IWM Junior Visiting Fellows' Conferences, Vol. XVI/5 © 2004 by the author Readers may redistribute this article to other individuals for noncommercial use, provided that the text and this note remain intact. This article may not be reprinted or redistributed for commercial use without prior written permission from the author. If you have any questions about permissions, please contact Klaus Nellen at IWM, Spittelauer Laende 3, 1090 Vienna, Austria, e-mail <nellen@iwm.at>. Preferred Citation: Jirsa, Jakub. 2004. Forgiveness and Revenge: Where Is Justice? In Thinking Together. Proceedings of the IWM Junior Fellows' Conference, Winter 2003, ed. A. Cashin and J. Jirsa, Vienna: IWM Junior Visiting Fellows' Conferences, Vol. 16. Forgiveness and Revenge: Where Is Justice? Jakub Jirsa “And when you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.” (Mark 11:25) “Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Introduction The following paper is not supposed to be an exegesis of the epigraphs stated above. Nor does it present an exposition about forgiveness based on verses from the Gospels. First, these quotations should remind us of the fact that forgiveness be- longs to very old and important features in moral theory. Second, we will see dur- ing the argumentation that the text of the Gospels (besides these two passages, Mat- thew 18:21-35 could be mentioned) touches on several key points of philosophical problems tied to the analysis of the act of forgiveness. Moreover, with respect to