news

Summary

Chapman, Audrey R (2000). Truth commissions as instruments of forgiveness and reconciliation In Forgiveness and reconciliation: Religion, public policy, & conflict transformation, ed. Raymond G. Helmick, S.J., and Rodney L. Petersen, 247-267. With a foreword by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.

Chapman opens her chapter by asking whether truth commissions promote forgiveness and reconciliation. To begin to answer, Chapman orients the reader to the basic nature and purposes of a truth commission. Moreover, as some truth commissions have a mandate to go beyond truth to promote reconciliation, she discusses the issue of balancing truth and reconciliation. A review of several theological interpretations of forgiveness adds to her treatment of truth and reconciliation. She then specifically relates these themes to conceptions of national or political reconciliation. Throughout her study of forgiveness and reconciliation in relation to truth commissions, she provides particular examples from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

1580