In this age of a hyper-complex and totally interconnected world that no longer knows pauses, forgiveness is essential. 

The author explains that collective forgiveness is in no way inferior to love in its mysteriousness. We humans are unfathomable beings. Although we usually act thoughtfully and rationally, many actions and decisions cannot seem to be logically derived. Forgiveness - everyone knows it and has experienced it - is one of them. Forgiveness is one of the most important and exciting phenomena of human communication. The book answers questions such as: Why do we forgive some people and not others? Why does forgiveness take time? Why have people always forgiven each other - or rejected the very act of forgiving? Do we forgive individuals in a personal environment more easily or we more hesitant than with a group of people? And most importantly, why is collective forgiveness effective across time and cultures? 

The book is thought-provoking and offers valuable impulses to better understand one's own and social actions.


This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Kollektives Verzeihen by Oliver Errichiello, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.