The book describes a detailed process of forgiveness from initial injury or unfair and undeserved hurt to healing and freedom from pain. The authors also help the reader to go beyond forgiveness and step across the threshold to reconciliation and finally to the wholeness of life itself. Additionally, those who want to use the restorative power of forgiveness to build a bridge to the generative process of reconciliation and character formation will find the final two chapters serve as vital links to more personal growth and harmony.
About the Author: Co-authors Dr. Radhi Al-Mabuk and Dr. Len Froyen have been colleagues at the University of Northern Iowa. Al-Mabuk has been interested in the research, theory, and educational and therapeutic applications of forgiveness ever since he started his doctoral program in 1984. His doctoral dissertation, completed under the wise and patient guidance of Professor Enright at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, dealt with the application of a forgiveness education program with parentally love-deprived late adolescents. Al-Mabuk has presented on the topic of forgiveness locally, nationally, and internationally, and was featured on CBS in a two-part program focusing on what forgiveness is and how to forgive. He continues to reflect on the healing and therapeutic power of forgiveness and to study factors associated with forgiveness, un-forgiveness, and reconciliation, as well as the dynamics of revenge. Al-Mabuk has been at the UNI since 1990, where he is a professor of education. In addition to research, he teaches classes in the areas of human development, learning, and assessment. He and his wife are residents of Cedar Falls, Iowa, during the academic year, and spend their summers in Lutsen, Minnesota, where they enjoy hiking, river walking, kayaking, and fishing. Froyen is emeritus professor of educational psychology at the UNI, where he taught courses in learning and developmental psychology. He is also a permanent deacon at St. Stephen the Witness Catholic Student Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He has served as a mentor for couples preparing for marriage and a counselor for persons in troubled marriages. In these instances, his counsel is rooted in contemplative Christian spirituality and incrementally directed problem solving. His interest in forgiveness is an outgrowth of advanced study in counseling psychology and his work with students seeking help with distressing relationship situations. Froyen's decision to write about forgiveness was sparked and supported byAl-Mabuk, his colleague and co-author. During the writing of this book, Froyen and Al-Mabuk became friends. "Radhi generously approved of my ideas, gently forgave my idiosyncrasies, and patiently permitted me to initiate wide-ranging conversations. He fostered my desire to write with simple and introspective clarity," said Froyen, who is also the author of Gratitude: Affirming One Another Through Stories, published by Parkhurst Brothers Publishing in 2013.