Religion and the forgiving personality

Forgiveness is a concept with deep religious roots. It is also a basic soci al and psychological phenomenon. In this article, we explore the links betw een forgiveness and religion by surveying how they are linked in the major monotheistic world religions, and how they appear to be linked empirically. In attempting to account for the current body of empirical findings, we pr opose four potential substantive and methodological explanations that shoul d be explored in future studies. Because the concept of forgiveness is (a) both spiritual and social-psychological in nature, and (b) possibly linked to some measures of human health and well-being (concerns that have traditi onally been of interest to both researchers in personality and researchers in religion), the concept of forgiveness could be an important common groun d for future research on the interface of religion and personality.