Forgiveness and the range of resentment

Abstract This chapter introduces some key questions about forgiveness, its primary focus being the vexed issue of what the precise relationship is between forgiveness and resentment (and related emotions). Through a discussion of several writers, especially Bishop Joseph Butler, Jean Hampton and Margaret Urban Walker, it is argued that resentment has both a potentially more positive resonance, in speaking for justice, and a far broader range of application, being felt on behalf of others, not just oneself, than is often assumed in contemporary philosophical discussions of forgiveness. The chapter then sets out to distinguish a working view of non-idealized, ‘good enough’ forgiveness, from others, including some which it may initially appear to resemble. It also addresses the question of why, if resentment is warranted, one might forgive, starting to sketch the picture which later chapters will fill out as ‘love’s forgiveness’.