This is nit-picky, but that seems fitting given that this is a taxonomy. You initially set up 'reconciliation' as synonymous with horizontal forgiveness, but later you (I think, rightly) acknowledge that we already have reconciliation with God. So I'm not sure we can use reconciliation as a technical term synonymous with horizontal forgiveness.
Love your exploration of forgiveness w/o repentance. My instinct has often been that you can't forgive someone who isn't repentant. But you make a good point that God seems to have done something like that for humankind. Maybe Calvinists would think differently?
I think I'd clarify terminology and concepts like this:
1. Forgiveness in a technical sense is a one-sided act to acknowledge something as a wrong, and to refuse to seek exact punishment, but to absorb the cost of that wrong.
2. Reconciliation is a two-party act of restoring relationship between two parties.
But very often we just talk about forgiveness as a blanket term covering all these things, which is why I think the horizontal dimension of forgiveness is really about seeking (and hopefully achieving) reconciliation. If we want to make distinctions about reconciliation, we would differentiate divine and human reconciliation.
I think the question about whether you can (and/or should) forgive someone who isn't repentant, turns a great deal firstly on what exactly we mean by forgiveness. Hence the value of a taxonomy. I do wonder if a strict 5-point calvinism with a limited atonement would argue that God has not paid for the sins of those he hasn't elected, and so we cannot speak of God having forgiven sins prior to someone's repentance, except by having a set of beliefs around divine election, foreknowledge, etc.. I think I know how to write such an argument, but I'm not convinced by it. Maybe a post for some far distant rainy day.
This is nit-picky, but that seems fitting given that this is a taxonomy. You initially set up 'reconciliation' as synonymous with horizontal forgiveness, but later you (I think, rightly) acknowledge that we already have reconciliation with God. So I'm not sure we can use reconciliation as a technical term synonymous with horizontal forgiveness.
Love your exploration of forgiveness w/o repentance. My instinct has often been that you can't forgive someone who isn't repentant. But you make a good point that God seems to have done something like that for humankind. Maybe Calvinists would think differently?
Thanks Eliot.
I think I'd clarify terminology and concepts like this:
1. Forgiveness in a technical sense is a one-sided act to acknowledge something as a wrong, and to refuse to seek exact punishment, but to absorb the cost of that wrong.
2. Reconciliation is a two-party act of restoring relationship between two parties.
But very often we just talk about forgiveness as a blanket term covering all these things, which is why I think the horizontal dimension of forgiveness is really about seeking (and hopefully achieving) reconciliation. If we want to make distinctions about reconciliation, we would differentiate divine and human reconciliation.
I think the question about whether you can (and/or should) forgive someone who isn't repentant, turns a great deal firstly on what exactly we mean by forgiveness. Hence the value of a taxonomy. I do wonder if a strict 5-point calvinism with a limited atonement would argue that God has not paid for the sins of those he hasn't elected, and so we cannot speak of God having forgiven sins prior to someone's repentance, except by having a set of beliefs around divine election, foreknowledge, etc.. I think I know how to write such an argument, but I'm not convinced by it. Maybe a post for some far distant rainy day.