Ancient Forgiveness
Classical, Judaic, and Christian

This book explores the nature and place of forgiveness in the pre-modern Western world.

Charles L. Griswold (Edited by), David Konstan (Edited by)

9780521119481, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 December 2011

278 pages
23.4 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'This book seeks to reveal the relationship between conceptual and historical inquiry. Its excellent chapters offer, through a series of well-chosen examples, an illuminating promenade from Homer to Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas, through Seneca, Jesus and the Rabbis, on a topic of at once perennial and contemporary great significance. The book opens up new vistas for the interdisciplinary study of the roots of Western cultural tropes. It is significant, in particular, that the editors, a classicist and a philosopher, recognize the necessity to integrate Jewish and Christian approaches, side by side with the Greco-Roman tradition, in order to decipher our own cultural inheritance.' Guy Stroumsa, Oxford University

In this book, eminent scholars of classical antiquity and ancient and medieval Judaism and Christianity explore the nature and place of forgiveness in the pre-modern Western world. They discuss whether the concept of forgiveness, as it is often understood today, was absent, or at all events more restricted in scope than has been commonly supposed, and what related ideas (such as clemency or reconciliation) may have taken the place of forgiveness. An introductory chapter reviews the conceptual territory of forgiveness and illuminates the potential breadth of the idea, enumerating the important questions a theory of the subject should explore. The following chapters examine forgiveness in the contexts of classical Greece and Rome; the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and Moses Maimonides; and the New Testament, the Church Fathers, and Thomas Aquinas.

Preface Charles L. Griswold
Part I. The Territory Philosophically Considered: 1. What is forgiveness? Adam Morton
Part II. Forgiveness among the Greeks: 2. Assuaging rage: remorse, repentance and forgiveness in the classical world David Konstan
3. Achilles, Psammenitus and Antigone: forgiveness in Homer and beyond Page duBois
4. All in the family: forgiveness and reconciliation in new comedy Kathryn Gutzwiller
Part III. Forgiveness among the Romans: 5. The anger of tyrants and the forgiveness of kings Susanna M. Braund
6. Gender and forgiveness in the early Roman empire Kristina Milnor
7. 'To forgive is divine': gods as models of forgiveness in late republican and early imperial Rome Zsuzsanna Várhelyi
Part IV. Judaic and Christian Forgiveness: 8. Mercy, repentance, and forgiveness in ancient Judaism Michael L. Morgan
9. A man had two sons: the question of forgiveness in Luke 15 Peter S. Hawkins
10. Jesus' conditional forgiveness Jennifer W. Knust
11. Forgiveness in patristic philosophy: the importance of repentance and the centrality of grace Ilaria L. E. Ramelli
12. Forgiveness and perfection: Maimonides, Aquinas, and medieval departures from Aristotle Jonathan Jacobs.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Philosophy [HP], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]