Christian History Corner: Forgive and Remember
Pope John Paul II's apology was unprecedented, but not entirely unique.
By Elesha Coffman, assistant editor of Christian History | posted 3/01/2000 12:00AM
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To determine these answers, the commission undertook a nuanced and thorough hermeneutical exercise. Through biblical, historical, theological, and ethical inquiries, it attempted to determine what really happened in the church's past, whether the church or the supposedly Christian society was responsible, and whether the Christians involved knew they were doing wrong, all while acknowledging that any contemporary evaluation is influenced by the imperfect mediation of language and the fact that "Everybody belongs to history" and is therefore a partial judge. The challenge was to steer a course between "an apologetics that seeks to justify everything and an unwarranted laying of blame, based on historically untenable attributions of responsibility."
People will continue to argue, as they have all week, whether the apology was too vague, too sweeping, too limited, too late, or flat-out unnecessary, but they can't accuse it of being haphazard. Instead, it is an impressive example of hermeneutics in action.
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