Ambassadors Of Reconciliation New Testament Reflections On Restorative Justice And Peacemaking

Both Ched Myers and Elaine Enns work for Bartimaeus Ministries in California. Myers, the author of Binding the Strong Man and Who Will Roll Away the Stone?, focuses on building biblical literary, church renewal, and faith-based witness for justice. Enns has worked for twenty years in the field of restorative justice and conflict transformation. Book jacket.

Restorative justice refers to a social movement that seeks to repair interpersonal, communal, and social injustices without recourse to violence or retribution. Volume two analyzes the contemporary terrain of restorative justice and peacemaking in North America and profiles the exemplary work of nine practitioners who incarnate the scriptural vision in real life contexts of profound violence and injustice.

The first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul’s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics, Michael Gorman’s Becoming the Gospel argues that Paul’s letters invite Christian communities both then and now to not merely believe the gospel but to become the gospel and, in doing so, to participate in the life and mission of God. Showing that Pauline churches were active public participants in and witnesses to the gospel, Gorman reveals the missional significance of various themes in Paul’s letters. He also identifies select contemporary examples of mission in the spirit of Paul, inviting all Christians to practice Paul-inspired imagination in their own contexts.

"Christian theology and ethics have wrestled with the challenge to apply Jesus's central message of nonviolence to the injustices of this world. Is it not right to defend the persecuted by using violence? Is it unjust if the oppressed defend themselves--if necessary by the use of violence--in order to liberate themselves and to create a more just society? Can we leave the doctrine of the just war behind and shift all our attention toward the way of a just peace? In 2011 the World Council of Churches brought to a close the Decade to Overcome Violence, to which the churches committed themselves at the beginning of the century. Just peace has evolved as the new ecumenical paradigm for contemporary Christian ethics. Just peace signals a realistic vision of holistic peace, with justice, which in the concept of shalom is central in the Hebrew Bible as well as in the gospel message of the New Testament. This paradigm needs further elaboration. VU University gathered peacebuilding practitioners and experts from different parts of the world (Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia, and Europe) and from different disciplines (anthropology, psychology, social sciences, law, and theology)--voices from across generations and Christian traditions--to promote discussion about the different dimensions of building peace with justice. "

From wars and ethnic strife to religious tensions and cultural misunderstandings, conflict is an ongoing reality in our world. Yet complacency and acceptance are not options for Christians called to forgiveness, transformation, and the holy work of loving our neighbors. Rather, we must choose the radical, demanding, and difficult work of reconciliation. Journey through the Storm unpacks Musalaha’s thirty years of practical experience building bridges, healing division, and following Christ in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Composed of essays, curriculum excerpts, interviews, and real-life testimonies, this collection offers insight into the theory, theology, and application of Musalaha’s six stages of reconciliation. It is a powerful, hopeful, and deeply realistic look at the demands and rewards of transforming the “other” into a neighbor and an enemy into a friend.

Restorative Justice Volume 5, Number 2, June 2016 Edited by David M. McCarthy The Emergence of Restorative Justice in Ecclesial Practice Thomas Noakes-Duncan Restorative and Transformative Justice in a Land of Mass Incarceration Amy Levad Soteriology, Eucharist and the Madness of Forgiveness Christopher McMahon Breaking Out: The Expansiveness of Restorative Justice in Laudato Si' Eli McCarthy Catholic Theology of Post-Conflict Restorative Justice:The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union as a Viable Inspiration Rev. Raymond Aina, MSP Just War Theory and Restorative Justice: Weaving a Consistent Ethic of Reconciliation Anna Floerke Scheid Restorative Justice and the International Criminal Court John Kiess Restorative Justice in Baltimore Virginia McGovern and Layton Field A Theological Understanding of Restorative Justice Margaret R. Pfeil Symposium on the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family Kari-Shane Zimmerman, James T. Bretzke, S.J., Jana Bennett,Andrew Kim, and Christina Astorga

“If reconciliation is the takeaway point for the civil rights story we usually tell, then the takeaway point for the more complex, more truthful civil rights story contained in Dear White Christians is reparations.” — from the preface to the second edition With the troubling and painful events of the last several years—from the killing of numerous unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police to the rallying of white supremacists in Charlottesville—it is clearer than ever that the reconciliation paradigm, long favored by white Christians, has failed to heal the deep racial wounds in the church and American society. In this provocative book, originally published in 2014, Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift away from the well-meaning but feeble longing for reconciliation toward a robustly biblical call for reparations. Now in its second edition—with a new preface addressing the explosive changes in American culture and politics since 2014, as well as an appendix that explores what a reparations paradigm can actually look like—Dear White Christians calls justice-committed Christians to do the gospel-inspired work of opposing racist social structures around them. Harvey’s message is historically and scripturally rooted, making it ideal for facilitating the difficult but important discussions about race that are so desperately needed in churches and faith-centered classrooms across the country.

All Christians read the Bible differently, pray differently, value their traditions differently, and give different weight to individual and corporate judgment. These differences are the basis of conflict. The question Christian ethics must answer, then, is, "What does the good life look like in the context of conflict?" In this new introductory text, Ellen Ott Marshall uses the inevitable reality of difference to center and organize her exploration of the system of Christian morality. What can we learn from Jesus' creative use of conflict in situations that were especially attuned to questions of power? What does the image of God look like when we are trying to recognize the divine image within those with whom we are in conflict? How can we better explore and understand the complicated work of reconciliation and justice? This innovative approach to Christian ethics will benefit a new generation of students who wish to engage the perennial questions of what constitutes a faithful Christian life and a just society.