Forgiveness and conversion. The transformation of people in their relationships

Abstract

At first sight it would seem that forgiveness and conversion are related only in a contingent way, as they can exist separately, as when the victim forgives the executioner even if he does not convert, or when the latter repents of his misdeeds even if the victim does not. forgive. However, the author is convinced that there is a necessary relationship between them. Therefore, he defends the following thesis: even if conversion depends above all on the will of the person who is converted and forgiveness from the one who forgives, the one who forgives and the one who converts, always needs these two acts. Because — and this is the core of the thesis — conversion is impossible without forgiveness and, conversely, without conversion there will never be full forgiveness. So the way to study these two phenomena from the anthropological point of view will consist in finding the cause of this necessary relationship.