Anger is often associated with poor physical and mental health, including suicidal behaviour. Anger expression is typically conceptualised as inward or outward-directed, with each mode of expression having potentially different aetiologies and health manifestations. Individual characteristics such as religion or spirituality may buffer against the effects of anger. One such characteristic, forgiveness, is the voluntary process of changing ones’ beliefs, behaviours, and emotions towards a transgressor from negative to positive. We examined forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others and feeling forgiven by God as moderators of the relationship between anger expression and suicidal behaviours in a sample of 372 ethnically diverse college students. In independent and full models, we found that forgiveness of self was a significant moderator of the association between inward and outward anger and suicidal behaviour. Interventions targeting anger via the promotion of forgiveness may be useful in the prevention of suicide ideation and attempts.

Research is burgeoning regarding the beneficial association of forgiveness with numerous health-related outcomes; however, its particular relationship to suicidal behavior has received relatively little attention. Both cynicism and psychache, or agonizing psychological pain, have displayed deleterious associations with suicidal behavior, but have rarely been incorporated into more comprehensive models of suicidal behavior. Consistent with the recent development of a theoretical model regarding the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, the present study utilized an undergraduate sample of college students (N = 312) to test a mediation-based model of the cross-sectional association of forgiveness with suicidal behavior, as serially mediated by cynicism and psychache. Dispositional forgiveness of self and forgiveness of uncontrollable situations were each indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less psychache. Also, dispositional forgiveness of others was indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less cynicism and less psychache, in a serial fashion. The present results are consistent with the extent literature on the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, cynicism, and psychache, and pending future studies, may be utilized to inform further treatment efforts for individuals at a high risk of attempting suicide.

Growing evidence for protective factors of spirituality against physical and mental health related outcomes has led to the consideration of spirituality as a protective factor for suicidal behaviors. Although initial support for this association is promising, spirituality has yet to be explored as it relates to psychache. Additionally, self-forgiveness has emerged as an important protective factor of suicidal behavior, but has not been explored in the context of psychache. Following a model developed by Webb, Hirsch, and Toussaint (2015), the current project explores the protective role of spirituality on suicidal behavior based on three dimensions of spirituality: ritualistic, theistic, and existential. A total of 262 individuals completed a self-report survey online through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results indicate that only Existential Spirituality is related to suicidal behaviors. Further, self-forgiveness and psychache were found to be serial mediators of this relationship. Implications for clinical interventions and directions for future research are discussed.

Forgiveness, a cognitive-emotional and behavioral reduction of negative responses to offenses, is directly related to less suicide risk, but may be indirectly related via its relation with future orientation, the ability to envision a positive future. In 100 rural primary care patients, we examined the association between self-forgiveness, other-forgiveness, and forgiveness by God and suicidal behavior, with future orientation as a mediator. Forgiveness was related to greater future orientation and, in turn, to, less suicidal behavior. Addressing the past may promote adaptive views of the future and reduce suicide risk, results suggesting potential temporal and forgiveness-based points for suicide prevention.

The Sad Kitchen, a work of magical realism, tells the story of a saintly woman named Helen. She opens an underground kitchen where people who feel guilty can come to be comforted and nurtured in the middle of the night. The story is, at its heart, a reflection on forgiveness. Song of Neon, also of the magical realist genre, is an existential work about a nurse named Avery and her husband, an owl house maker, named Saul. Their town, Milliard, is under a trance. Avery and Saul struggle with their respective identities in the quiet, vacuum the town has become.

In the last few decades, some scholars have questioned the moral value of forgiveness. They have argued that in order for a victim to preserve his self-respect, to not condone the wrongdoing, and to avoid unjustly pardoning the offender, he must consider forgiving only after the offender has satisfied specific conditions that have been demanded of him. Forgiveness, they claim, is morally permissible only when it is given conditionally. Unconditional forgiveness cannot be virtuous. This dissertation addresses the issues surrounding this claim. I argue that Forgivingness, which is the virtue associated with forgiving, causes its possessor to reliably offer unconditional forgiveness to every person who offends him. Further, I contend that instances of forgiveness, arising from or contributing to the development of this virtue, are never morally impermissible even though their moral quality may not be ideal. To support my thesis, I develop a model of Forgivingness that represents it as a multi-faceted virtue of cognitive, affective, motivational, and action components that, independently of the actions and attitudes of the offender, produce unilateral, unconditional forgiveness. I describe Forgivingness’s dependency on the characteristic of moral love—a quality that values an offender’s ultimate moral good and ideal self, displays good will towards him, and assimilates the virtue of self-forgetfulness into the possessor’s deliberations, desires, and actions—and explain the virtue’s relationship to ancillary or homologous emotions including hope, humility, magnanimity, and anger. I then defend the forgiveness that multi-faceted Forgivingness produces against criticisms that are commonly levied against unconditional forgiveness. In doing so, I reinforce a theme that runs throughout the entire work—that is, that virtuous forgiveness is distinct from minimal forgiveness. When relevant, I show the weaknesses in minimal forgiveness so as to emphasize the moral strength and beauty of virtuous forgiveness. Further, I distinguish virtuous forgiveness from forgetting, reconciliation, and excuse-making and explain how it can be compatible with disciplining the offender. Consequently, I demonstrate why virtuous forgiveness that is given according to my model of the virtue is immune to the criticisms that may be relevant to other forms of forgiveness.

There has been an increase of research in the area of forgiveness, particularly since the early 1980’s; however, there has been far less research done in the field of addiction and how forgiveness or the lack of forgiveness impact’s a person’s recovery. The profession of social work has a wide array of fields and services, and it is not uncommon for a social worker to work with a person abusing substances at some point in his or her career. While there are many aspects of treating and assisting client’s in their recovery, one topic that may not be discussed with clients is the subject of forgiveness. However, forgiveness renders itself as pertinent in a person maintaining sobriety and thus it is imperative while conducting treatment for social workers to not shy away from this subject with their clients. This study utilized a qualitative analysis consisting of interviews with ten participants who share their experiences of forgiveness in their own recovery. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of forgiveness on 12 step group attendees in order to gain an awareness of how forgiveness or the lack of forgiveness affects one’s ability to maintain sobriety. The findings of this research will be used to increase social workers’ understanding of utilizing forgiveness as a treatment modality, impact future social work policy, practice and research.

anglicky Annotation In my thesis I deal with the Confession in European nad especially Czech Protestantism, its conception, form and transformations in history. The focus of my work is to look at the Confession in the Reformation and its further development. The work is divided into four major chapters: (1) The Confession, (2) The Confession and reformers, (3) The Cofession and reformist religions, (4) The Confession of contemporary Protestantism. Each of these chapters is further divided into subsections. In conclusion I describe the effort to reintroduce private Confession as solid form of church life and I think about reasons why nowadays in Protestant churches private Confession used only sporadically. Keywords: confession; Reformation; the Church of the Brethren; Luther; Calvin; Protestantism; Sin; Forgiveness; Absolution.

In this dissertation, I will explore how 1990s and 2000s British, Irish and South Asian historical films represented the violent legacy of partition on the island of Ireland and in South Asia, respectively. I contend that a cross-regional and cross-national examination of the relationships between national memory, national cinema and minority will reveal that partition had a similar effect on Irish, South Asian and Northern Irish societies: the alignment of a normative national identity with a particular religious identity. This study will explore how key Irish, British and South Asian cinematic texts, despite being produced in disparate production contexts, similarly represent the brutal marginalization of gendered and religious minorities as a central legacy of partition. In my engagement with these films, I have two central areas of exploration. The first is how these films challenge state or majoritarian histories by presenting themselves as historical texts that correct the historical record. I will show how state histories (Michael Collins), majoritarian narratives (Hey!Ram), repressed gendered minority histories (Khamosh Pani, The Magdalene Sisters) and post-conflict narratives (Five Minutes of Heaven and Fiza) contest majoritarian or colonial histories. The second, and ancillary, area of exploration is how the international trauma film genre influences the films' respective representations of atrocity. I argue that trauma theory can help us understand minorities' relationship to the state and the ongoing impact of particular historical events on community and nation. To ground my comparative analysis, I draw from postcolonial theory, poststructuralism and trauma theory. In conclusion, I will contend that these films' minority figures remind us of the dangers of nationalism's limited imaginative boundaries and the role that cinema plays in helping us to think beyond its limitations.

This dissertation explored the associations between having experienced a major betrayal, forgiveness, and communication behaviors in married couples. The first aim of the current research was to compare the communication behaviors of couples who have experienced a major betrayal and are in various stages of the forgiveness process as delineated by Gordon, Baucom, and Snyder (2005) to couples who reported never having experienced a betrayal in their current relationship. The second aim of the study was to explore whether injured partners and their spouses behave differently when discussing the betrayal event than when they are conversing about a separate problem area in their relationship. 34 couples were observed having discussions about a problem area in their relationship and/or a betrayal event, and 3 undergraduate research assistants coded these interactions for the following communication behaviors: positive and negative affect, conflict, communication skills, positive and negative escalation, and validating and invalidating behaviors. The couples also reported their levels of forgiveness, marital satisfaction, and basic demographics. Analyses of Variance and Covariance (controlling for marital satisfaction) were used to explore hypotheses. Marital satisfaction was related to how injured partners communicate with their spouses. The injured partner’s level of forgiveness also was found to be related to how both partners communicate with each other regardless of discussion topic. Low levels of forgiveness were associated with less adaptive communication between spouses. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.