After about a month, I finally finished Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns. This was one of those books I got through the majority of it rather quickly then the last few chapters took a few weeks to finish. Unfortunately, sometimes I get bored with a book and never finish it, but that wasn’t the case for this one.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It was the first I’ve read over forgiveness and it did a great job of “unpacking” this difficult and debated subject. A couple things that stood out about the book were it constantly referred to the best book for forgiveness, the Bible (just look at it’s Scriptural index), and it started off connecting forgiveness to the gospel. I like it when books start by building their foundation on the gospel. I always need to be reminded about the simple truths of the gospel, regardless of how much I “think” I understand it.
The book does a great job of giving an overview of the theology behind forgiveness and then how it is practically lived out. In case you’re wondering he takes the “conditional forgiveness” stance! This book is very readable and the chapters are manageable in length. The book is very thought provoking, especially if you haven’t thought too much about the details of forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of those words that is through thrown out without thoroughly thinking through it’s meaning and intent, so if you’re looking to learn more about forgiveness, I’d highly recommend this book!
Content: The book is loaded with a lot of good information. From a study of all the references on forgiveness in the Bible to a great bibliography, there is plenty of information for further study.
How the book breaks down:
Pages 235
Introduction: The forgiveness Quiz
1. How to Begin Unpacking
2. Motivation to Unpack
3. Defining Forgiveness: The Divine Pattern
4. Defining Forgiveness for Christians
5. More Than a Feeling
6. The Way Up Is Down
7. Unpack with Great Urgency
8. Should I Just Get Over It?
9. How Should I Go about It?
10. What If I Won’t Forgive?
11. How Should I Respond to the Unrepentant? Two Principles
12. How Should I Respond to the Unrepentant? A Third Principle
13. How Can I Conquer Bitterness?
14. How Can I Stop Thinking about It?
15. What If Christians Cannot Agree?
16. Finial Thoughts
Appendix 1: More Forgiveness Questions
Appendix 2: What Other Authors Say about Conditional Forgiveness?
Appendix 3: Biblical Words for Forgiveness
Select Bibliography
Scripture Index
General Index
“Forgiveness is one of those words that is through out without thoroughly thinking through it’s meaning and intent…”
Could you explain what you meant in this sentence, please?
OK, the sentence is corrected with the proper “th” word. Sometimes my brain and the words that end up on a page don’t match up, which means I should proof read a little better!
So thanks for asking the clarifying question! Now, do you still want me to explain the sentence or does this change satisfy your question.
That is satisfactory I suppose. With an awful lot of words that begin with “th” in that sentence, I don’t blame you for messing up one of them.