“We Must Not Think Evil of This Man”: A Case Study of Amish and English Forgiveness

Abstract

Previous research on forgiveness has taken place with little accounting for contextual influence, assuming a rather universal definition and practice across different contexts. Using discourse analysis, this study explores the social construction of forgiveness in media texts by comparing discussions of Amish and English forgiveness. The results of this study problematize a singular, uniform notion of forgiveness, instead framing it as a contextually bounded, discursive phenomenon. This study suggests that an alternative approach to studying forgiveness can shed light on otherwise overlooked dimensions of the forgiveness process.

Keywords:

• Conflict Management
• Forgiveness
• Media Discourse

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Linda Putnam and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments in earlier versions of this manuscript.

Notes

For a wonderful review of the tragedy, see Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zercher (2007)'s book Amish Grace..

This, of course, is not to essentialize or disregard the diversity within Amish or U.S. American people groups.

This is not to suggest that the Amish articles solely discussed the Amish response. Articles in the Amish set also discussed non-Amish examples of forgiveness. However, these examples were included in the Amish set because of their implied similarity to the Amish example. In other words, drawing on the Amish response by mentioning it in the article suggested that the non-Amish forgiveness examples and the Amish example were alike.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory D. Paul

Gregory D. Paul (Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2009) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre at Millersville University.