Punishment, Responsibility, and Justice: A Relational Critique Book

Around the world there are a growing number of people, including Christians, who are promoting a new way of dealing with the perpetrators and victims of crimes and their communities - it's called restorative justice. This system identifies people as victims rather than the state, as in the case of retributive justice. Restorative justice, however, aims to have less state-sanctioned vengeance for crime and more mending of wounds and reconciliation among the parties involved.

Auckland academic, Christopher Marshall become aware that books written on restorative justice from a Christian perspective focussed almost exclusively on the Old Testament, with hardly a mention of the New Testament, his area of expertise.

Beyond Retribution is one book in the Studies in Peace and Scripture series sponsored by the Institute of Mennonite Studies, the research agency of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

In six chapters Marshall explains the problems involved in applying ethical standards from the New Testament to today's secular society, gives an insight into the extent to which the New Testament covers the issue of justice as taught by Paul and Jesus. He covers the purpose and ethics of punishment, divine and human punishment in the New Testament. He discusses justice that kills - capital punishment, and then presents the case forgiveness as the consummation of justice. The book has an extensive bibliography, a list of all the scriptures quoted, and a comprehensive subject index.

Although this book is unashameably academic, both in the style (heavily footnoted with references, four levels of headings) and language used it nevertheless could be appreciated by thinking Christians for the valuable insights it gives about the system of justice and punishment used in the western world today and Marshall's vision for the future. This book would also be of interest to mediators, social workers and students of the criminal justice system as a required text. It would I feel, be well worth rewriting in a more popular style so it could be appreciated and understood by lay people, who are increasingly likely to come into contact with restorative justice methods in their daily lives.

As Marshall says " Restorative justice cannot manufacture repentance and forgiveness. But by placing a concern for the healing of hurts, the renewal of relationships, the re-creation of community at the heart of its agenda, it makes room for the miracle of forgiveness to occur and for a new future to dawn. … The New Testament looks beyond retribution to a vision of justice that is finally satisfied only by the defeat of evil, the healing of its victims, by the repentance of sinners and the forgiveness of their sins, by the restoration of people and the renewal of hope - a justice that manifests God's redemptive work of making all things new."

The message of restorative justice needs to be heard and this book would bear reading a number of times because it has so much that is worth while packed into it