Source: (2012) Christian Reflection. Prison. pp. 11-19.
Accordingly, biblical justice is retributive justice insofar as it turns on
the principles of moral culpability, measured recompense, and the rule of
law. It would be a mistake to conclude, however, that biblical teaching on
justice is wholly or solely controlled by some impersonal metaphysical principle
of measure for measure. Instead it has a distinctively personal and
relational character. Justice in ancient Israel involved doing all that was
needed to create, sustain, and restore healthy relationships within the covenant
community. Criminal offending was considered wrong, first, because it
breaches the relational commitments that hold society together and, second,
because the wrongful deeds themselves unleash a disordering power in the
community that threatens to trigger a chain-reaction of ruin and disaster
unless it is arrested.(excerpt)
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