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The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World. By Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu. Edited by Douglas C. Abrams. (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014, Pp. i, 229. $25.99.)
Desmond and Mpho Tutu's The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World is an amalgam of personal reflection, handbook for the process of forgiveness, and stories of individuals who have experienced forgiving or being forgiven. Desmond Tutu served as archbishop of South Africa and chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His daughter, Mpho, is an Episcopal priest and directs the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.
The book begins with the assertion that "there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one undeserving of forgiveness" (3). Being human means that we hurt one another and "forgiveness is the way we set those interactions right. It is the way we mend tears in the social fabric" (4). The authors presume...