People who ask is forgiveness necessary for healing want real answers. They want to understand why pain stays inside the mind and how a person learns to breathe again after loss, betrayal, or trauma. Douglas Thiel’s novel Forgiveness: Another Philosophy Novel gives readers a grounded way to look at this question, and it does so through lived experience instead of empty theory.
Why This Question Stays With People
Readers ask,is forgiveness necessary for healingearly in their search for clarity, because most people try to escape their memories instead of working with them. Petie Jones, the central character in Thiel’s novel, knows this problem well. His past sits heavily on his mind. The book shows this clearly when it says, “He finds his mind drifting into these experiences without knowing how or why the memories intrude,” and anyone who lived through pain understands that line all too well.
The mind holds trauma with a fierce grip, and people feel trapped when those memories return in random moments. Petie does not run from his past, but memories stay within him. Psychology explains why this happens, and faith acknowledges it too. The mind stores meaning, and the heart reacts long after the event ends.
How Memory Shapes Healing
People want healing to feel simple. They want to forget the pain, close the chapter, and move forward. But the brain does not delete experiences. The question, is forgiveness necessary for healing becomes harder when a person realizes that forgetting is not an option. Thiel puts this into words through Petie’s dialogues with himself where he understands that from a critical thinking perspective not forgiving can lead to unlawful vengeance, blood feuds and other unattractive outcomes, but stretching this to include forgetting seems implausible.
Healing asks for a different goal. The goal is not forgetting. The goal is to understand how wrongs endured require that one continues to move forward. Psychology explains that memory changes every time it resurfaces. The emotional charge reconsolidates as one seeks to embrace a deeper understanding of wrongs.
That is the opening where forgiveness lives.
When Faith Speaks to Pain
Faith traditions talk about forgiveness in a direct way. Scripture encourages people to let go of resentment, and it describes forgiveness as a path toward a freer life. This does not mean pain disappears. It means anger stops setting the pace. Readers ask, is forgiveness necessary for healing because they want to understand how faith makes sense of suffering.
In the epilogue of Thiel’s novel, the reader is introduced to the perspective of Petie’s sister, Sabrina, in her later years. She is a psychologist and writes professionally about forgiveness, self-forgiveness, and restorative justice. She explains that people who are essentially good may be easier to forgive that allow one to practice the Biblical admonition that forgiveness “keeps no records of wrong.” But terrible actions committed by truly bad people may cause such forgetting to seem implausible. This may then require a further Christian application of “undeserved kindness.” The kindness that changes the weight a memory holds. Her insight helps readers see how faith and psychology stand together. Both encourage a shift in the heart, not a deletion of the past.
Why Pain Feels Personal Even When It Isn’t
Trauma hits people in different ways, and the body keeps the score with accuracy. Petie’s life shows this from the beginning. A violent misunderstanding during his youth follows him for decades. He carries these memories with him as he serves with the Marines in Vietnam and later into his job with the LAPD. His experiences show how pain becomes part of a person’s identity. For Petie, he finds solace when he begins his higher education pursuing philosophy
Readers ask, is forgiveness necessary for healing because they want to separate who they are from what happened to them. They want to understand why certain memories feel like anchors and why healing feels slow, even when they try to stay strong. Petie’s journey offers a realistic picture of this process. He grows, but he also struggles. He understands philosophy, but he also feels the sting of old wounds the never goes away. The novel presents him as a whole person, not an academic lesson.
Why the Mind Resists Letting Go
Psychology offers a direct explanation. Trauma trains the nervous system to stay alert. The body remains tense. The mind stays guarded. Anger becomes a shield. But this shield becomes oppressive. Long-term tension affects the whole person, and life loses softness. Readers ask, is forgiveness necessary for healing because they sense this tension inside themselves.
Pete discovers that he cannot change the past, but he can change his relationship to the past.
This shift becomes the novel’s moral core.
Healing Through Understanding Instead of Absolving
People worry that forgiveness excuses the offender. It does not. Forgiveness changes the person who carries the pain. It alters the memory from a present threat to a past event. It restores emotional control. When readers ask, is forgiveness necessary for healing, they often want to know whether healing requires absolving wrongdoing. The answer in both psychology and faith is simple. Forgiveness removes bitterness. Justice addresses behavior. They are separate paths.
Sabrina explains this clearly through her professional writing. She studies restorative justice and talks about repentance, empathy, and accountability. She treats forgiveness as an internal process, not a public declaration. She advocates that the Lord’s prayer would still retain its grace and poignancy if instead of “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us” it read, “Give us your understanding as we give our understanding to others.”
So, Is Forgiveness Necessary for Healing? A Real Answer
People ask, is forgiveness necessary for healing when they reach a point where anger feels burdensome. Healing depends on how a person relates to their own story. There is not one size that fits all. However, forgiveness helps the person reshape the meaning of the memory. It releases emotional pressure and helps them to step into the present without the past leading the way.
Readers who want more research-based insight can read articles from the American Psychological Association at https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma. This resource explains how trauma shapes the mind and how healing becomes possible through emotional work.
A Final Thought…
Douglas Thiel’s Forgiveness: Another Philosophy Novel will leave the reader still thinking about the main characters that are portrayed with unflinching honesty interlaced with grim humor. The novel does not provide pat solutions. The reader is left to evaluate how the novel’s presentations of historical events, religious insights, philosophical thinking and psychological studies can inform those who seek their own solution to problems of forgiveness.
