Communities of Restoration Ecclesial Ethics and Restorative Justice

by Noakes-Duncan, Thomas; Brock, Brian; Parsons, Susan F.

• ISBN13: 9780567671530
• ISBN10: 0567671534
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780567671547
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-02-09
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• More Book Details

Summary

By bringing together the insights of ecclesial ethics, an approach that emphasizes the distinctive nature of the church as the community that forms its mind and character after its reading of Scripture, with the theory and practice of restorative justice, a way of conceiving justice-making that emerged from the Mennonite-Anabaptist tradition, this book shows why a theological account of the theory and practice of restorative justice is fruitful for articulating and clarifying the witness of the church, especially when faced with conflict or wrongdoing. This can help extend the church's imagination as to how it might better become God's community of restoration as it reflects on the ways in which the justice of God is taking shape in its own community.

“How does an ecclesial context shape the theological apprehension and praxis of justice?” This question orientates the book. In particular, it asks how, in view of its members having been admitted into God's restoring justice in Christ, the church might embody in the world this same justice of restoring right relationships. While Christian reflection on the nature of justice has tended to favour a judicial and retributive conception of justice, it will be argued that the biblical understanding of the justice of God is best understood as a saving, liberating, and restorative justice. It is this restorative conception that ought to guide the community that reads Scripture so that it might be embodied in life.

Author Biography

Thomas Noakes-Duncan is Lecturer in Restorative Justice at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1
Ecclesial Perspectives on Justice in Historical Perspective

Chapter 2
The Ecclesial Turn in Christian Ethics

Chapter 3
The Emergence of Restorative Justice in Ecclesial Practice

Chapter 4
The Theological Interpretation of Scripture and Biblical Justice

Chapter 5
A Parable of the Justice of God, Luke 15:11-32

Chapter 6
The Restorative Spirit in Christian Community, Reading First Corinthians

Chapter 7
Ecclesial Embodiments of Restorative Justice Practice

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index