Art of Forgiveness

the art of

A richer appreciation of the breadth and depth of forgiveness.

6th to 8th August 2015

Carey Baptist College, Auckland

PROGRAMME Thursday | 6 August

Friday | 7 August

Saturday | 8 August

9.30am -10.30am

9.30am -10.15am | Options

9.00am - 10.00am

Welcome | Mihi Whakatau Morning Tea

Kit Barker or Andrew Picard

David Tombs

10.30am - 12.00pm

10.15am - 10.45am

10.00am - 10.45am | Options

Greg Jones

Morning Tea

Andrea McDougall

Practicing Forgiveness as a Way of Life 12.00 pm -1.00pm

Truth, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

or Dale Campbell 10.45am - 12.15pm Greg Jones

10.45am - 11.00am

Lunch

Engaging Hard Questions About Forgiveness

1.00pm - 1.45pm | Options

12.15pm - 1.15pm

11.00am - 12.00pm

David Moko or Richard Neville

Lunch

Alistair Reese

1.45pm - 2.30pm | Options

1.15pm - 2.45pm

The Treaty of Waitangi and the Art of Forgiveness

Shayne Rasmussen or

David Gushee

Jonathan Robinson

The Limitations of Forgiveness

2.30pm - 3.00pm

2.45pm - 3.15pm

12.00pm - 1.30pm

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea

Phil Halstead

3.00pm - 3.45pm

3.15pm - 4.00pm | Options

How to Forgive + Conference Closure

Mark Hurst

Csilla Saysell or Sarah Harris

Forgiveness and Peacemaking: An anabaptist Perspective 7.30pm - 9.00pm

4.30pm - 6.15pm | Film Viewing

Public Lecture | Greg Jones

"Forgiveness"

Love Made Me an Inventor: Forgiveness & Innovation

Hosted by David Tombs

Morning Tea

WELCOME

W

elcome to Carey!

As Principal of Carey Baptist College it is a real privilege to be hosting a conference on such an important subject. Welcome to our campus—if we can help you in any way please do not hesitate to contact myself or another staff member.

We live in a world that is often ruthless and very quick to appropriate blame. Rather than looking for ways to show mercy and achieve reconciliation we condemn and want to seek revenge. However, at the very heart of the Christian message is forgiveness.

God is described as being “slow to anger” and “abounding in love and mercy,” “compassionate and gracious.” Through his death and resurrection Jesus Christ has made forgiveness and spiritual transformation possible. Jesus teaches that we must forgive others, “not seven times, but seventyseven times.” What does this all mean for us?

How can I become more aware of the forgiving God and his presence in my life? In what ways can forgiveness impact my relationships and my communities? What might it mean for our nation?

It is my prayer that your time at Carey will be beneficial and that we would be both challenged and encouraged as we continue to participate with God in His mission.

Charles Hewlett

W

elcome to the Art of Forgiveness Conference!

We are thrilled that you are able to join us at Carey.

Since forgiveness has the potential of transforming our lives and ultimately our societies, it is a critically important topic to explore in depth.

Given the expertise and calibre of the people presenting at (and attending) the conference, we are confident that we will all be able to gain a richer comprehension of the concepts involved in forgiveness during our time together and beyond.

Forgiveness is truly an art that we endeavour to acquire and master. We chose the Art of Forgiveness as the title for the conference because it infers that there are many aspects, states, and stages to everyone’s forgiveness process. Each situation that requires forgiveness is different and multifaceted and every new context brings up different questions and asks for different responses.

The title of the conference also accentuates that many strands of learning can add to the texture of forgiveness such as theology, psychology, and sociology. It will be exciting to explore these and more strands of this rich tapestry together.

Phil Halstead

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Dr. L. Gregory Jones is the Williams Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School. He also serves as the Strategic Director for the Laity Lodge Leadership Initiative. Greg has held a variety of leadership positions in both the academy and the church, including as Vice President and Vice Provost of Global Strategy and Programs for Duke University. An accomplished scholar, teacher, and preacher, Greg is noted especially for his work on forgiveness and reconciliation, as well as on Christian leadership. He is the author or editor of 16 books including Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, and Forgiving as We've Been Forgiven (co-authored with Celestin Musekura). Carey Baptist College welcomes Greg’s attendance at our conference.

Dr. David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University and is widely regarded as one of the leading moral voices in American Christianity. David is the author or editor of numerous books such as The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision is Key to the World’s Future and hundreds of articles in his field. David has always accompanied his scholarly production with church work, activism, opinion writing, board service, and domestic and global media consultation.

Having lectured on every continent, Carey Baptist College welcomes David’s attendance at the Art of Forgiveness conference.

Dr. Phil Halstead is a lecturer at Carey Baptist College, Auckland and also on staff at St Paul’s Symonds Street, Auckland where he heads up the pastoral care and counselling department. His PhD involved creating the now internationally recognized Forgiveness Matters Course, which was initially designed to help churchgoing adults process their parental wounds. Phil has published a trilogy of articles on the course in the Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health.

CONFERENCE PAPERS THURSDAY | 6 AUGUST

David Moko | Kaihautu, Baptist Maori Ministries, Aotearoa ‘Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu’ – Love Towards Us, Love Going Out From Us This is a Maori whakatauki (proverb) looking at the pain, suffering, and difficulties in life when people are confronted to offer and accept forgiveness. In this paper, I will explore these themes and the response of love by the telling of a number of poignant stories.

Richard Neville | Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies, Laidlaw College You Have Heard It Said: Interpersonal Forgiveness and the Old Testament The last few decades have seen a great deal written on the subject of interpersonal forgiveness by psychologists, pastors, moral philosophers, theologians, biblical scholars, and others. A sampling of this material suggests that the Old Testament has contributed little or nothing to this discussion. And among those who comment on interpersonal forgiveness in the Old Testament, including Old Testament specialists, the conclusion has typically been that the Old Testament writers had little interest in the subject. In this paper I review recent investigations of forgiveness in the Old Testament and suggest points at which this negative conclusion needs to be modified. I also suggest ways in which the Hebrew Bible may yet contribute to discussions of interpersonal forgiveness.

Sarah Harris | Lecturer, Carey Baptist College, Auckland The Art of Forgiveness in Luke's Gospel This paper aims to examine the nature of forgiveness in Luke's Gospel using Phil Halstead's HEART forgiveness schema from the perspective of the reader engaging the text. We will first examine Luke's perspective on sin, as for forgiveness to take place there must be awareness of the need for forgiveness; then we will follow through Luke’s extensive attention to the forgiveness of sins; forgiveness of sin is widely accepted to be at the centre of the Lukan gospel (good news). Finally, we will use the HEART forgiveness schema as a way of reading some of Luke's stories. The overall aim of the paper is to explore how the reader can engage with their own need for forgiveness using Luke's Gospel as a tool.

CONFERENCE PAPERS Bernie Power | Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Melbourne School of Theology Forgiveness: Islamic and Christian Perspectives Compared and Contrasted Islam speaks much about forgiveness. Included among the 99 names of Allah are the ‘Compassionate’, ‘Merciful’, ‘Forgiver’, ‘Excuser’, ‘Pardoner’ , ‘Relenter’, ‘Clement’, ‘Patient’ and ‘Restorer’. The Qur’an contains many verses about forgiveness, explaining its breadth and defining its limits. Likewise the Hadith, or traditions about Muhammad, and his biography, the Sira, narrate many accounts when Islam’s prophet and his companions were involved in situations which called for forgiveness. My paper will involve a wideranging analysis of these sources, drawing as well on the traditional streams of exegesis and commentary from historical Muslim sources. There will also be a biblical comparison on the Christian understanding of forgiveness, seeking to identify both the commonalities and the differences. At its heart will be the definitions and understandings of sin found in both bodies of literature. These will also be some conclusions drawn on how Muslims and Christians can come together on common ground without compromising the distinctive differences which give life and direction to these two religious traditions.

Shayne Rasmussen | Nurse Lecturer, School of Clinical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology Families Forgiving as an Act of Narrative Necessity Christians are supposed to share peace in the world by enacting the forgiveness they have themselves apparently experienced. However, forgiveness and grace is also evident in the actions of people who may not see forgiveness and who do not profess a religious experience. A qualitative narrative approach was used to explore the narratives of families/whanau who had experienced having a child in hospital. The nine participant families recounted stories of profound care, but also of frustration, questionable competence, and assaults against their integrity—set against the context of premature babies, illness, injury, and death.

Rather than holding offense against staff, in many situations families forgave and bracketed their negative experiences within their stories to allow the ongoing care of their children. Using the work of Arthur Frank to analyse the narratives, forgiveness and grace was evident as a theme in many family narratives.

Pragmatism and maintenance of narrative identity seem to be catalysts to the gift of grace families enacted to the hospital staff.

CONFERENCE PAPERS Jonathan Robinson | Senior Pastor, Blockhouse Bay Baptist Church, Auckland To See Your Face is Like Seeing the Face of God: Pastoral and Systemic Reflections on Forgiveness and Theosis in the Jacob Story Esau is typically considered the bad guy in readings of the Jacob story (i.e., the one who imperils the continuation of Abraham's line of faith through Jacob). The biblical narrative is, however, far more ambiguous. In fact, as the cycle reaches its climax Esau becomes closely and even confusingly identified with God. Jacob is returning fearfully to an uncertain welcome but Esau shows undeserved grace and favour to Jacob and so is compared to God. Psychotherapeutic theories of emotional systems highlight the dynamics of the Jacob/Esau conflict and demonstrate the necessity of a God-like intervention in the established reactive system of deception and violence. In rising above the reciprocal feedback of negative emotions Esau creates a new order out of the chaos of sibling rivalry. Forgiveness is thus dramatised as a participation in the nature of God, proving Alexander Pope's famous adage: "to err is human, to forgive is divine." This paper will undertake a heuristic application of systemic theory to the Jacob narrative to explicate the contours of forgiveness and reconciliation in the Jacob-Esau relationship, before concluding with reflection on the pastoral outcomes of considering the narrative in this way.

FRIDAY | 7 AUGUST

Kit Barker | Lecturer in Old Testament and Theology, Sydney Missionary and Bible College Drawing Pictures in Water – The Place of Penitence in the Art of Forgiveness The concept of forgiveness has not been adequately explored. The result is that both the nature and purpose of forgiveness are frequently misconstrued. This lacuna is unfortunate as one’s understanding of forgiveness has significant implications for counselling, pastoral ministry, and personal responses to violence and oppression. Accordingly, in this paper I employ speech act theory to tease out the anatomy of this complex, interpersonal activity. I suggest that forgiveness is an example of a “strong speech act” – in other words, a speech act which requires a very particular context within which it can occur. Against models that explain forgiveness as an unconditional, unilateral action, I suggest that forgiveness is both conditional and interpersonal. Moreover, I argue that forgiveness ought to be defined in theological terms where the portrait of divine forgiveness is paradigmatic. To add further nuance to this portrait, I interact with Miroslav Volf’s analogy of “gift” and briefly examine key texts alleged to support unconditional forgiveness. Finally, I discuss the often underestimated relationship between forgiveness and justice, and offer implications for how one might respond to continued violence and oppression.

CONFERENCE PAPERS Andrew Picard | Lecturer, Carey Baptist College, Auckland Forgiveness as Unbelonging: Revelation and the Quest for Post-Settler Pakeha Identity The book of Revelation employs a contrast of two cities to implore the followers of Jesus to ‘come out’ from the imperialistic narratives of Rome and ‘come into’ the cruciform narratives of the New Jerusalem. This paper utilizes Revelation’s tale of two cities as a framework for interpreting the personal journey out of the imperialistic narratives of Settler belonging and everyday racism in New Zealand. I will examine the impact that the myth of natural Maori inferiority has had upon my sense of identity in the context of New Zealand society and Baptist churches in Aotearoa. The call for Jesus’ followers to ‘come out from her’ offers a contemporary call to unbelong to imperialistic Settler narratives and the myth of natural Maori inferiority.

The call to ‘come out’ from imperialistic narratives is mirrored by the call to ‘come into’ the New Jerusalem and a different way of being. This paper will conclude with the quest for post-Settler Pakeha identity within the context of the journey of forgiveness and unbelonging.

Dale Campbell | Associate Pastor, Northcote Baptist Church, Auckland Sharing the ‘Meal of Forgiveness’: Eucharist, Community & the Dispute over Homosexuality This paper will first describe the Eucharist as the ‘Meal of Forgiveness’, which, like forgiveness itself, entails relationship to other, self, and others. Just as forgiveness resulted from one atoning act, so also the one forgiven community is given one meal of forgiveness to share. The following section will explore the tension between discipline and unity in what Jones calls the ‘Community of Forgiveness’, providing a framework for a discussion of the disputed sin of homosexual practice and the resulting division in Christian community in general and Eucharistic practice in particular. Combining insights from Volf, Jones and others, the final section will outline several difficult and essential steps towards sharing the Eucharist.

Csilla Saysell | Lecturer, Carey Baptist College, Auckland Unforgivable Sins?

In NT studies the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as the unforgivable sin has been examined at length and it is a topic that often arouses anxiety in newly professing Christians. The OT equally provides examples of sins which are unforgivable. Numbers 15:31-32 claims that no sin committed high-handedly (i.e. arrogantly, rebelliously) can be atoned for because it shows contempt for and blasphemes God. In 1 Samuel 2-3 Eli’s sons abuse the sacrificial system and Eli is told that there will be no atonement for their sin (1 Sam 3:14) because they despised and (possibly blasphemed) God. On the other hand, David is assured on his repentance that his

CONFERENCE PAPERS sins of adultery and murder have been taken away (2 Sam 12:13), even though these have been described in terms very similar to those of Eli’s sons (contempt for God, causing God’s enemies to blaspheme him). At the same time, David’s child dies even though he is forgiven. This paper will explore these puzzling examples in Scripture to tease out what forgiveness does and does not mean and to answer the question what makes a sin unforgivable.

SATURDAY | 8 AUGUST

David Tombs | Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues and Director of Centre for Theology and Public Issues, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Otago Truth, Forgiveness and Reconciliation The film Forgiveness (directed by Ian Gabriel, 2004) is set in post-apartheid and post-TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) South Africa. A white police officer who has been granted amnesty by the TRC for his role in the torture and death of a young political activist seeks out the bereaved family to speak to them about what happened. This session will explore the complexity of truth, reconciliation, and forgiveness in the film, and what the film suggests about confronting a painful past. It will also consider the possibilities and limitations of film in addressing these topics.

Mark Hurst | Pastoral Worker for the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) and Pastor at Avalon Baptist Peace Memorial Church, Avalon, NSW, Australia Forgiveness and Peacemaking: An Anabaptist Perspective In our years of teaching about peacemaking, nothing has caught people’s attention more than the Amish community’s response in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania to the shooting of ten of their schoolgirls on 2 October 2006. The community responded with forgiveness. This linkage of forgiveness and peacemaking goes back to the sixteenth century Anabaptist movement and stories out of the Martyrs’ Mirror, which every Amish family has. Stories of people like Dirk Willems, an escaped Anabaptist prisoner, who after successfully crossing a frozen river and being able to escape to freedom, instead turned back to rescue his pursuer who had fallen through the ice. The Anabaptist tradition continues to link forgiveness and peacemaking and has produced many stories of people who over the years have made these connections in all kinds of difficult situations. This paper will explore some of these stories.

CONFERENCE PAPERS Andrea McDougall | Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Dunedin. Andrea has recently completed her PhD, entitled “Karl Barth’s Theology of Humility: The Humility of God and the Humility Appropriate to the Christian Life.”

The Middle Road Between Pharisaism and Sentimentality: The Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer According to Calvin, Luther, Thielicke, and Barth The Lord’s Prayer highlights the importance of forgiving others. This paper compares and contrasts the understandings four theologians have of the fifth petition in the Lord’s Prayer: Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, Karl Barth and Helmut Thielicke. This investigation is threefold. First, we explore the relationship of forgiveness to prayer and the connections that each of these theologians makes between the petition for forgiveness and the other petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Second, we attend to the question of the content of and basis for the forgiveness we are called to offer others. This involves examining Christian forgiveness in terms of our understanding of who the other is as our neighbour, and as one made in the image of God. Third, we consider the need for political forgiveness. In the closing months of World War II, the theme of forgiveness is addressed

by Thielicke in a series of sermons on the Lord’s prayer, preached to Germans in the heavily bombed city of Stuttgart near the close of WWII, and by Barth who, writing from Switzerland, addresses the content of and basis for forgiveness for those who have sinned against others.

Alistair Reese | Theologian/Historian who specializes in the field of social reconciliation. He is the researcher for Te Kohinga—a reconciliation network that has been working in the Tauranga region for the past twenty years.

The Treaty of Waitangi and the Art of Forgiveness The wider ambit of this paper is social reconciliation, particularly the reconciling forgiveness between different people groups and nations. Specifically, my concern is a local one—the relationship between the indigenous people group of Aotearoa NZ, that is, Maori, and later settlers, especially, but not exclusively Pakeha. It is a complex and often fissured relationship that continues to suffer stress as a consequence of this nation’s colonial past/present and therefore one that yields an ongoing need for forgiveness and reconciliation.

There are many components within this macro reconciliatory challenge, such as the Pakeha existential quest for identity and belonging - a longing that has the potential to exacerbate an already fraught relationship. It is this theme that motivates and shapes the trajectory of my research. Firstly, I detail some historical background to the New Zealand setting and make reference to my theo-reconciliation journey. I then posit a Pauline inspired reconciliatory model that lends itself to the New Zealand context, wherein the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi is suggested as an ontological reconciling mechanism that satisfies the Pakeha need to belong.

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