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Book Reviews
Hundreds of reviews spanning restorative justice, theology, politics, and literature — each with a full-length essay and downloadable PDF.
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]
↓ PDFCaptain America; The Armageddon Factor (Two Reviews Together)
Captain America; The Armageddon Factor (Two Reviews Together)
Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism, Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003, 392 pp.; The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, 419 pp. Most of us would rather not know the truth about “things”; especially the […]
↓ PDFCovenant of Peace
Covenant of Peace
The Missing Peace in New Testament Theology and Ethics, Willard M. Swartley, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006 WN: This is about THE book of peace theology for the 21st century! More is said in my review. an excerpt: It was my good fortune to have spent a little time with Mennonite New Testament theologian Willard Swartley […]
↓ PDFThe Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean
The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean
Book Review of The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean WN: Capitalism has ever been a ruthless system twinned with Empire to extract/maximize wealth on the backs of “losers” — and of the enslaved — since its emergence. And this the […]
Love on a human scale: The Gospel according to Ivan Illich – Review by Marcus Peter Rempel
Every now and then a book comes into my life that puts me in a happy dilemma: I want to lend it to all my friends, but I don’t want it to leave my house. Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey is a labour of love by Illich’s long-time friend and co-conspirator, David Cayley. At 552 […]
The Genealogy of Violence
The Genealogy of Violence: Reflections on Creation, Freedom, and Evil, Charles K. Bellinger, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, 157 pages. excerpt: This gem is to theology what a Rolls Royce engine is to automobiles. One reviewer says, “It is no small achievement to write a theological book that is both first-rate social science and first-rate […]
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The Choice: Embrace The Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
WN: An astounding book; woman; story–and full of life lessons. There are many more videos online and another book: The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life. Please see the video first. A brief description: Dr. Edith Eger discusses prejudice, how when we look at life as between ‘us’ and ‘them’ we are creating another […]
I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry
WN: This review is from THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM Review: “I Was a Catholic Zionist“–An Eloquent Exploration of Judaism’s Moral and Ethical Tradition and Zionism’s Departure From It by Allan C. Brownfeld Issues Winter 2019 I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry By Ted Schmidt 430 pages, $28.00 (information […]
The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America
Of the extraordinarily valuable and informative works for which Mr. Valentine is responsible, his latest, CIA As Organized Crime, may prove to be the best choice as an introduction to the dark realm of America's hidden corruptions and their consequences at home and around the world. This new volume begins with the unlikely but irrevocable framework by which Mr. Valentine's path led to unprecedented access to key Agency personnel whose witting participation is summarized by the chapter title: "How William Colby Gave Me the Keys to the CIA Kingdom."
By illuminating CIA programs and systems of surveillance, control, and assassination utilized against the civilian population of South Vietnam, we are presented with parallels with operations and practices at work today in America's seemingly perpetual war against terror.
GOD IS NOT GREAT: How Religion Poisons Everything
Christopher Hitchens, Toronto: Emblem Editions, 2008, 307 pp. WN: With such a claim in the title, Hitchins’ treatise invariably tells us far more about the author than his subject. His brother Peter’s book fills in the details: The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith. To be sure: any humanist with a modicum […]
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Dancing With Elephants: Mindfulness Training For Those Living With Dementia, Chronic Illness or an Aging Brain,
Book Review of Dancing With Elephants: Mindfulness Training For Those Living With Dementia, Chronic Illness or an Aging Brain Jarem Sawatsky, Winnipeg: Red Canoe Press, 2017. excerpt: This is a mind-blowing book! It is written by a man whom my wife and I knew when a child, because of intersecting with his parents (our contemporaries) […]
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Christianity and Pluralism
Book Review of Christianity and Pluralism, Ron Dart and J. I. Packer, Lexham Press, 2019; 70 pages excerpt: Another publication, In a Pluralist World, was an earlier iteration of the book under review. In that Preface we read: “In the autumn of 1997, Bishop Michael Ingham reopened a longstanding debate within the Anglican Church of […]
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The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy
Book review of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy, Colleen Carroll, Chicago: Loyola Press, 2002, 320 pages. by The Rev’d John D. Alexander WN: The author of the book has since published other studies you may access here. excerpt: This book documents an often unnoticed and under-reported phenomenon among today’s young […]
Book Review of Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, Jean Bethke Elshtain, New York: Basic Books, 2003, 240 pp. WN: My friend Ron Dart commissioned this review back in 2009. The author was a bright, productive Christian scholar. Incredibly naïve and blinded by ideology as well . . . The review […]
Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: A Memoir
Orbis Books, 2020, by Jim Forest Reviewed by Ron Dart I first met Jim Forest in the mid-1980s when he was still general secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and I was on staff with Amnesty International. We met, initially, the old fashioned way (letter writing). Jim and I have stayed in touch […]
Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act
Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act July 22, 2020 Bats With Napalm Vests and Other Great American Innovations by David Swanson WN: This is horrible! Unconscionable! Despicable! Exponentially Hypocritical! . . . and whatever other superlative expletives can be thrown at U.S. planning, developing, experimenting, and deploying […]
Book Review of Dispelling The Clouds
Book Review of Dispelling The Clouds by Wilma Derksen [NOTE: Please click on highlighted title above to be taken to Wilma’s site, where you may read many responses/reviews.] When Wilma asked that I be a pre-publication reader of her new book, I felt honoured. When I sent her a quick email upon completion of reading […]
Book Review of Christianity and Pluralism, Ron Dart and J. I. Packer, Lexham Press, 2019; 70 pages
Book Review of Christianity and Pluralism, Ron Dart and J. I. Packer, Lexham Press, 2019; 70 pages
Book Review of Christianity and Pluralism, Ron Dart and J. I. Packer, Lexham Press, 2019; 70 pages WN: This brief missive offers much to consider and chew on. excerpts: In this reviewer’s experience, there is none so fundamentalist as one who has grown to reject what once was held near and dear. (Not of course, […]
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Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance With The Feminine
Book Review of Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance With The Feminine, Wood Lake Publishing, 2018, Susan McCaslin & J.S. Porter He footed it well—she answered the music handsomely — John Bunyan WN: My friend Ron Dart sent me this fascinating book review of the above. Review: The publication in 2009 of Christopher Pramuk’s Sophia: The […]
Fatal Discord Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
Book Review of: Fatal Discord Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind WN: My friend Ron Dart sent me the fascinating book review of a crucial book for understanding contemporary Western culture: Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind. Please read review below. Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for […]
Early Christian Readings of Genesis One
Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018; author Craig Allert WN: Full disclosure is, that thanks to Ron, I have been a member of a catholic Anglican/ecumenical contemplative order called “Sons of the Holy Cross”. I’ve had a longstanding interest in Patristics as well, again thanks […]
The Nonviolent Atonement
Book Review of: The Nonviolent Atonement, J. Denny Weaver, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001/2011. 246 pages excerpt: While a student at Regent College in the mid-seventies, there was something I knew to be defective in my evangelical pietistic upbringing – glaringly absent actually in two previous years of evangelism on the streets of […]
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Justice That Restores, Charles W. Colson, Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2001. 172 pages
WN: Charles Colson’s book seems so out of place in the Age of Trump. Colson was of course a conservative Evangelical darling because he was “saved” post-Watergate and his solution to crime in America became simply personal conversion to Christ – as you will see below. And his kind of Christianity in turn has made […]
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Compulsory Compassion
A Critique of Restorative Justice, Annalise Acorn, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, 207 pages WN: A Christian acquaintance and fellow theological student at Regent College in 1975 told me of this book, delighted about such a critique of Restorative Justice, and wondering what I thought. My response was the review you may click on below. New […]
They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change with Author John Dear
They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change with Author John Dear
Book Review of: They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change, John Dear, ORBIS BOOKS, 2018 In this landmark work, author, activist, and Nobel peace prize nominee Father John Dear connects the way of active nonviolence with solidarity with Creation, and shows how our global epidemic of violence and […]
Dancing With Elephants
Mindfulness Training For Those Living With Dementia, Chronic Illness or an Aging Brain (2017), Jarem Sawatsky, Winnipeg: Red Canoe Press excerpt: This is a mind-blowing book! It is written by a man whom my wife and I knew when a child, because of intersecting with his parents (our contemporaries) when they lived in Vancouver, later […]
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Kenotic Ecclesiology: Select Writings of Donald M. Mackinnon
John C. McDowell, Scott A. Kirkland, Ashley John Moyse, (editors), Rowan Williams (Foreword), Fortress Press, 2016 by Ron Dart There has been a desperate and much delayed need to read and inwardly digest the poignant insights of Donald MacKinnon. Mackinnon has been ignored for too long, curtly dismissed as too eccentric or caricatured. This tendency […]
White Gulls & Wild Birds
White Gulls & Wild Birds
Essays on C.S. Lewis, Inklings and Friends & Thomas Merton, edited by Ron Dart, Abbotsford: St. Macrina Press; 85 pp. WN: This is actually a book notification. Since I’m one of the contributors, I’ve linked to a review done by Brad Jersak. The essays all are more personal reflections of the impact of the people […]
A Gentler God: Breaking Free of the Almighty in the Company of the Human Jesus
Breaking free of the Almighty in the company of the human Jesus, Menangle: Albatross Books, Douglas Frank, 2010; 390 pp. There can be no doubt that Doug Frank, in a A Gentler God, has faced into the darker and more disturbing aspects of the North American reformed and evangelical ethos—he did so, courageously, in his […]
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Gratitude Books
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to LIVE FULLY Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010, 237 pp; Radical Gratitude, Mary Jo Leddy, Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002, 182 pp; The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence, and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual, Margaret Visser, Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010, 458 pp. WN: All three books […]
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Chasing the Scream
The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Johann Hari, New York: Bloomsbury, 2015, 389 pp. WN: An excerpt from my book review you may click on below: The author is an established British journalist–though he has been found guilty of plagiarism and fabrication. In the “Introduction” he explains that his research took […]
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A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross
The Cruciform Self, Brian Gregor, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2013, 261 pp. From the back cover: Brian Gregor draws together a hermeneutics of the self… and a theology of the cross… to envision a phenomenology of the cruciform self. The result is a bold and original view of what philosophical anthropology could look […]
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On Being Human
Sexual Orientation and the Image of God, C. Norman Kraus, Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011, 113 pages A brief excerpt: Since receipt of this publication for review, same-sex marriage has been legalized in the United States. Canada had legalized same-sex marriage in 2005. Since, in both countries, the sky has not fallen… Nonetheless, I approach reviewing […]
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Lament For a Nation: Then and Now
Lament For a Nation: Then and Now, Ron Dart, New York: American Anglican Press, 2015; 38 pp. This is a great pointer to George Grant‘s fervour in his High/Red Tory vision of Canada. David Cayley did a three-part series on Grant, entitled The Moving Image of Eternity. An excerpt from the book review: The more I […]
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Atheist Delusions
The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, David Bentley Hart, New Haven & London: Yale Divinity Press, 2009, 253pp. An excerpt: In Part Four, Chapter Sixteen, “Secularism and Its Victims”, in a few deft strokes, Hart puts the New Atheists in their place: utterly lacking in intellectual rigor or honesty. “The special glories of Christian […]
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A Farewell to Mars
An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace, Brian Zahnd, Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2014, 208pp. An excerpt: This is an outstanding read. … The book bristles with the message of peace. For anyone finding his or her way on this matter, the book is highly recommended! For all others who want […]
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The Church’s Peace Witness
The Church’s Peace Witness, edited by Marlin E. Miller & Barbara Nelson Gingerich, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994, 228 pp. An excerpt: The Preface explains that This volume comes as an invitation to the process of reconciliation, of seeking a common foundation for our understanding of the church and its mission to the world, grounded in […]
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The Fall of the Prison
Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee Griffith, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993. 258pp. WN: This is a profound piece of liberation theology – for prisoners and all of us captives! An excerpt: “The gospel is profoundly scandalous, and until we hear at least a whisper of its scandal, we risk not hearing any part of […]
Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross
Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition, Hans Boersma, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004, 288 pages. WN: Both in dialogue and in reading Dr. Boersma, it has never been clear why violence must be smuggled into the Christian project. David Bentley Hart in reading postmodern authors holds out for consistent nonviolence in The Beauty of the Infinite: The […]
↓ PDFThe Executed God
The Executed God
The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, Mark Lewis Taylor, Fortress Press, 2001, 208 pp. excerpts: “Is it a contradiction that Christians pray and adore their imprisoned and executed God while supporting or tolerating the execution and imprisonment of so many today?… Is there a contradiction when in 2001 a new U.S. president, George […]
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The Biblical Revelation of the Cross
A Bible Study of the Atonement of Jesus Christ – the Righteous Servant, Norman McIlwain, Oak Wood Publishing House, 2006 Reviewed by Phil Groom Why did Jesus die? It’s a simple enough question at first glance: he was crucified. That’s what happens: crucifixion kills. But for Christians, as well as for anyone else who wants […]
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Solving Hell
A Mystery Story, by Chris Friesen, A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (Fresno, CA), In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Theology, 2003, unpublished WN: In 1992 a former missionary colleague, Larry Dixon, published The Other Side of the Good News: Confronting the Contemporary Challenges to […]
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Rogue State
A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, William Blum, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 2000, 308 pp. A former Canadian missionary colleague, Lloyd Billingsley, has published numerous books since his new-found faith in Americana, and adoption of the United States as his actual and spiritual homeland. His books have catchy subtitles such as: “recovering freedom […]
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Reason, Faith, and Revolution
Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, Terry Eagleton, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009, 185 pp. NOTE: This is less “Review” than “Interactions With”. I had generally felt uninterested in the recent spate of neoatheistic publications, including The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and God is Not Great, by Christopher […]
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The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God
Lee Griffith, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, 399 pp. “What would this mean if it were true that we love God only as much as the person we love least? Would it not mean that, when we have finally won the victory in our war on terrorism, when we have finally managed to exterminate all the […]
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The Myth of Religious Violence and Migrations of the Holy
The Myth of Religious Violence and Migrations of the Holy My thanks to Oxford University Press for a review copy of the first book, and to Eerdmans for a review copy of the second. I learned of the first publication and that reviewed below in following through on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “After Atheism” Ideas […]
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Just War Against Terror
The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, Jean Bethke Elshtain, New York: Basic Books, 2003, 240 pp. The book is a compelling apologia and call for America to be the police force for the world… Elshtain’s book is grounded in the horror of September 11, 2001, which “provided the historical, political, and rhetorical […]
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Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America
Barry Hankins, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008, 272 pp. An excerpt: Barry Hankins allows irenically that Schaeffer’s “arguments have not stood the test of time in terms of their historical veracity or philosophical soundness. He was not the scholar, philosopher, or great theologian that his publishers liked to claim on his book jackets (p. xv).” In […]
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“Farewell, Rob Bell”
A Biblical Response to Love Wins, Larry Dixon, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011, 70 pp. This very sad, even some form of (scary?) fatwa-inviting publication is why the Gospel is widely rejected. There is a “Blog” posting on this website that deals with an earlier, more extensive treatment of “Hell” by the same author here: […]
↓ PDFChristian Anarchy
Christian Anarchy
Jesus’ Primacy over the Powers, Vernard Eller, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Jacques Ellul first introduced me to this theme after I had been raised in the faith for over 25 years. Strange to say that, when the Bible begins with the theme in Genesis One! (See my book review of The Lost World of Genesis […]
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Bloomfield Avenue
A Jewish-Catholic Jersey Girl’s Spiritual Journey, Linda Mercadante, Cambridge, Massachussets: Cowley Publications, 2006; 211 pages Linda was a friend from way back in 1975/76 while we were a students at Regent College. We produced a book with some other students of photographs of our year at Regent, entitled Reflections. She has taught theology for many […]
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Blowback
The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Chalmers Johnson, New York: Henry Holt, 2000, 268 pp. It is the human condition that one shoots the messenger when the message is unliked. When links between smoking and cancer were first published in newspapers, subscriptions by smokers were cancelled to the newspapers! This phenomenon is ubiquitous. Prophets […]
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Against The Death Penalty
Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment, Gardner C. Hanks, Herald Press, 1997; 208 pages After this review was published in 1998 in a local Christian newspaper, I received a phone call from a then M2/W2 volunteer with a curious surname: “Bullett”. He needed to talk with me immediately! When he came to my office, […]
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Beyond Retribution
A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment,Christopher D. Marshall, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001, 342 pages. An excerpt: This book is central to “secular” Western culture, steeped ineluctably in Judeo-Christian trappings, in its quest to move towards Restorative Justice. “It is an irony of history”, claims Religious Studies professor James Williams, “that […]
The Death Penalty
The Death Penalty
An Historical and Theological Survey, James J. Megivern, New York/Mahwah, N. J.: Paulist Press 1997, 641 pages. An excerpt: “In this important study, James Megivern offers readers a comprehensive history of the death penalty in the West. He explores the development of the death penalty chronologically through the early, medieval and modern periods while also […]
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No Future Without Forgiveness
WN: Desmond Mpilo Tutu, New York: Doubleday, 1999, 294 pp. I wrote this review several years ago. Some felt I was too “harsh” about the “lacuna” of Tutu’s not having addressed American imperialism as worldwide apartheid. That it is such is not in doubt. That for instance Martin Luther King Jr. addressed it and was […]
The Lost World of Genesis One
Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, John H. Walton, Downer’s Grove: IVP Academic, 191 pp. An excerpt: For decades agnosticism about the early chapters of Genesis felt comfortable. This despite two close family members who have been adamant “Creation Science” rationalists. Out of the blue came this book urged on me by friends. In response […]
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God’s Just Vengeance
Crime, violence and the rhetoric of salvation, Timothy Gorringe, Cambridge University Press, 1996, 280 pages An excerpt: “This book examines the relationship between the theologies of atonement and penal strategies.” is the description from the inside cover. Its theme is “[t]he question of theimpact of religious sensibilities, or the structure of affect surrounding the crucifixion, […]
Compassionate Justice
An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Two Gospel Parables on Law, Crime, and Restorative Justice, Christopher D. Marshall, Eugene Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012 An excerpt: At the first national teleconference in the United States on Restorative Justice (in 1991 I believe), a woman asked the panel about the Christian roots of Restorative Justice. She was assured by […]