PASADENA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/25/08 -- In current events and politics last month, Libya finally received what some considered a long overdue apology from Italy for damage inflicted during early 20th century colonization. Has Italy therefore been forgiven? In a special report titled "The Many Faces of Forgiveness," Vision.org features an interview with Boston University philosophy professor Charles L. Griswold, asking, "What is forgiveness and what isn't, and how does it play out in our politicized world as well as in our individual lives?"

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi personally delivered the long looked-for apology to Moamer Kadhafi at a meeting in Benghazi on August 30, after which Khadafi declared it "Libyan-Italian Friendship Day," presumably replacing an October 7th holiday that had been established three years earlier known as "Vendetta against Italians Day."

In addition to signing a 5 billion-dollar investment deal as compensation, Italy also returned a second-century statue of Venus which was taken from the Libyan coast by Italian troops in 1913. The gestures of reconciliation from both sides prompted feelings of such good will between the two national leaders that they reportedly joked together while sharing pictures of their grandchildren.

In an appropriate juxtaposition to the public display of reconciliation, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began the next evening (August 31), while on October 9 many Jews will celebrate a holy day known as Yom Kippur. Both of these periods of fasting and worship teach themes of atonement and forgiveness when modern Muslims and Jews often seek to atone for and repair breaches in their relationships with God as well as with other people.

All of this forgiveness seeking and granting is not just an exercise in relationship-building, whether on the individual level or the national level. The attitudes required by all participants in the process are beneficial to human health, according to studies cited in a press release published this year by the Mayo Clinic. "Holding a grudge appears to affect the cardiovascular and nervous systems," says the clinic. "In one study, people who focused on a personal grudge had elevated blood pressure and heart rates, as well as increased muscle tension and feelings of being less in control. When asked to imagine forgiving the person who had hurt them, the participants said they felt more positive and relaxed and thus, the changes dissipated. Other studies have shown that forgiveness has positive effects on psychological health too."

The only rub in the good news about forgiveness is that the term is difficult to define and there is little consensus on what actually constitutes forgiveness. How does one pursue it for good health and good relationships without a firm idea of what one hopes to achieve?

"The Many Faces of Forgiveness" is a series of articles at Vision.org that tackles this question and offers insight into the idea of forgiveness and how it can help build good healthy relationships. For more information, please visit www.vision.org.

About Vision:

Vision.org is an online magazine with quarterly print issues that feature in-depth coverage of current social issues, religion and the Bible, history, family relationship topics and insights into philosophical, moral and ethical issues in society today. For a free subscription to the Vision quarterly magazine, visit their web site at http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/default.aspx.

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