Having the understanding
that God’s sense of justice often invades my humanity and my sense of justice;
I looked forward to reading this book. Going beyond the 70x7 mentality, this
book was an amazing exploration of Justice and its relationship with
Forgiveness within a Christian worldview.
Maier does a great job of keeping
up with currently psychological research concerning the benefits and dangers of
forgiveness from a biblical worldview. Second, Maier does well to include ample
discussion around the imprecatory Psalms and provides clear examples of how
such can function as hope for the hurting in the midst of the healing
process—ultimately pointing to the justice of God as the means of sanctuary.
Third, Maier is extremely clear and accessible. Forgiveness and Justice was a
captivating read, and it’s far outside my normal area of interest. That said it
was also extremely informative and practical. I could easily see this work
being formative for those in the field of counseling or pastoral ministry. It
was very helpful and I identify as neither.
One of the short comings of
the book in my opinion is the usage of “counselor jargon” vs. “Pastoral Care” language.
This doesn’t mean that the book can’t be read by pastors, but it is definitely a
book that is more counselor friendly than Pastor friendly.
The thing I enjoyed most
about the book is the questions it posed about forgiveness and learning to
understand people.
I will definitely be using
this in my ministry in the years to come and do recommend it to counselors who
want more biblical resources in their offices to teach with.
Disclaimer: The book was
received for free from Kregel Ministry books in exchange for an unbiased
opinion.
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