.: (1) reduce the number of people who become infected with HIV; (2) improve access to health care and health-related outcomes for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLH/A); and (3) reduce HIV-related health disparities. Each of these goals tacitly depends upon reducing HIV-related stigma, and this study examined how HIV+ individuals evaluate coping efforts to overcome stigma’s impact on quality of life (QOL). a structural regression model was developed to instantiate the reappraisal process described by Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping, and this model indicated that maladaptive coping fully mediated the relationship between dispositional forgiveness and perceived stigma, which supports the prediction that coping efficacy is related to stress reduction. Additionally, maladaptive coping fully mediated the relationship between dispositional forgiveness and QOL, supporting the contention that forgiveness is a critical aspect to the evaluative process that influences how PLH/A cope with stigma. Lastly, the model showed that when PLH/A engaged in maladaptive coping to mitigate stress-related stigma, these individuals experienced increased stigmatization and reported significantly lower levels of health-related QOL. in contrast, PLH/A that reported higher levels of dispositional forgiveness were significantly less likely to use maladaptive coping to overcome stigma. Therefore, dispositional forgiveness works through coping to alter perceptions regarding stigmatization, while indirectly influencing attitudes related to health distress, mental health, and cognitive and social functioning. the theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Close interpersonal relationships are the foundation of human society. The goal in this study was to investigate the relationships between forgiveness (self and others) and the two dimensions of attachment (anxiety and avoidance).

This thesis examines the twenty-two passages in the Gospels in which God’s forgiveness of human sin is explicitly addressed. Using modern textual, literary, form, redaction, and historical criticisms as exegetical tools, the examination maps out the development of these biblical vignettes so as to extract from the process an understanding of what the Gospel writers wanted to convey to Jesus’ followers about God’s forgiveness. Four distinct forgiveness modes were discovered: repentance leads to forgiveness (e.g. proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations in Lk 24:47), faith acts as a conduit to forgiveness (e.g. sinful woman kissing Jesus’ feet in Lk 7:48b-50), one must forgive in order to be forgiven (e.g. the Lord’s Prayer in Lk 11:4 and Mt 6:12), and forgiveness is a free gift based solely on God’s mercy (e.g. on the cross, “Father, forgive them” in Lk 23:34). None of these views represents a majority Gospel vision of forgiveness, with each of the four viewpoints having four to seven episodes occurring in the Gospel cannon. Seldom are any of these pathways to forgiveness mentioned together. Despite a plethora of information about forgiveness, nowhere do the Gospels present a wholistic explanation of divine forgiveness. The Gospel writers, like their Hebraic ancestors, were comfortable with a multivariant view of God’s forgiveness and showed no propensity to develop a wholistic theology of forgiveness. However, underlying this untidy approach was an emphasis on God’s mercy and compassion that had roots in the Old Testament understanding of Yahweh as gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love. In addition, the seedling concepts of sin as an unpayable debt or of the importance of faith in Jesus appeared in the background of multiple Scripture passages from each of the four forgiveness themes.

No description available.

Religion is a known contributor to suicide risk, with both positive and negative effects. Negative religious experiences, such as spiritual struggle, can exacerbate suicide risk. Alternatively, religion may promote positive psychological characteristics associated with reduced suicide risk, such as forgiveness, gratitude, and humility. However, research has yet to assess how religious changes, including conversion and deconversion, affect the linkage between religious risk and protective factors and suicidal behavior. We conducted three studies assessing these associations across four belief status groups: life-long religious believers, former religious non-believers who now believe, life-long religious non-believers, and former religious believers who no longer believe. Participants recruited online completed the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised, the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the Gratitude Questionnaire, and the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale. In our first study, we assessed differences in mean levels of spiritual struggle, forgiveness, humility, and gratitude, across each group. In our second study, we assessed the association between forgiveness, gratitude, humility, spiritual struggle and suicide risk, and differences in these relations across each group. In our final study, we assessed the potential moderating effect of forgiveness, gratitude, and humility on the relation between spiritual struggle and suicide risk, and differences in these moderating effects for each group. Our results indicate that some positive psychological virtues, and their impact on suicide risk may differ based on religious belief status. Similarly, our results suggest that while spiritual struggles are associated with suicide risk regardless of religious belief status, positive psychological variables (i.e., forgiveness, gratitude, humility) may mitigate suicide risk differently based on one’s religious belief status. Changes in, or the maintenance of, one’s religious beliefs may be an important consideration in the development of positive psychological interventions (e.g., forgiveness therapy, gratitude diary) aimed at ameliorating suicide risk in the context of spiritual struggle. Additionally, religiously oriented psychotherapies (e.g., RI-CBT) may be an important therapeutic intervention for individuals at high risk for suicide experiencing spiritually related distress.

In 2017, the Church of Sweden elected a new service-book which is mandatory for the liturgy in the ceremonies. This undergraduate thesis aims to analyze the prayers of forgiveness to recognize the hamartiology, understandings of sin, in the Church of Sweden. The main question asked was: "In the moment of Prayers of forgiveness in the handbook of the Church of Sweden, which different ideas of sin and forgiveness can be identified?". A total of eight prayers of forgiveness were analyzed with three sub-questions: (A) How is the sin understood? (B) How does God relate to sin? (C) To the person praying, what change does the prayer aim to affect? The theories in this paper were based on contemporary, Lutheran theology, with the origins from the Church of Sweden, linked to sin and forgiveness. The prayers were compared with different understandings of the original sin (ontological sin, and structural sin) and the actual sin (subjective sin and objective sin). The result of the thesis revealed that the actual sins were the most common in the prayers of forgiveness. The structural sin can be understood as the original sin as being structures one is born into. As shown in the first two prayers, named B1 and B2 in this paper, the idea of an ontological sin was identified in various prayers, such as B4, B5, and B8. The B3, B6, and B7 prayers were lacking a direct link to the original sin and were instead directed towards a God described as loving and merciful. The subjective sin was expressed through the encouragement of self-reflection in B3 and B6. The objective sin was identified in most of the prayers.

No description available.

Greenwashing is a frequent issue within the FMCG industry, such as vague ecological claims and misleading communication. When a brand is accused of greenwashing it is important to understand how to manage this transgression, since both forgiveness and loyalty are concepts that are affected. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate how brand forgiveness influences brand loyalty, within the FMCG industry, with the aim of contributing to limited research in this area. Ten interviews were conducted with loyal customers to examine how they felt and experienced two brands after perceived transgressions. The critical incident technique was used during the interviews to remind the customers of the transgressions and obtain a comprehensive view of their narratives. The results indicated that the lack of repair efforts influenced the customers to perceive the brands as dishonest and untrustworthy, which affected their unwillingness to forgive and damaged their trust. Based on the customer's perceptions and feelings regarding the brands and the specific transgressions, brand forgiveness and loyalty were influenced differently. In addition, the customer places high importance on the product quality and their relationship with the brand and would rather stay with the brand instead of switching to another if the quality and/or the relationship is strong.

A collection of linked stories.

4 Abstract Forgiveness and reconciliation as a manifestation of dialogic relationship Suffering and disease belongs to human life as well as death. They may have a specific culprit, but there are also crosses, which themselves can not be avoided. Taking the correct attitude in recognition of its own share of guilt, forgiveness of one another, but the adoption of forgiveness restores interpersonal dialogic space. It depends only on the personal decision of whether a person has for himself or for another love or hate. The proces sof healing relationships with oneself and the other person is not instantaneous, but takes place gradually. The correct concept of God from the biblical Revelation, who is dialogical himself, that Love itself, leads to a liberating faith and full life. By recognizing thein own guilt and desire to remedy the relationship of neighbour and God forgiveness and confidence in the celebration of the sacrament of recontiliation is open space for a new beginning. Eternal life is loneliness, while a man staggering out of isolation into a true unity with all our brothers. The encounter with Christ is meeting with his whole body. Keywords suffering, disease, death, guilt, forgiveness, reconciliation, dialogic, Christ