Restorative vs. Retributive Justice and the Implications for Public Life

An article by Mako Nagasawa published by the Journal of Urban Ministry, June 2020. A 10 - 15 minute read. Explores real-life examples and the philosophy of restorative justice in the criminal justice sphere. Connects to theology. “Perhaps as we “decolonize” our theology today, we might constructively restore major pieces of Christian thought, practice, and life. It would be fitting, as we restore the things we have lost as part of our Christian inheritance, if we rediscovered God’s restorative justice as well.”

God’s Justice: Restorative, Not Retributive

The following video is a 40 minute presentation with 20 minutes of 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 also a 60 minute English and Spanish translation of the most important parts of this content (Zoom video recording).

Lecture on the Biblical Ordering of Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow

For a church called Reality San Francisco (Apple Podcasts, May 9, 2016). This is a 68 minute presentation, starting with the four principles of justice (0:00 - 34:30), then moving on to applying restorative justice to the current issues of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system and mass incarceration of non-violent drug offenders (34:30 - 1:09:00). See the slides.

Whose Justice? (undergraduate version) or Whose Justice? (law school version)

Check out the slides of this evangelistic conversation starter. Consider showing both Christians and non-Christians the questions it brings up, and discussing your responses to them. Here are instructions on how to talk about the questions it raises, especially with non-Christians.

Study and Action Guide to Dominique Gilliard’s Rethinking Incarceration

Dominique Gilliard identifies not one, but five, pipelines to prison, which contribute to the problem of American mass incarceration. He also discusses the involvement of Christians in prison ministry and policy. He explores the faulty notion that God’s justice is retributive rather than restorative. Penal substitutionary atonement, he writes, is mistaken. Consider leading a small group of people through our nine week study and action guide that combines a summary of each chapter with practical policy advocacy, along with Scripture and reflection.

Study and Action Guide to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness

Constitutional lawyer Dr. Michelle Alexander explains how the “War on Drugs” eroded the Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Alexander looks at how the American political context of white supremacy can and does flourish because drug policing and prosecution enable the criminal justice system to function very selectively at every step. The Study and Action Guide includes two page summaries of most chapters of Alexander’s book, plus some further discussions about the “Southern Strategy,” private prisons, drug laws, and restorative vs. retributive justice. Consider leading a small group of people through a seven week study and action guide that combines a summary of each chapter with practical policy advocacy, along with Scripture and reflection.

A Neuroscientific Reason for Why Retributive Justice is from the Fall, and Penal Substitution is Immature

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.