Justice

[1] In 2007, over 7.3 million people in the United States were under some form of correctional supervision, including federal and state prison inmates (1.6 million), jail inmates (almost 800,000), those on probation (over 4 million), and those on parole (about 800,000).[1] This means that 1 in every 31 adults in the United States is […]

[1] As one of the members of the recently constituted task force for building a social statement on Criminal Justice for the ELCA, I have been asked to assemble a few key theological themes related to that topic. The following essay, then, is intended neither to break new ground in significant measure nor to sum […]

[1] The ancient and still widespread conception of justice as retributive, Desmond Tutu, Howard Zehr, Christopher Marshall, and others have argued, needs to be replaced by an emphasis on the themes of forgiveness and restoration developed in Jesus’ ethic of love and reconciliation.[1] Many theologians have begun to defend versions of what is now widely […]

Introduction [1] Harper’s Bible Dictionary defines justice as “the standard by which the benefits and penalties of living in society are distributed … [and] is founded on the being of God, for whom it is a chief attribute” (519). Forensic understandings of justice and righteousness may be indebted to our Greco-Roman tradition, which conceived of […]

[1] What may be unique about the Southern context is summed up in Flannery O’Connor’s assertion that, “By and large, people in the South still conceive of humanity in theological terms. While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted” (The Habit of Being). Religion of a certain passionate and fundamentalist flavor permeates […]

[1] In the days leading up to having dinner with Sister Helen Prejean, and hearing her speak in public at Princeton University, I made people laugh by telling them that I would really look forward to dinner with Susan Sarandon-who played Sister Helen Prejean in the Hollywood film, Dead Man Walking. However, after conversation with […]

[1] Last January, I attended an academic conference in Pittsburgh. During a break, we were given the option of visiting the Andy Warhol Museum or meeting representatives from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC was established to provide an opportunity for the perpetrators and victims of atrocities that had occurred under apartheid […]

[1] This essay tries to demonstrate that the church, as an institution and a community of persons, carries within itself valuable resources for enabling and fostering social reconciliation in South Africa.1 I shall explore in brief some of the ways in which Christian community has been and can be efficacious in the promotion of reconciliation […]

[1] Traditionally, theology and religious thought has thought of love and justice as the poles between which human interaction must move. Justice punishes or repays, love heals. The relatively recent phrase “restorative justice” attempts something different, which is to think about the ways in which justice might restore. I would like to explore the old […]

[1] “Restorative justice” is a concept that has been written about, talked about, and argued about. However, only a few people have actually been engaged in the practice of “restorative justice.” Fortunately, the number of such practitioners is growing, and the faith community is discovering that restorative justice is closely related to such biblical truths […]