“I Insist on the Christian Dimension”: On Forgiveness… and the Outside of the Human

The questions I would like to explore in this chapter pertain to the type of action specific to human relations we call forgiveness. Hannah Arendt’s erudite reflections in The Human Condition provide a powerful justification for the necessity of forgiveness as a moral virtue: “Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacks the magic formula to break the spell” (237).

Duke Scholars

Author Rey Chow Literature