Christian Restorative Justice in Scripture
A bound set of New Testament manuscripts. Photo credit: Atlantios, Creative Commons Zero.
Introduction
In Scripture, God seeks to restore all people, all relationships, and all creation to the path of growth He intended from the beginning. Hence, His justice is restorative and forward-looking, insisting on our partnership in repair and growth, not retributive and backward-looking, as if He were insisting on our suffering. God’s restorative justice is shown in Jesus, who restores human nature and shares his new humanity with us by his Spirit.
Four Principles of Justice and the Secular Inability to Organize Them
The following messages and presentations are good examples of how to engage non-Christians and Christians alike. For a good introduction, check out this video, below:
The Heart of Christian Restorative Justice in the Heart of God
Given to Eastern Nazarene College, Feb 6, 2013. A 35 minute video of Mako’s chapel service talk highlighting the four types of justice and the secular inability to organize them. Hence, Republicans elevate libertarian justice (in economic issues) and then meritocratic-retributive justice, whereas Democrats elevate libertarian justice (in social issues) and then distributive justice (e.g. human welfare) and then meritocratic-justice. But in Scripture, God puts restorative justice first, then distributive second, then meritocratic-retributive third, and then libertarian fourth with modifications. When secular people use “justice” language, we show we were made by a God of restorative justice, are alienated from Him, and need Jesus who restores human nature, first in himself, now in us.
Jesus and Our Desire for Justice
Slides of a presentation demonstrating why biblical justice and Jesus’ atonement are linked through God’s vision for relationship. The presentation examines the four types of justice: meritocratic-retributive; distributive; libertarian; and restorative. We observe these four principles in Scripture, so each of them are important, but secular thought has no ability to organize them. Scripture, however, does organize them in the following way, generally: restorative; distributive; meritocratic-retributive; and libertarian. We further anchor this order in a restorative, healing atonement accomplished by Jesus of Nazareth: sin as “obstruction of justice” through the corruption of human nature, and Jesus as healing human nature in himself as a faithful human partner to God, and therefore establishing divine restorative justice.
Hank Green, What is Justice? Crash Course Philosophy #40. Crash Course, Dec 19, 2016. Green gives a very helpful introduction to different principles of justice, without ordering them, and acknowledging that secular thinking does not know how to organize them. Also, conservative commentator David Brooks is an example of someone who longs for a relational and communitarian ethic of citizenship, as opposed to a merely transactional ethic of individual taxpayers, although he searches within the Enlightenment traditions, in vain; see David Brooks, Trump, Taxes and Citizenship. New York Times, Oct 4, 2016. The six moral intuitions offered by Jonathan Haidt also illustrate how principles of morality and justice exist in us, but in some kind of disorder. See Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion. Pantheon Books | Amazon page, Mar 2012. However, philosopher John Gray gives a stern warning that Haidt’s appeal to science and human nature is “scientism” and mistakenly assumes American political discourse is close to that of other countries. See John Gray, The Knowns and the Unknowns. The New Republic, Apr 20, 2012.
Messages and Resources on Christian Restorative Justice
The following video is a 40 minute presentation with Q&A following; Mako Nagasawa spoke at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in March 2022, explaining various activities of God in Scripture as His restorative justice: 1) "An Eye for an Eye" as Restorative Justice; 2) God's Treatment of Israel as Restorative Justice; 3) God's Presence in Israel as Restorative; and 4) God's Atonement in Christ as Restorative. These slides accompany the presentation. This video follows a chapel service which was not recorded, which was on the four principles of justice (see above). See also a 60 minute English and Spanish translation of the most important parts of this content (Zoom video recording).
The Anastasis Center blog post, Apr 28, 2016, on the Fall and the exile from the Garden. Neuroscientists currently observe that “karmic justice” or meritocratic-retributive justice is the default setting of the most primitive part of our brain. But restorative justice broadly works, even though it requires us to have empathy for even offenders and hope for personal repentance and change. Not only does this become a pastoral challenge, it is an argument against penal substitutionary atonement: It confirms that the fall produced an antipathy towards our fellow human beings that results in people making meritocratic-retributive justice the highest form of justice, even though restorative justice produces better results.
Slides of a presentation on how early Christian leaders read Genesis 1 as God providing land and wealth for all, but how Protestant heretic John Locke - the father of classical liberalism and “meritocracy” - argued that more “productive” people could take land from less “productive” people. The majority of white American evangelicals follow John Locke’s heretical views about wealth.
Article written for The Christian Century, Apr 12, 2016. A short article introducing how Western Enlightenment political philosophy is faulty for starting from an individualistic standpoint. 5 min read.
Restorative vs. Retributive Justice and the Implications for Public Life
Article written for the Journal of Urban Ministry, June 2020. Starts from the need for criminal justice reform and explains the biblical background of restorative justice.
Christian Restorative Justice: Beyond Charity - God's Restorative Justice for Children and Families
Slides of a presentation given to Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, 2014. An introduction to Christian history elevating and protecting children; an examination of the four types of justice with regards to children's issues such as public education and health.
Christian Restorative Justice: Financial Reform
Video of a message given to New Hope Fellowship Baltimore, Maryland, May 2015. A sermon exploring the biblical commands against interest rate lending, and important financial reforms that we need today; and also slides.
Audio recording and slides of a presentation given to Reality San Francisco Church, May 9, 2016. The recording is just over one hour and has two parts: (1) the four types of justice in Scripture; and (2) connections to Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow. Here is a shorter version.
Christian Restorative Justice in Anti-Trafficking, in Scripture, and Beyond
Slides of a presentation given to International Christian Alliance on Prostitution / Route One Ministries Conference in Boston on Sep 12, 2018. This explores recent application of restorative practices in the prosecuting of former traffickers. It highlights what we can learn and apply in other fields, both in evangelism and social justice ministry, as well as in the interpretation of Scripture.
Christian Restorative Justice: Slavery in the Early Church
Slides of a presentation for understanding how Christian faith results in abolitionism. See also Slavery in Christianity, Part 1: Slavery in the Bible, Slavery Today (and ppt), and Slavery in Christianity, Part 2: Abolitionism from the First to Fifteenth Century, and Slavery in Christianity - Worksheet.
Christian Restorative Justice: A Response to American Christian-Libertarian Syncretism
A long essay critiquing the individualistic foundations of the politics of Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian, and the “Austrian economists.” See also Debate with a Christian Libertarian on the Role of Government in Romans 13 (Facebook, Nov 10 - 12, 2020) a debate between Mako and JL on Facebook.
A Long Repentance: How Christian Mistakes Play a Role in Our Modern Racial and Political Climate
A recorded video message, given to Evangelicals 4 Justice Conference, Nov 25, 2019. A 35 minute Youtube video introducing our curriculum, A Long Repentance.
White American Evangelical Political Attitudes and Behavior: Explanation and Correctives
Slides of a presentation given to Emmanuel Gospel Center, Apr 18, 2018. Explores freedom of religious conscience as a Christian love and public responsibility towards others. White American evangelical political attitudes can be characterized by the debate between John Winthrop and Roger Williams, and their respective attitudes towards Native Americans, slavery, fairness, and faith in the civic space. This presentation also explores Scripture and church history to argue that Roger Williams was correct; audio file here.
Whose Justice? Post-Katrina New Orleans and the Four Types of Justice part 1 and part 2
Slides of a presentation applying Christian restorative justice to the issues faced in post-Katrina New Orleans
What's More Important to God? Individual or Social Order?
Text and slides of a message from Genesis 1 - 11, analyzed as literature that is critiquing other creation story literature of the Ancient Near East.
Human Dignity: Does Every Individual Matter?
A long essay arguing that science, philosophy, existentialism, and other belief systems do not support the view that every human being matters; only a robustly Trinitarian Christian faith anchored in the patristic formulation of medical-ontological atonement can. A 30 - 40 minute read.
The Role of Jesus in Revolution and the Pursuit of Justice
Text of a message giving examples of twentieth century non-violent resistance movements and how they were influenced or led outright by Christians; explores why that is significant in the era of nation-state-building.
Text and slides of a message about the role Christian faith played in history, bringing about hospitals, abolition of slavery, education, science and technology, beauty and the arts.
Pearl Harbor and September 11th, 2001
A reflection on the importance of Christian love for neighbor, and the need to not overreact with hostility, written Sep 16, 2001
The Creation Order and Jesus' Vision for Marriage: Matthew 19:1 - 12
An exegetical essay focusing on the biblical vision of marriage and sex.
Whose Family? Which Union? Reflections on Scripture, Human Sexuality and God's Purposes
A paper summarizing the five Letters to a Gay Friend. This is an exegetical and pastoral paper examining biblical passages that are important in the discussion about what God’s vision for human sexuality is: Genesis 1 - 2; Leviticus 18 and 20; Matthew 19 (and Mark 10); Romans 1; 1 Corinthians 6 - 7; 1 Timothy 1. Ultimately, we have to look at the the nature of human desire in general, as a gift from God to move us towards extending ourselves towards Him and others. However, we are called to submit our desires to Jesus, who demonstrated the normative human emotions and desires.
The Creation Order and Jesus' Ethic of Radical Sharing: Matthew 19:13 - 30
An exegetical essay arguing that Jesus’ vision of generosity and sharing comes from the creation order of Genesis 1 - 2.
Scapegoating
These blog posts relate to both the topic of atonement and the topic of desire because, like fallen Adam in the garden, we desire to deflect blame, and therefore we scapegoat others. On the political level, this builds group cohesion and creates a social outsider, who is blamed for the group’s woes, who the group must exile or kill or marginalize in order to maintain a hopeful lie.
This series explores what political scapegoating has looked like in the U.S. The blog posts illustrate what happens when you believe that the highest form of justice is retributive. Penal Substitutionary Atonement theology holds that divine justice is retributive, which is why white evangelical Americans have a unusual ability to scapegoat others. Compare this behavior to what Scripture actually calls Christians towards.
God’s Goodness in the Theme of Fire in Scripture
This page is a collection of messages, papers, early church citations, and contemporary exegesis. Even an eternal hell is consistent with divine restorative justice, in the following way: Hell is a condition of addiction and self-deception, so that when God calls upon unrepentant offenders to participate in their restoration, they experience it as torment and insult. This comes from the larger biblical theme that God made us to be human beings and human becomings, whose nature is co-determined by God and us in partnership, and set by what and who we choose to love.
Sources of Christian Restorative Justice:
This section explores theological reflection on God’s justice as restorative: in Scripture; the Early Church up to John of Damascus; the Orthodox tradition, both Eastern and Oriental; the Roman Catholic tradition; and the Protestant tradition. See our Restorative Justice Tutorial, or go back to the main page of Sources, or the main page of Politics for how to apply this vision.
