‘용서’ 개념에 대한 철학상담적 접근 - 치유의 행복학을 위한 영적 실천의 모델 제시 -

Abstract

The concept of forgiveness is a pivotal notion not only in the aspect of religious belief, but also in the social and political realm. In the Christian tradition, forgiveness is characterized as the loving mercy and grace of God given to man. Hegel employs this Christian concept of forgiveness in his philosophy and develops it with respect to modern Rationalism. His important insight lies in the fact that the genuine meaning of forgiveness consists not in religious sentiment toward God, but in the rationality of human beings. He emphasizes that forgiveness is founded in reciprocal recognition and intersubjective communication. It is, indeed, a mature community that is the community of forgiveness upon which such reciprocal recognition and intersubjective communication are established. Hegel’s modern concept of forgiveness rightly seeks to reconcile faith with reason, but it overlooks the fundamental aspect of forgiveness: the fact that it is love which provides the possibility of unconditional forgiveness for a sinful, seemingly unforgivable person. The primordial power of forgiveness derives from an absolute affirmation that precedes rationality and a mere rationally understood notion of forgiveness as the negation of a faulty relationship, and this absolute affirmation is none other than unconditional, transcendental love. Such love is characterized as gift and grace originating from Being itself; and forgiveness has its meaning in terms of such love, based on an affirmation of infinite Being. Since human beings are finite, but they need to overcome the negative experience of sin and a faulty relationship through love. For the fault-ridden experience of a human being does not disappear simply by being negated in a moment of forgiveness; it continues to endure. Forgiveness can cope with the sinful reality of our experience only through love; and we are ultimately healed from our faulty experience only through forgiveness based on love. In conclusion, forgiveness is thus a transcendental act that affirms both transcendental Being and human reality as it is rather than negates our reality; it is an act of healing founded on love that transcends the experience of wounds caused by sin. Reconciliation among human beings, not between God and human beings, is the necessary condition for forgiveness.