Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love - Softcover

When beset by a series of life-changing personal crises, psychotherapist Stephanie Dowrick remembered what she had learned early in her training: there are qualities -- the great ancient virtues -- that shape life for the better and can be called upon in times of need. Dowrick grounds her work in real lives and incidents, drawing on those times when people needed the strength provided by one of the virtues to move on with their lives. She ranges widely in Eastern and Western philosophy and spirituality as well as psychology to explore courage, fidelity, restraint, generosity, tolerance, and forgiveness. Is it possible to be generous and successful? Should we forgive someone who has hurt us deeply? Through stories memorably told, she shows that far from being dull or constraining, these virtues have much to teach us about honor, endurance, tolerance, steadfastness, and, above all, love.

In this groundbreaking book Stephanie Dowrick reconsiders the six great humane virtues that can literally transform the way we see ourselves and others; the way we meet and move through difficulties or grief; the way that we can newly appreciate and treasure our own and others' gift of life. Starting with the essential quality of courage, Stephanie Dowrick also unpicks and makes newly relevant the timeless qualities of fidelity, restraint, generosity, tolerance and - finally - forgiveness. None of these transformative qualities, as she shows, are learned in the abstract. Until they are brought to life through daily existence they remain nothing but high ideals. But when lived, and especially when lived in the grit of difficult or challenging moments, they are profoundly life giving and supportive. Using a range of stories including her own, together with a rare breadth of psychological and spiritual experience and insight, Stephanie Dowrick offers a book that can illuminate some of life's toughest questions and restore your faith in what really matters.