~ from Carson-Newman University
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman University will host the inaugural Blevins Institute Lecture on March 16, as guest speaker Dr. Everett Worthington speaks on the topic of “forgiveness.” The 2 p.m. event is free and open to the public.
Worthington’s lecture “Forgiveness in Public Health, Treatment, and Church: Understanding and Practicing Forgiveness” will address a subject that serves as a central element to the Christian faith.
“The topic is timely and constantly needed, especially in our world today,” said Dr. Merrill Hawkins, director of The William Blevins Institute of Spirituality and Mental Health. “It’s not hard to understand that Christ calls us to forgive. It’s hard to do.”
Hawkins points to the complexities that sometimes exist in the midst of forgiving. “It is very easy to misunderstand what exactly forgiveness means and does not mean, especially when significant trauma is involved.”
A Knoxville native, who grew up just outside The Great Smoky Mountains, Worthington’s career has led him to speak to both secular and Christian audiences in venues around the world. He serves as commonwealth professor emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and is celebrated as a leading scholar in the field of forgiveness research.
His own journey with forgiveness is not one untested. Worthington recounted in a 2013 Christianity Today article of how on New Year’s Day in 1996, he learned that his mother had been murdered in her home. “Trying to forgive my mom’s killers was like standing in a storm on top of Mount LeConte,” he wrote. “My instinct was to huddle down in pain.” Worthington said that it was his personal relationship with Jesus that helped him through that time and to embrace forgiveness for her killer. “Through prayer, I could see the young man’s fear of prison and anger at having his plans spoiled,” he recalled. “Being able to empathize with him didn’t mean I accepted what he had done. But it did help me forgive him.”
It was less than 10 years later, that Worthington again faced tragedy when his brother took his own life. This time Worthington was challenged to forgive himself for what he perceived as past failures.
“There are many trails up the mountain, but there is only one way to the summit,” wrote Worthington. “We can’t always tell, but we are not walking alone up that mountain. It is a beautiful trip when we stop watching our own feet and gaze at the One who goes before us.”
Worthington holds a faculty affiliate appointment at the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University (Human Flourishing Program), and he is a licensed clinical psychologist in Virginia. He has published widely on the science of self- and other-forgiveness among other topics, and he has developed the REACH Forgiveness model, supported in over 30 published randomized controlled trials, and other practical interventions to help people reach their potential.
The Blevins Institute Lecture will be held in Carson-Newman’s Thomas Recital Hall, located in the Mabel Lewallen Tarr Music Center.
