CHASING THE FORGIVENESS IDEAL: CASE STUDIES IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE, POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA, AND THE PASTORAL CARE OF VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE By Maria Anne Mayo Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion December, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor Amy-Jill Levine Professor Jay Geller Professor Erin O’Hara O’Connor Professor Barbara J. McClure Professor David Konstan (Brown University) Copyright © 2013 by Maria Mayo All Rights Reserved ii For Markus et vitam venturi saeculi iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The title of this dissertation refers not only to the grasping at forgiveness I witness in Christian texts and practice, but also to the grand chase it has been for me to name, critique, and reinterpret those ideas in this project. It has been a communal effort, and I am grateful beyond measure to everyone who has supported me and worked with me on this project. For their financial support, I thank Vanderbilt University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Culture as well as the College of Arts and Science for generous grants in support of my work in Israel and South Africa. The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation provided funding for summer research in Poland. Vanderbilt University also awarded several Graduate Student Travel Grants that allowed me to present my work at academic conferences and make valuable connections with other scholars. To the members of my committee who persevered with me, I thank you. Barbara McClure helped me think more deeply about the pastoral implications of my arguments. With Erin O’Hara O’Connor I shared long walks and great talks about forgiveness in legal contexts. Jay Geller provided tough questions, tough love, and enduring support. David Konstan turned my e-mail fan letter into the start of a lovely friendship, and I have benefitted greatly from his intellectual generosity. Finally, I give my enormous and endless thanks to Amy-Jill Levine for listening to me, believing in me, feeding kangaroos with me, not letting me give up, and providing an exquisite model for what it means to be a great scholar and teacher in the world. I am grateful to my entire committee for their patience, optimism, and faith in me and my work. iv The strength of this project is a result of the contributions of a broad community of scholars. Annalise Acorn read and contributed to my critical work on restorative justice with much good humor and encouragement. Colleen Murphy reviewed my South Africa material and provided helpful questions about the role of forgiveness in conflict transformation. I am also indebted to Thomas Brudholm, Howard Zehr, Jennifer Llewellyn, Susan Szmania, Arthur Boers, Susan J. Brison, Charles Griswold, L. Gregory Jones, Alice MacLachlan, Evon Flesberg, Jim Harrison, and Peter Horsfield for generously sharing articles, connections, kind words, and good advice. I am lucky to have so many friends and colleagues who challenged my ideas, edited my writing, answered questions, talked through arguments, and inspired me over the course of this dissertation: Diane Segroves, John Mogabgab, James Barker, John Kutsko, Philip Eubanks, Debbie Kirk Lewis, Courtney Brkic, David Dault, Nick Ketter, Trudy Stringer, Kaye Murphey, Dale Johnson, Marie McEntire, and Viki Matson. I have benefited greatly from all the churches and other communities who have invited me to speak and teach about forgiveness, thus allowing the valuable contributions and experiences of laypeople to inform my writing. Ginn Fourie and the Lyndi Fourie Foundation welcomed me in Cape Town, engaged my questions, and helped shape my research in South Africa. To Hans Tiefel, my very first religion professor at the College of William & Mary, I offer overflowing thanks for teaching me how to think critically and setting me on this course long ago. Dr. Samuel O. Okpaku read my chapters, encouraged me, and kept me humble and sane throughout my years at Vanderbilt. I am so very thankful for my parents, Lynda and Jerry Mayo, who helped me start a new life in Nashville and encouraged me throughout this educational extravaganza. I am so glad for the loyal companionship of my little cats v Steve and Cake. And to Markus Eberl, my German comrade: I would not have done this without you. Thank you for reading every word of this project, for pushing me forward, and for friendship beyond all imagining. vi The world in which pardon is all-powerful becomes inhuman. —Emmanuel Lévinas vii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv I. INTRODUCTION: MAPPING THE FORGIVENESS TERRITORY ...........................1 Jesus’ Teachings on Forgiveness.............................................................................6 Interpretations of Forgiveness ...............................................................................15 Forgiveness as strengthening community..................................................16 Forgiveness as controlling negative emotions ...........................................21 Therapeutic forgiveness.............................................................................25 Forgiveness and repentance ...................................................................................30 Repentance and obligatory forgiveness .....................................................33 Forgiveness that inspires repentance .........................................................36 Forgiveness and Restorative Justice ......................................................................38 Forgiveness and post-apartheid South Africa........................................................40 Forgiveness and the pastoral care of victims of domestic violence.......................43 Reimagining forgiveness .......................................................................................45 II. FROM REPENTANCE AND REPAIR TO EXISTENTIAL MUSCLE-FLEXING: FORGIVENESS IN THE “SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN” INSTRUCTIONS AND VICTIM-OFFENDER MEDIATION................................................................................48 Jesus’ forgiveness instructions in Matthew and Luke ...........................................53 Unlimited forgiveness................................................................................53 Reproving and repentance .........................................................................56 Unconditional forgiveness .........................................................................59 Restorative Justice and the forgiveness imperative ...............................................61 Biblical foundations of Restorative Justice ...............................................65 Defining forgiveness..................................................................................70 Veneration of forgiveness..........................................................................73 Forgiveness and the VOM process ............................................................79 Forgiveness and the rhetoric of VOM .......................................................85 Analyzing VOM rules and expectations....................................................89 Victim intentions and VOM outcomes ......................................................94 Conclusion .............................................................................................................97 III. FROM COMMUNITY COHESION TO A HEGEMONY OF HARMONY: FORGIVENESS IN THE LORD’S PRAYER AND POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA ............................................................................................................101 Forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer .........................................................................111 The prayer as preserving community order .............................................113 Sin as debt................................................................................................116 viii The nature of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer .......................................117 Forgiveness in post-apartheid South Africa.........................................................124 The end of apartheid and the TRC...........................................................126 The religious character of the TRC..........................................................127 In praise of forgiving victims...................................................................131 The specific forgiveness of the TRC .......................................................135 A case study in negative emotions: Desmond Tutu prior to the TRC .....141 A case study in negative emotions: Desmond Tutu after the TRC..........149 In praise of negative emotions .................................................................152 Forgiveness as an insufficient national ethic ...........................................155 The Lord’s Prayer as a counterbalance....................................................162 IV. FROM PASSIONATE PRAYER TO PASTORAL PRESSURE: FORGIVENESS IN LUKE 23:34A AND THE PASTORAL CARE OF VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE................................................................................................166 A note on language ..................................................................................171 Forgiveness in Luke 23:34a.................................................................................173