Reflections on Philosophy and Religion Book

Sin and Forgiveness: New Responses in a Changing World
by Kay Carmichael

I took this book off the shelf when I was researching for my second "Being Human" essay (on Sin - Critically outline two or three theological understandings of sin (e.g. theologians or eras) from within the Christian tradition (1000 words). Offer your theological understanding of sin that might speak to contemporaries (500 words).) I didn't actually use anything from it for the essay, but found I really wanted to read it. So it has been my personal reading for the last several days.

The author starts off by telling the stories of some famous murders of the last half century, and the public responses to them. It is truly alarming to read of the inability of the public to consider forgiveness, or even to accept that the law passed correct judgement on them and that they "paid" for their crimes. There's no consideration of what caused the murderers to be the type of person who could commit such crimes, and therefore no looking at the bigger societal problem. Carmichael is writing in Britain, and the tabloids and mass public are full of vindictiveness and hatred. It's quite awful. Later in the book she talks about a comparable child-murder in Norway and the response by the victim's family and the public in general was totally different. So it's not just "human nature" to be that way.

Carmichael uses art and literature to look at sin and forgiveness, and I find there are 4 more books I must add to my Waiting to Read list. Perhaps I should look them up immediately and re-borrow this book alongside each one. I'll think on that (though not for too long, otherwise my indecision will decide it for me…). This segment also looks quite deeply at religious sin (my phrase), and how Christianity has caused such damage by the interpretations of bigoted practitioners over the centuries.

In her other chapters there was quite a lot in common with some of the other modern books I researched. There is content on liberation and feminist theology; a look at the Holocaust and Hiroshima, at slavery and poverty; and at structural sin, also described as collective or corporate sin, 'in which individuals participate but none of them is easily described as solely responsible' (p.94). This is insidious and more dangerous than any of the sins of the past. In our current society (Western especially), blame is so readily put on others, and personal responsibility is sidestepped, and people think nothing of seeing all troubles and sins as caused by "Them." As long as we refuse to look at ourselves first, this structural sin will continue to poison society.

There's no happy ending to this book, but I'll quote Carmichael's final sentence:
It becomes more important that we work collectively towards constructing humane, constructive, peaceful moral processes so as not to slide back into the scapegoating and tribalism implicit in the moral debris left over from the traditions of sin and forgiveness which we are now abandoning.