Reviews: Forgiveness

"Forgiveness is not an option, it is a necessity.  In our broken world, forgiveness will ensure that evil does not have the final word.  This is a book of healing and restitution, for those who need to accept forgiveness, and for those who need to give it.  I highly recommend it."
(Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking) 

“I loved this book.  Huston clearly explains the psychology of forgiveness, understands the human struggle behind it, and offers a clear way for healing the most intractable heart.  I often have to force myself to read books that are either spiritual or “self-help” in nature.  This one is both, but written so lucidly and engagingly, I found myself unable to put it down—and then wanted to read it again as soon as I had finished.”
(Mary Cichy, Amazon.com) 

“Is there a requirement of the Christian life that is more central or more demanding than Jesus’s command to forgive those who injure us, and even return good for evil?  Is there a notion that flies more directly in the face of our modern sense of individual dignity and self-respect?  With honesty, humor, and elegance, in Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving, Paula Huston makes the case for the urgent necessity of forgiveness to the Christian life: for individual believers, for communities of faith, and for just societies.  A blend of confession, intellectual history, spiritual counsel, and exhortation, this book mixes personal essay with the history of a radical idea. . . . . Those who find contemporary writing on the Christian life cloying or patronizing will find Huston a welcome relief.”
(Image, The Journal of Arts and Religion—Image Update, June 3, 2009)

"Paula Huston is a straightforward and gentle teacher of the spiritual life.  In Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving, she combines practical counsel, easy-to-read prose and absorbing story-telling to offer a challenging account of forgiveness rooted in the Christian gospel.  But if you're thinking about buying this book for all your friends, parishioners and family members who you think need to pay a little extra attention to the issue of forgiveness, I advise you to read it first.  The welcoming simplicity of the book, with its bright yellow cover and sparkling, clear prose, conceals the fact that it contains hard teaching.  This is not a pious, sentimental discussion of forgiveness.  Nor is it an account of personal forgiveness only.  It expands to consider culture, society, theology and justice.  Perhaps most difficult of all, the book requires and models rigorous self-examination."
(The Christian Century, September 8, 2009)

“Beyond all the vision quests, Scripture explanations, and spiritual exhortations, there are certain regions of human experience that are so painful, so difficult, that even religious writers touch on them rarely and with reluctance.  This season, two brave books take a frank look at depression and forgiveness. . . . Huston (The Holy Way), a former literature teacher, tackles forgiveness, which while one of the keystones of Christian faith, is remarkably hard to offer or receive.  She thoughtfully helps the reader to think about preparing both to forgive and to be forgiven, for example, by eschewing ‘false forgiveness’; forgiving parents, spouses, and community; and being creatures of forgiveness in an unforgiving world. . . . highly recommended.” (starred review, Library Journal, March 1, 2009).. 

“Many authors have addressed the tricky subject of forgiveness. . . . Now Paula Huston has written a worthy addition to this genre in her new book, which describes her long struggle with coming to terms with forgiveness.  . . . She writes frankly of her own shortcomings—
reminiscent of Henri Nouwen’s writing.”
(America: The National Catholic Weekly, May 11, 2009)