The Lost Art of Forgiving: Stories of Healing from the Cancer of Bitterness

by Johann Christoph Arnold (Editor)

Prepared for British market, The Lost Art of Forgiving has sold so well overseas that Plough is now offering it to American bookstores. Based on Seventy Times Seven, this edition includes most of the same stories and anecdotes, though concepts unfamiliar to non-religious readers have been re-cast in less theological terms.

149 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

People have come to expect sound advice from Johann Christoph Arnold, an award-winning author with over two million copies of his twelve books in print in more than twenty languages. A noted speaker and writer on marriage, parenting, and end-of-life issues, Arnold was a senior pastor of the Bruderhof, a movement of Christian communities, until his death in April 2017.

Arnold’s message was shaped by encounters with great peacemakers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, César Chavez, and John Paul II. Together with paralyzed police officer Steven McDonald, Arnold started the Breaking the Cycle program, working with students at hundreds of public high schools to promote reconciliation through forgiveness. This work also brought him to conflict zones from Northern Ireland to Rwanda to the Middle East. Closer to home, he served as chaplain for the local sheriff’s department.

Born in Great Britain in 1940 to German refugees, Arnold spent his boyhood years in South America, where his parents found asylum during the war; he immigrated to the United States in 1955. He and his wife, Verena, have eight children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of us will never be faced with forgiving a murderer or rapist. But all of us are faced daily with the need to forgive a partner, child, friend or colleague- perhaps dozens of times in a single day. This task is no less important.

The Author

It may be infinitely worse to refuse to forgive than to murder, because the latter may be an impulse of a moment of heat, whereas the former is a cold and deliberate choice of the heart

George Macdonald

Whoever opts for revenge, should dig two graves.

Chinese Proverb

If only a fraction of people put what this book discusses into practice, it would change the world!

Stories of forgiveness from every aspect, relationship dynamic and corner of the globe. Moving, emotive and real without the slightest trace of being cliched, trite or twee.