I use “Project Forgiveness” as both a noun and a verb: a Project that includes a body of writings and practices, as well as a Way of Being, projecting as in conveying forgiveness. Included in this section are my writings on the subject from 1993 to 1999.
Published Articles, with links:
Peter A. Kirkup, LCSW: Some Religious Perspectives on Forgiveness and Settling Differences in Mediation Quarterly Special Issue, “Beyond Technique: The Soul of Family Mediation,” Vol. 11, no. 1, Fall 1993 (Jossey-Bass, D. Saposnek editor).
This first article was solicited by Donald T. Saposnek, PhD who knew me both as a licensed clinical social worker and as someone with an extensive background in history and religious studies. Many of my friends who taught at UC Santa Cruz helped me find the resources I needed to complete this paper. (15 pages)
Peter A. Kirkup, LCSW: The Spiritual Aspect of Teaching Conflict Resolution in The Fourth R, National Institute of Dispute Resolution, vol. 74, August/September 1996.
This article was solicited by The Fourth R based on the editor having read the previous article. (3 pages)
Peter A. Kirkup, LCSW: Mediating Forgiveness in Mediation News, The Academy of Family Mediators, Fall 1998.
Again, this article was solicited based on the two previous articles. (2 pages)
Peter A. Kirkup, LCSW: Traditions of Forgiveness, paper presented at the international conference “Forgiveness: Traditions and Implications” held at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, May 2000 (sponsored by the Tanner Humanities Center). (20 pages)
Don Saposnek encouraged me to develop the ideas and materials into a full book manuscript, which I completed editing in 1999. I was close to getting a book deal when the agent who was developing a contract with me had to pull out because Rupert Murdoch had summarily cancelled a number of book contracts, and the agent had to redouble efforts to salvage books that had already been placed,
I later scaled the project back to a 20 page paper to present to the Forgiveness conference at the University of Utah.
The 20 page paper is linked above; the full manuscript is linked below. The text has not been edited since 1999, which was the year the United States normalized relations with Vietnam and before the 9/11 attacks. Since then, Senator John McCain (who had helped normalize relations with Vietnam) introduced Sarah Palin to the national stage, and we had the unjust Iraq invasion and war. As a result I have lost any enthusiasm I had for John McCain (although he does still hold to his position on torture) and nothing I wrote about Just War gives credibility to the Iraq invasion.
See Testimonials for leading academician reviews of these writings.
TRADITIONS OF FORGIVENESS full text link (158 pages)
To Search by Chapter, follow the links below:
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Hope, Patience and Courage in the Practice of Forgiveness (16 pages)
Chapter Two: Forgiveness Between People: Stories from the Common Era (22 pages)
Chapter Three: Forgiveness Between Groups: Stories about Families, Clans and Communities (18 pages)
Chapter Four: Forgiveness Between Nations: Stories in the Aftermath of the World Wars (28 pages)
Chapter Five: Hope, Humor and Forgiveness: A Global Survey (58 pages)
Interlude: Summary of Guidelines (6 pages)
Conclusion: Self and Forgiveness (10 pages)
Footnotes were stripped from text in upload; they have been manually added in the text and scanned at the end of each chapter.