I became so fascinated by Avishai Margalit’s book The Ethics of Memory [Powells] that I didn’t bother blogging for several days. And since I finished reading the book before I remembered to hawk it over on the bookshelf to the right, I thought I ought to give it a prominent mention over here instead. To my friends who weigh a book solely on its potential to generate a sermon, may I suggest reading chapter six, “Forgiving and Forgetting,” which presents a humanistic discussion of what forgiveness is and is not that I think Unitarian Universalists might find especially helpful. The entire book is packed with powerful insights, but I can imagine ministers concentrating on chapters one (with an illuminating discussion of the Good Samaritan), two (with a discussion of Christian and Jewish approaches to memory, tradition, and the formation of the ethical community), and six (on forgiveness).