Human Suffering and Divine Abuse of Power in Lamentations: Reflections on Forgiveness in the Context of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Process

Abstract

The book of Lamentations depicts the historical event of the destruction of Jerusalem in emotive and graphic terms. Both the woman metaphor and the first-person account of a man of sorrows are charged with pathos. God, meanwhile, the perpetrator of violence, emerges as brutal and unforgiving. Here this disturbing contrast is examined from the background of South Africa's truth and reconciliation process. The essay interrogates the nature of forgiveness from a theological and contextual perspective, examines whether forgiveness ought to be conditional and if the God of Lamentations is eligible for amnesty.