BOTTOM RIGHT: (Graph) Statistics from PsychoInfo database. Courtesy of Everett Worthington, Jr.
“Until recently, the tools of science have not been employed to investigate forgiveness. The new wave of research we’ve begun, however, has the potential to reveal the profound value of forgiveness in our lives—information that could reduce human misery and increase the quality of life worldwide.”
— Everett Worthington, Jr.
Executive Director of A Campaign for Forgiveness Research
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Worthington plans to compile and categorize these thousands of studies to make them available to researchers and the interested public on the Campaign’s website. He has also asked researchers to contribute chapters for a book the Campaign hopes will become a handbook on forgiveness.
“We’re in an acceleration phase,” says Worthington. “Big labs got drawn into this field because of the grant initiative by the Foundation. They’ve trained graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, and they have an investment in this area now. I suspect this is going to continue.”
In addition, Worthington hopes that more courses on forgiveness can be taught similar to one he taught at a seminary in the Philippines and at the Rosemead School of Psychology in California.
“I think what’s happening is that people are realizing that there’s enough literature accumulating that a course can be organized,” says Worthington. He hopes to generate interest in a forgiveness course for undergraduate students as well. “I’ve not heard of anybody offering an undergraduate course. It seems like a logical step.”
Along with publishing books and articles and developing courses, the continuation of the Campaign’s efforts is Worthington’s main goal. “Perhaps the best way to do that,” Worthington says, “would be for these pioneers in forgiveness research to combine their findings and apply for larger, nationally funded grants from institutions like the National Institute of Mental Health.”
Overall, Worthington said he sees room for expansion in forgiveness research: “I’ve got lots of dreams for what I would like the field to be. Especially, I would like to draw more young researchers into this area by giving support for research with dissertation awards to postdocs. These early-career awards might help young researchers see the value of this incredible field that they could spend 10 years studying,” says Worthington.
“To me that’s like, the ‘Teach them to fish’ type of mentality,” he muses. “It’s a seeding of something that’s going to pay off dividends for years to come.”
For more information please visit: www.forgiving.org |
