Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment

Marshall, Christopher D.: Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment, Eerdmans, 2001, ISBN 9780802847973. (commission earned)

Page numbers follow the material of the page. There is gaps in numbering where no note has been taken.

Chapter 1. Introduction (p1)

"When we are confronted with rape, murder, home invasions, and child abuse, familiar platitudes about hating the sin yet loving the sinner seem pitifully inadequate. Anger, resentment, and loathing rise up,  and, whatever we may believe about love and forgiveness, what we really want is swift retribution. It is important to admit to these common human reactions and to resist giving them a premature Christian baptism. For, if Michael Ignatief is correct, 'The great moral weakness of our age ... is not, as some people think, a general lack of moral principles, but on the contrary, indignant moral posturing by people too lazy to think through the consequences of strong emotions'." (p1).

Definitions:

Retributive justice: focus on law-breaking, guilt and punishment

Restorative justice: focuses on relationships, reconciliation and reparation of harm done. crime less a matter of law-breaking, more infliction of injury or loss   (p2).

Northey: peace making response to crime, critique of criminology as military science; does not counter harm with another harm but healing response to victim, offender and wider community; restoring brokenness (p2).

Cayley: accountability, reparation and reform; avoid ostracisation, stigmatisation and compounding old violence with new (p2).

New Zealand youth justice: The transfer of power from the state to the "family group" (p3).

Zehr on the OT: restitution not retribution (p4).

Christian moral reasoning and the appeal to revelation (p5).

Five entwined Christian sources:

* Scripture: the imitation of God and Christ

* Tradition: reflection and interpretation of Scripture

* Moral philosophy: content and methodology; 'natural law'

* Empirical data: theory in touch with reality

* The Spirit-in-Community: the Holy Spirit's moral renewal through the church. (p5-7).

The Bible necessary but not sufficient (re Sola Scriptura) (p7.

Problems with NT: concern with sin not crime; exclusively addressed to believers (p9).

Davies: "There is no suggestion in the New Testament that the Church should in any way instruct the world as to how to carry on its business." The ethics of discipleship not public policy. (p9).

OT to be read in light of NT (p10).

NT wealth of evidence on law (of which Paul was deeply sceptical), criminals (including Jesus),  courts (Jesus opposed; Paul, too, (although he appeals to Rome - KC)), police (which get the worst press) and prisons (for holding not long term detention)  (p11-14).

The OT Messianic importance of setting captives free; Luke 4.18 (p15-16).

"The early church was led by a bunch of jailbirds, and God was the prime accomplice in their escape!" (p16).

The problem of faith and secular justice; different levels for believers and non believers (p17-19). "... the contribution of mainstream churches to the reform and humanization of penal practice has been, at best, ambiguous, despite boasting a religion that centers on forgiveness, mercy, and redemption"

Redekop: "The unfaithfulness of Christians begins when we say that it is inappropriate to bring Christ's ethic to bear on certain of our problems and relationships." (p22).

I inevitable duality between church and world we cannot make the world Christian but we can push it towards Christian values (p23).

Love and justice, different but compatible and inseparable; both terms complex (p23-29).

Woodhead: Love (agape) is not one-sided and unconditional self-sacrifice, it seeks the well being of others, invites a closer connection between love and justice, as it requires active resistance to oppression, abuse and criminal offending (p28).

The problem of eschatological language (p29-30).

Errors: to apply discipleship to the state; to apply NT solely to Christians (p31).

Hays on the move from the Biblical to the normative: descriptive, synthetic, hermeneutical, pragmatic (p31).

Chapter 2. The Arena of Saving Justice: The Justice of God in Paul and Jesus (p35)

Paul (p38)

Romans: "Paul's deliberate use of justice language in explaining God's work of salvation in Christ; his conception of divine justice as a saving, restorative justice more  than a retributive or vindictive justice; his utilization of this idea in his theology of justification by faith; and his understanding of the cross of Christ as a means of emancipation, not an occasion of substitutionary punishment." ( (p40).

Gospels (p40)

The variety of meanings of the cross in Paul; dangers of concentrating on atonement; soteriology and metaphor (p40-41). "... Paul shows that the Gospel is all about justice" God's justice to be oppressed cf. Romans 3.26 (except the translation of "faith in Jesus" should read "the faithfulness of Jesus", ie it is Jesus saving act that counts, not our faith in it.) (p41).

The limitations of the forensic theory, it hides God's justice-making (42). "... Paul's interpreters have unwittingly brought to the text an essentially Western concept of retributive justice based on metaphysical law rather than a Hebraic concept of covenant justice based on relationship". Early fathers' characterisation of divine justice in human terms, redistributive and retributive (p43.) "this identification of divine righteousness with God's vindictive or punitive justice has ... been an almost total divorce between the doctrine of justification and issues of social justice." Justice expelled to the political and concerns that "good works" wreck justification theory (44). "It is crucial to recognise that Paul's theology of justifying righteousness in Romans is constructed on Jewish rather than Graeco-Roman presuppositions" (p45). SDQH 476 OT refs (Greek: DIK trans in 90% cases)) relational (p47) upholding Shalom (p48). "Covenant justice is satisfied by the restoration of shalom, not by the pain of punishment" (p49). 'God's justice and God's mercy stand, significantly in parallel, not in opposition" (p50). Wester justice symbolised by scales, Hebrew by the mighty river (Amos 5.24) (53). It is this Paul has in mind at Romans 1.16-17; Christ's eschatological deliverance based on Psalms and Deutero-Isaiah (Chapters 40-66). "The atonement is an all-encompassing act of justice-making that overthrows oppressing powers (cf. Rom. 8.38-39; 1 Cor. 15-24-26)." (p58). Penal substitution legalistically recast by Calvin from Ambrose, followed by punitive justice (ironically, given justification theory - KC) (p60). Chris did not die instead of sinners but corporately on behalf of sinners. "... it makes no sense at all to speak of God as inflicting punitive retribution on himself, much less 'damning himself' in order to satisfy divine justice." "Christ suffers the penalty of sin not because God transfers our punishment onto him as substitute victim but because Christ fully and freely identifies himself with the plight and destiny of sinful humanity under the reign of death and pays the price for doing so. The thought is not one of legal imputation of guilt to Christ but of Christ's costly solidarity with humanity in its shameful and culpable situation. Christ takes our guilt in the sense that, as our 'representative substitute,' he accepts the deadly consequences of our guilt;" (p62). Naive to equate punishment and sacrifice (p64). Wrath not equated with retributive punishment; wrath against sin not Christ; curative justice not retribution (p64). Covenant justice not penal substitution (p65). Technically, the victim is punished. the mistake of equating punishment with efficacy (p66). Jesus embodies the justice of god in life and death (p69-70). The KIngdom of God: end time realisations of God's earthly intention; intimacy with God; the Messianic community. Our mission to serve God's purposes in current history, following Jesus' example (p71).

Jesus requires unlimited forgiveness (p72). Readiness to forgive precondition of being forgiven by God (p73). Matthew 18.23-35 (p76). Non retaliation (p77). Lex Talionis: limits retaliation and not intended as punitive; only an eye for an eye; restitution; rough and ready (1) Impossible to implement in some physical injury cases; (2) No account of implementation; No account of official mutilators; (3) Wide use of financial compensation; (4) Technical rather than actual; (5) Moral rather than literal equivalence; (6) Differing interpretations and outlooks (p78-83).

The unique instance of "life for life"; Matthew 5.38-42 (p84). Jesus does not repudiate the Law, he renders it redundant (p76); turning the other cheek and dealing with creditors (p87); the extra mile and giving to beggars (p88).

Love your enemy (p89-91); intended for followers, not generally (p92).

Summary (p93-95.

Chapter 3. Punishment that Fits: The PUrpose and Ethics of Punishment (p97)

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Walter Moberly: "Should a criminal be regarded by society chiefly as a nuisance to be adapted, an enemy to be crushed, a debtor to be made to pay, a patient to be treated, or a refractory child to be disciplined? Or should he be regarded as none of these things or simply as an example through which it can be demonstrated to other men that anti-social conduct does not pay?" (p98). Inherent justness and utility; the former retrospective, the latter prospective (p99)

Rehabilitation: Bentham (1748-1832 and prisons; categorisation (p100); punishment as treatment induces laxity or tyranny (p102); recidivism (p103).

Deterrence: Plato (p104); punishment limits law-breaking by 'non criminals'; the importance of socio-economic improvement; the force of shame; the fallacy of criminal rationalism (p105); Moberly: "THe busiest hangman can do little for the protection of society in comparison with an efficient police force."; problems with gradation, the potential criminal's knowledge of sentences, verification. Fear not inward disposition (106); exemplary punishment. Circumventing the moral element of punishment; scapegoating (p108).

Retribution: punishing guilt; punishment deserved (p109); equivalence or proportionality; reprobation or denunciation. Aristotle and the rational metaphysical order; Augustine and Aquinas,  proportionality to deserts (p110); ascendancy of retribution in late 20th Century; redistribution decreased and punishment increased. Strengths: based on the person; personal choice; protection of the innocent from utility (p111).

Weaknesses of retribution: (1) Philosophical: unable to offer rational justification; many moral infractions not criminal; low % of infractors punished; doubtful role of the state. Proportionality: the problems of: ranking (p113); commensurate punishment; measuring guilt (p114). mOral blameworthiness essential but not sufficient; personal punishment and the vindication of the impersonal moral order (115); censure does not require punishment.

(2) Moral: Appeals to the darker side; criminal justice underpinned by populist retribution; falling crime and rising imprisonment (p116); does not wipe the slate clean but assigns stigma; repaying evil with evil, the vice of malice; exaggerated individualism (p117); Kissane: "The legal principle that each person is responsible for his or her actions has collided with growing knowledge about how little control some people have over their lives; about the links between physical and emotional poverty and abuse and crime. How just is it for society to cast from its midst the misshapen creatures of its own making, ... Is not crime part of the body proper, a systemic illness?" Law reflects the standpoint of the rich and powerful; welfare infraction and white collar crime (p118); Hudson: "... in times of recession the vocabulary of justice becomes harsher". What are just deserts in an unjust society where the status quo is favoured? Neglect of the victim (p219).

(3) Biblical: The belief that God punishes and rewards (p120); Scripture attests the concepts of guilt, desert, equivalence and censure (p121); expression of recognition that God hates evil and injustice (p122); the link of action and consequences, involving YHWH, preserving the Covenant (p124); OT punishments to assist communal living and cleansing; restitution rather than retribution (p125); "It is one thing, then to identify certain retributivist dynamics in biblical law and narrative; it is quite another to read out of the text a wholly retributivist theory of punishment that can be transferred directly into the secular criminal justice system today".

(4) Theological: concerned with outcome rather than character (p127); inevitable to consider outcome, rough justice better than no justice; justice only satisfied by harm undone, requiring penitence, God's and mutual forgiveness, overcoming harm (p128).

Other: combining approaches: human rights theory balancing rights of perpetrators and victims (p129), compensating imprisonment with rehabilitation; hybrid system causes confusion (p130); retribution with utilitarian adjustments.

Restorative punishment? (p131): restorative recompense as punishment (p132); restitution, resolution and healing, painful to the offender (p133); the punishment of acknowledgment; re-integrative shaming (p134).

Punishment as symbol and invitation: Moberly: retributivism satisfies "just deserts" and annulment but it satisfies neither for they are moral and spiritual, not material (p135); the retribution is what we have become; correction is a social necessity (p136): (1) "Punishment symbolizes the corrupting impact of the misdeed on the wrong-doer's own person ... the ritual indignity which society puts upon him is only a parable of the spiritual indignity which he has put upon himself"; punishment to foreshadow and forestall not inflict, to morally restore the offender (p137), penitential pain. (2) "... signifies the reversal or cancellation of wrong-doing' so that crime is annulled or put right. The retributive equates punishment with cancellation, utilitarian refuses the necessity of cancellation, symbolic sees punishment as "... a symbol or invitation to annulment".

Restorative justice needs a theory of punishment (p138) as an instrument for accessing the moral realm; inflicting pain for its own sake is irrational and immoral.

PUnishment focused on restoration:

* clear expression of the wrong

* offender admission of responsibility (p139)

* reparation and (at discretion of victim) reconciliation and forgiveness

* wrong-doer rendering service to victim or community

* remedy the social context

* re-integration with powerful and effective symbols

* minimize the dangers of deliberate infliction of pain and maximise restoration.

Summary (p140-143.

Chapter 4. Vengeance is MIne: Divine and Human Punishment in the New Testament (p145)

Grace, forgiveness and love virtually eclipse retributive punishment; contrast divine and human punishment, and between church and community.

Punishment by human agency:

Punishment in society: purely descriptive (p146); state punishing crime cited with approval as an instrument of divine wrath, though elsewhere reserved to God: the state does what only God can do which Christians are forbidden to do (p147).

Punishment in The Church: admonishment rebuke and temporary exclusion operated through the Spirit (p149); Spirit and law not separate.

1 Corinthians 6.1-11: litigation a defeat for love (p150); civic law open to rank and bribery (p152).

1 Corinthians 5.1-8 and 1 Timothy 1.19-20 (p152): expulsion to protect the community (p153), for the good of the offender. In 1 Timothy, like 1 Corinthians, offender turned over to Satan p154) to encourage repentance.

1 Corinthians 2.5-11; 7.5-13: congregational discipline (p155); rebuke aimed at repentance and reform; Paul's concern for the offender (p156); individual and corporate restoration.

2 Corinthians 10.6: refutation of theological error.

Social Ostracism, Matthew 18.15-20; Romans 16.17; 1 Corinthians 5.11,13; 2 Thessalonians 3.6,14-15; 2 Timothy 3.1-5; Titus 3.10; cf. Galatians 6.1 (p157): persistent impenitence causes breach of fellowship; Matthew redemptive to prevent further damage to the individual and community (p158); making someone a Gentile does not make them a pariah as Jesus shows; a lost sheep (p159); a chiastic reading produces emphasis on mending relationship; restorative ostracism (p160); rehabilitation not abandonment (p161).

Punishment by Divine Agency: Eschatological, particularly in Matthew.

Historical Judgment: Nt temporal judgment as reformative or educative (p162); misfortune not punitive but self-inflicted; Jesus also in Mark 2.10; Ananias and Saphira Acts 5.1-11 (p163), God punishing blasphemy, cf. Acts 12.18-23 (p164).

Cursing and Consigning to Destruction: concern for change and renewal (p165); defining taboo (p166); Paul's curse of separation, handing culprits to God's judgment of grace (p167); we are to love our enemies and leave vengeance to God but 'he' is to love 'his' enemies, too.

The Present Wrath of God: Romans 1.18-32; cf. 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16 (p169): (DA Campbell characterises these verses not from Paul but as speech-in-character - KC).

God's wrath: is 'his' refusal to accept evil, injustice, cruelty, &c; not 'irrational' but an inevitable effect from a cause; effective not affective; not ontological of God's nature. Why revealed? (p172): "... the death of Christ is concurrently a revelation of God's saving justice towards his people and a demonstration against heavenly wrath against the sin and injustice that all people are guilty of." (p172); wrath does not imply retributive punishment; turning from God leads to decadence and depravity; measured withdrawal of God's protective influence (p173); still, there is redemptive rather than punitive intent, cf. Romans 2.7; never directed against Christians. 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16 temporary and educative (p174-175. The point is not to torment but enable.

Final Judgment (p175): The problems of damnation )p175-179).

A Hell of a Problem (p180): massive weight of biblical evidence and God requires vindication (theodicy) (p180); without final judgment there can be no justice; easily over-emphasised where Jesus' proclamation is joyful; the problem of hell but (p181): a) redemption cannot be complete if people suffer forever in hell; God's conquest cannot be complete (p182); retribution is no substitute for restitution. b) Massively disproportionate p183); punishment cannot be dependent on the status of the offended; if sinners are punished because their sin is unending, God's victory is again compromised (p184). c) What moral ground would God have for inflicting infinite pain?; inflicting pain without cause is forbidden to humans; God has no motive (p185); an unreformable person cannot fell guilt.

"... it is impossible to justify morally the imposition of eternal suffering on human beings for their limited wrongdoings in this life." The alternative of annihilation (p186) less painful but equally immoral. It is proper for Christians to hope for universal salvation since this is what God desires; warning against glib optimism.

A Nonretributive Approach to Eschatological Judgment (p188): The priority of love; no contradiction between love and justice; "god's love is the driving force of his justice" (p188); "if final judgment is wholly retributive in character, it is compelled by something external to God; the existence of sin." (Because we were created imperfect - KC) God must honour the choice of those who do not wish to participate in his perfection. The problems of hyperbolic, contradictory and symbolic language about hell (p189); commercial metaphors; unlike Judaism, no divine revenge involved (p190); the heart of the matter is lack of relationship with God. The overall criterion is direction of life (p191); strictly retributive justice would doom all humanity; (if we cannot deserve justification, we cannot deserve its reverse - KC). The "lost' are a single category (p192); the estrangement from God is self-inflicted; God allows their destruction (p193).

"The overwhelming evidence of the New Testament is that final judgment entails an irrevocable decision for life or death, for eternal union with God or definitive separation from God. "Retributive language does not make a retributive theology; powerful retributive imagery and terminology safeguards important theological truths: it demonstrates the importance of free will and prevents mechanistic cause-and-effect (p195); but, ultimately, God gives people up to experience the consequences of their own free choices.

Differences with earthly judgments: final (p195); our lack of knowledge about the eschaton. 'just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all" Romans 5.18; cf. 1 Corinthians 15.28). (p196). Wise to be agnostic; but judgment is restorative not retributive.

Summary (p197-199).

Chapter 5. Justice that kills: Is There a place for Capital PUnishment (p201)

The death penalty the only punishment with biblical/divine sanction (p201). We should not distinguish between our Christianity and the rightness of the state on this matter.

Capital Punishment in the Bible:

The Death Penalty in the Old Testament: Cain is exiled not killed (p205); the mass killing of the flood; "life for life" Genesis 9.4-6); first six commandment flagrant breach, death penalty, for the seventh, optional; citations (p205-206; modes of execution (p206-207); safeguards; Mosaic more restricted than USA (p207); lesser penalties substituted; compliance and non-compliance.

The Death Penalty in Early Judaism (p208): dating; Jews under Roman law (p209); complexity and inconsistency (p210); diversity of exegesis; the importance of life (p211); difficulty to obtain Sanhedrin verdict (p212); liberal interpretation.

The Death Penalty in the New Testament (p213): problems with John 7.53-8.11; prima facie case for divine sanction of the death penalty.

A critique of Biblical Arguments in Support of Capital Punishment: Genesis 9, The Law and absence of condemnation in NT (p214):

Genesis 9.4-6: Pro capital punishment: commands to Noah are universal; humankind made in God's image; no substitute penalty specified (215). Life is only to be taken for life but the prerogative is divine, not statist (p216); But Christ impinges on Noah; early Christians rejected Jewish Law.

Pentateuchal Law: Talionic law extends down the ages and substitute penalties are forbidden (p217) but the Lex was to limit punishment not mandate it; the priority of life over all other things; god commutes (p218), eg Cain, Moses and King David; ancient codes not law in the modern sense; codes only a fraction of practice (p219); the death penalty represents cultic land cleansing (p220) which is not the function it fulfills today (p221); Christ's the final expiation of the wicked; OT theory dubious (p222).

New Testament Material: Jesus seems to support capital punishment (p223); Anaanias and Saphira. Romans 13.3-5: the state is God's agent (p224); its right to wield the sword; counsel of Christian submission (p225).

Implicit Endorsements: observation about human experience not endorsement (p226); "... the fact that religious and state power combined to execute an innocent man in the interests of protecting an unjust status quo is perhaps the most eloquent testimony against capital punishment (p227). Jesus transforms the meaning of Law in the Messianic age; redundant rather than abolished (p228); capital punishment counter to Jesus' central argument (matthew 5) and to mercy which is the true meaning of the Law ()p229).

John 7.53-8.11: Jesus answers negatively on capital punishment (p230) not on legal grounds (231): sacredness of life (p232), all are sinners, he represents divine forgiveness (p233).

Romans 13.1-7 (p234): personal experience and a warning against rebellion not a political theory p235); Paul is telling Christians to submit to the state which has a right to exist; it is the authority of the state not specifically the sword which is divinely sanctioned (p236); execution confined to Roman citizens, few in the church (p237), ultimately the sword as  a symbol of state power, not reference to capital punishment (p238); a reason for fear not a divine institution.

Summary of the Biblical Arguments (p239-41).

A Critique of other Arguments:

The Need for Moral Boundaries: Capital punishment as a witness to the sacredness of life (p241); how does judicial killing demonstrate the sacredness of life? The human rights issue (p242).

A deterrent (p243): murder rates lowest in some countries where capital punishment has been abolished the longest (p245).

The demands of Justice: Justice requires a life for a life; revenge has no value in dealing with grief (p246); scapegoating presupposes the total guilt of the offender and disregards society's role (p247); discriminatory execution.

Protection of the Innocent (p248): death penalty discourages guilty verdicts; statistically, murderers least likely criminals to repeat; not strangers but spouses, family or close friends (p249). Not protective: wrongful convictions; brutalisation (p250).

Summary: (p252-254).

Chapter 6. Conclusion: Forgive3ness as the Consummation of Justice (p255)

Summary of Findings (p256)

Imitatio Christi: Imitatio Dei (p259): "Because Jesus personally incarnates the moral and political message he proclaims about the in-breaking of God's justice, simply to hear the story of Jesus is already to receive moral instruction, while to emulate the example of Jesus is to imitate God" (p260). Biblical citations (p261-262). ;... forgiveness belongs to the very character of Christian life and experience" (p262).

The Nature and Task of Forgiveness: No rationalised get-out: "... the entire Christian message centres on forgiveness,  which it views as both gift and demand"; biblical citations.

What Is Forgiveness? (p263): different kinds of forgiveness from belching to genocide but: "Forgiveness is what happens when the victim of some hurtful action freely chooses to release the perpetrator of that action from the bondage of guilt, gives up his or her own feelings of ill will, and surrenders any attempt to hurt or damage the perpetrator in return, thus clearing the way for reconciliation and restoration of relationship" ((although in double quotation marks, not cited - KC((. Five elements: response of victims (p264); freely given to the perpetrator (p265); release for the victim (p266); does not repair in kind (not instinctive nor natural) (p267), interrupting a cycle of reciprocal revenge; fulfilled in reconciliation (p268).

Limitations: the problem of perpetrator refusal to acknowledge; the dead or missing offender. Does not mean going back; both parties have become different (p269).

What Forgiveness Is Not Not instinctive nor natural. 1. Not weak nor impotent, nor cowardly; not to reduce the offender to weakness or dependence. The requirement of courage. Relationships of true equality (p270). 2. Not an excusing of wrong-doing: not an evasion of responsibility but an acceptance of it; not in opposition to formal justice, different but related (p271). 3. NOt denial (p272): "Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no one can be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long without overcoming this double exclusion ..." (Volf) ff33. 4. Not forgetfulness (p273). 5. Not automatic: a disciplined craft (p274).

The Dynamics of Forgiveness: In a clear case, from the victim perspective, not necessarily in this sequence: 1. acknowledging the situation needing forgiveness 2. Deciding to enter the cycle (p275). 3. Giving voice to pain and anger. 4. Being open to the offender (p276). 5. Being willing to experience "the fellowship of sufferings" (p277). 6. Forgiving related parties, including those charged with protection, himself, God. 7. Becoming reconciled with the past; elements of Christian penitence: remorse, renewal and restitution, the latter not payment for forgiveness (p278). 8. Becoming reconciled with the persons involved in the episode.

Forgiveness and the Justice System (p279): post conflict mutual forgiveness critical; forgiving poor country debs; social as well as individual forgiveness. Restorative justice as part of the legal system. South AFrican TRC (p280-283).

Final paragraph: "Restorative justice cannot manufacture penitence and forgiveness. But by placing a concern for the healing of hurts, the renewal of relationships, and 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. Nothing could be more compatible with the message of the New Testament than this. For without diminishing the reality of evil, without denying the culpability of those who commit crime  or minimizing the pain of those who suffer at their hands, and without dispensing with punishment as a mechanism for constraining evil and promoting change, the New Testament looks beyond retribution to a vision of justice that is finally satisfied only by the defeat of evil and the healing of its victims, by the repentance of sinners and the forgiveness of their sins, by the restoration of peace and the renewal of hope - a justice that manifests God's redemptive work of making all things new". (p284).

Taken from:

Marshall, Christopher D.: Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment, Eerdmans, 2001, ISBN 9780802847973. (commission earned)