‘Hate the sin but not the sinner’: forgiveness and condemnation

Abstract

Forgiveness is traditionally thought of as the forswearing of resentment. Resentment has been argued to be a moral emotion, tightly interrelated with
moral protest against a wrongdoing. This has lead to forgiveness being
thought of as the forgetting or condoning of wrongdoing. I will argue for a
concept of forgiveness that is ‘uncompromising’ for it does not involve giving
up one’s judgements about the wrongdoing. I will argue that resentment
should be understood as a type of reactive attitude, and that this means that it is not necessarily connected with moral protest. I will show that forgiveness
is better understood as the overcoming of reactive attitudes (which includes
resentment, but also indignation, anger, and other similar emotions). This
will allow for forgiveness to be compatible with maintaining condemnation
of wrongdoing.