ML 326 - Restorative Justice

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This course will explore restorative justice and the ideas that form its foundation, question its strengths and shortcomings, examine restorative practices , and investigate opportunities to put the theory into practice. Moreover, we will finetune our exploration of restorative justice from a religious point of view, and more specifically from a Christian point of view. We will note that several world religions provide a vision of what we are calling “restorative justice,” and that Christianity puts a fine point on restorative justice as a form of “reconciliation.” We will further explore how the church models a type of “commmunity of reconciliation” and as a model can inform how we might want to shape other social spaces into communities of restorative justice and reconciliation. For sections taught for the Calvin Prison Initiative, the social space we will consider is the Richard Handlon Correctional Facility. To that end, we will briefly take up issues of crime and punishment in the United States and relocate them in the realm of restorative justice and communities of reconciliation. On the Knollcrest campus, the social space we will consider is a local neighborhood or community context.