In No Future Without Forgiveness, Desmond Tutu tells the history of South Africa having to find ways to deal with the attrocities of apartheid and how to work towards restoration of their society as a whole. The idea of restorative justice forcuses around not only the restoration of the victim in an attrocity, but also the resotration of both the perpetrator and the relationship between victim and perpetrator. As a leader I need to be focused not on retribution but restoration of all people and relationships.

In reading The Sunflower, Simon Weisenthal wrestles with the depths of this question. Is it possible that some acts exceed the bounds of possible forgiveness? Is it possible to offer forgiveness as an individual for acts committed against entire people groups or societies? As a Pastor, I wrestled with this question in the context of the church and the possible traumas that have been inflicted by clergy and what my responsibility is in that.

Overall, this course and the readings help instill a deep level of the value of personhood. As a leader, when dealing in situations of trauma and atrocities, it is easy to deal in the abstract, however, the value of each person involved demands that we wade into the depths of relationship to work towards restoration of the whole person involved in each situation.