Christian forgiveness as an unconditioned and inalienable gift: beyond the unconditional–conditional binary

This article examines the conditional and unconditional models of forgiveness in Christian ethics, suggesting that the binary rests on an inadequate modern gift theory. The unconditional model, shaped by modern notions of the ‘pure gift’, risks overlooking the moral necessity of repentance, while the conditional model risks reducing forgiveness to a transaction. Drawing on Douglas Davies’s theological application of the inalienable gift and John Barclay’s Pauline theology of the unconditioned (but not unconditional) gift of grace, the article proposes understanding Christian forgiveness as an unconditioned inalienable gift . This framework preserves forgiveness’s priority while affirming its relational demands, offering a nuanced, pastorally responsible alternative to the unconditional–conditional binary.