To Reform or to Abolish? Christian Perspectives on Punishment, Prison, and Restorative Justice

Efforts to modify or replace public systems of criminal justice in accord with the principles of restorative justice have long been understood to include a variety of practices, ranging from educational programs to victim-offender conferencing. What has only come to the forefront relatively recently is the pluriformity of perspectives on the values and principles that underlie various restorative justice practices. Generally speaking, restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes concepts such as reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing. There is little unanimous agreement about how justice that is specifically restorative relates to other ideas of justice (most notably retributive justice). At its most basic level, however, restorative justice has focused as much on particular practices, such as victim-offender conferences, as on theoretical foundations for restoration. In this Essay, I will attempt to fill in a gap in preceding studies of restorative justice by paying special attention to the religious, most specifically to the Christian, perspectives on restorative justice.