Forgiveness and its value from the perspective of educational relationship

Forgiveness is usually analysed in terms of the benefits to victims or perpetrators. When referring to victims, attention is focused on overcoming the negative emotions caused by harm or achieving good that is important to them. In this article, the issue of the victims' responsibility for the personal and moral development of the perpetrators, as well as for building the community to which the perpetrators belong, has been addressed. We compare the relationship between a forgiving victim and a perpetrator to an educational relationship, to discover the educational dimension of forgiveness. We use one of the contemporary models of the educational relationship to check whether all subjects of this relationship and the references between them relevant to this relationship can be identified in that between the forgiving victim and the perpetrator. A critical issue for this reflection was the stereotypes concerning forgiveness. From the analysis, the conclusion can be drawn that the relationship between the forgiving victim and the perpetrator can meet the criteria of an educational relationship, if forgiveness is properly understood, i.e. it is expressed in actions adequate for the level of the perpetrators' personal and moral development and is not reduced to merely cancelling their debt.