Archives

20 Mar 2015

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…

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02 Mar 2015

The Fall of the Prison

Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee Griffith, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993. 258pp. This is a profound piece of liberation theology - for prisoners and all captives! An excerpt: “The gospel is profoundly scandalous, and until we hear at least a whisper of its scandal, we risk not hearing any…

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26 Jan 2015

The Executed God

The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, Mark Lewis Taylor, Fortress Press, 2001, 208 pp. WN: “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…

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22 Apr 2014

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…

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10 Apr 2014

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…

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22 Feb 2014

Covenant of Peace

The Missing Peace in New Testament Theology and Ethics, Willard M. Swartley, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006; 542 pp. An excerpt: It was my good fortune to have spent a little time with Mennonite New Testament theologian Willard Swartley at the June, 2006 Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) in Ottawa,…

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22 Feb 2014

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…

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18 Feb 2014

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…

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26 Jan 2014

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…

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