Do you think people should be forgiven even when they have done so much harm to others?

If you’re talking about religious forgiveness, I suggest talking with a pastoral counselor (bit.ly/bc-pastoral-counseling). It might also be worth exploring restorative or transformative justice, and the kind of truth and reconciliation processes that helped make peace in S. Africa and Rwanda. One helper recommended On Repentance and Repair by Danya Ruttenberg (O’Neill Library Call # BL476.7 .R88 2022) for the point of view of the one who did harm and how to make amends. Another recommended Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, by Miroslav Volf.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.