Beyond Moralism, Toward Liberation

Forgiveness is necessary in the long fight for a just world—but it is only possible after the oppressed are victorious

For too long, revolutionary social movements have reconciled to defeat. We must start winning again. Forgiveness is a crucial strategy for remaking the world, to secure and sustain victories, to transform one-time enemies into friends.

With deep political commitment, D. K. Renton makes the case for forgiveness—but of a particularly unruly sort. Tracing the tragic abuse of Eleanor Marx and Jane Wells, the mistakes of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye, Renton urges us to forgive, but only after tearing down the citadels of the rich.

Revolutionary Forgiveness connects collective struggle with the individual’s search for justice to demand a better future for all—when the oppressed will be magnanimous in power, and even former oppressors will be free.

“Renton rescues ‘forgiveness' from the pulpit and returns it, bloodied but lucid, to history.”

—Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism