Intergroup forgiveness in settings of political violence: Complexities, ambiguities, and potentialities.

Abstract

The leftover debris of national pasts … will never get cleaned up and animosity will never drain away until forgiveness enters these relationships in some political form. To dismiss this concern as a preoccupation with ancient history is to miss all the evidence for the truth that William Faulkner put on the lips of one of his characters: “The past is not dead and gone; it isn't even past.” (Shriver, 1995, p. 4)