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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
4 books make significant, unique contributions to restorative justice

John Konrad

Each of these books, published within the last year, makes a significant and unique contribution to the growing literature on the subject of restorative justice. It is hoped these books will be read by a wide cross-section of the community, as they have important things to say to people both inside and outside the faith community.

The executed god

Mark Taylor, professor of theology and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, is the coordinator of “Academics for Mumia Abu-Jamal”, a life prisoner fighting for his life and a new trial while awaiting execution. The executed god is about the historical Jesus of Nazareth (and by extension, God) who was executed by means of a state-sanctioned crucifixion – a life force that was: 1) politically adversarial to religiously-backed imperial power, 2) performing creative and dynamic instances of resistance to imperial powers, and 3) organizing movements that continued resistance and flourished even after imperial executioners had done their worst.

Taylor calls Christians to follow Christ’s example through radical discipleship that counters police brutality, excessive imprisonment and capital punishment. He challenges the repressive and dominant policies of the United States perpetrated worldwide. The data presented is well-documented and well-known, and differs from Canada only by degree (although Canada has forged a different path in its criminal justice policies and practices in the last half of the 20th century).

The theology of The executed god is biblically convincing, if somewhat difficult to follow at times. It presents an understanding of God that goes far beyond our “anthropomorphized” image, to a power that is greater – tapping into the vitality of a dispersed people everywhere, hungry for empowerment amid oppression. To achieve such freedom requires the death of the gods of political domination, religious respectability and revolutionary purism. This leads to Taylor’s “theatrics of counter-terror”, which is less a matter of carrying one’s cross and more a matter of wielding the cross for liberating change brought about through non-violent means.

Taylor describes “lockdown or gulag America” as a spectacle of rage, violations and state-sanctioned ritual killings in living colour – a threat to dignity, love and justice. He paints an equally chilling picture of the US-led “Imperium” that sacrifices whole peoples, and strengthens the economically powerful elite classes. He then outlines the strategies required to counter terror by the use of adversarial politics, by literally “stealing the show” (as did the crucifixion), and by building peoples’ movements to address the widespread injustices at home and abroad. This strategy is definitely not for the faint of heart. He argues true followers of Jesus will pursue liberty for the oppressed, sight for the blind and healing for the broken-hearted, in contrast to historical and contemporary Christendom that either spiritualizes the gospel or shores up entrenched imperial powers.

Beyond Retribution

Christopher Marshall teaches New Testament at Tyndale Graduate School of Theology in Auckland, New Zealand, and serves as a voluntary justice facilitator. Beyond Retribution is a ground-breaking work that addresses issues of justice and punishment from the perspective of both the Old and New Testaments, as well as putting forward arguments about the purpose and ethics of punishment in society. This perspective on justice goes far beyond most Christian teachings, which strangely have relied primarily on the Old Testament. Marshall claims that the New Testament’s view of both divine and human punishment are prophetic calls to repentance and restoration, the identifying marks of the kingdom of God, as revealed in Christ.

Marshall invites the reader to consider this new perspective on justice, relying on Scripture, tradition, moral philosophy, empirical data and the “Spirit in community” as guideposts. His central theme is that justice in both Testaments is “saving justice”, with the objective of restoration, through the liberating, forgiving and transforming work of Christ. Relationships are not restored by retaliation or retribution, but through loving your enemy, as Christ did. Restorative justice, therefore, requires the offender to “make things right” as both a moral and spiritual obligation, and for the victim to extend forgiveness. Prisons, he claims, only warehouse the problems created by broken relationships and fractured communities.

The concluding chapters tackle the most difficult of all justice issues, namely capital punishment. He exegetes Scripture with integrity, concluding that capital punishment is incompatible with a gospel of redemption, restoration and reconciliation. Christians, he asserts, should be the last to clamour for a “just death” and the first to clamour for justice that fosters healing and renewal; justice that makes room for a new dawn where the miracle of forgiveness can occur, as we have experienced it in Christ.

Doing Justice

Dennis Jacobsen is pastor of Incarnation Lutheran Church in Milwaukee and director of the Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus, a network of clergy that develops national and regional training events to ground the work of “congregation-based community organization” in theology and Scripture. Doing Justice is an introductory theology of congregation-based community organization in the day-to-day struggles and hopes of urban ministry. It provides concrete examples and strategies for achieving justice in the public arena, involving personal and systemic injustices.

The author views the church as called to bring about the Kingdom of God in the “here and now”, by confronting injustice, nationalism, propaganda, racism, classism, militarism, and any actions that marginalize, subjugate or suppress people made in the image of God. He calls the church to a public witness against societal evils, which he attributes to governmental, corporate and societal abuse of power, consuming greed, relentless violence and narcissistic pride, which are offensive to God.

This is a “must read” for any person or congregation that wishes to move out of the comfortable pew, and for any pastors who wish to be active outside the safety of the sanctuary, in living out faith. This strategy is in stark contrast to our historical claim to “non-resistance” and goes to “active engagement” with the forces of evil in the world.

A dream of the tattered man

Randolph Loney, a former college educator, is a farmer, and pastor to a university-based congregation. Since 1985, he has made visits to prisoners on Georgia’s death row as part of his ministry. A dream of the tattered man contains real-life stories from Georgia, where, along with other (mostly southern) states, and countries like Iraq, Iran and China, the use of capital punishment continues.

The stories are gripping, intensely sad, but at times incredibly inspiring in relation to the prisoners’ courage as they face their scheduled appointment with a state-sanctioned execution, and their hope in God’s care for them, their families and their victims. While we no longer practise capital punishment in Canada, we imprison people for life, which often becomes a living death.

The author describes the “ties” (humanity) he shares with those on death row, and provides accounts of the “voices” (wisdom) he shared with them from other people, which influenced his intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage. He talks about lessons in grieving and the quest for inner freedom, exemplified by those he visits. Loney’s book is an affirmation of all those who take seriously the love of Christ, who invited us to do as He did “as unto the least of these”.

John Konrad has pursued a career in criminal justice for the past 38 years, 32 as a public servant and six as a consultant. He is a member of Highland Community Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified April 17, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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