Chapter 1: Rediscovering Spiritual Roots: The Judeo-Christian Tradition and Criminal Justice (2025)

Chapter 4: Restorative Justice: Lecture (2018), Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice (IRPJ

Justice That Transforms: Restorative Justice — “Not Enough!”, 2024

This is text of a recorded lecture I did for "The Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice." 1 It was significantly revised and greatly extended in Chapter 3 of this book. You may wish to skip this, therefore, and read that chapter. But there is some different material in this, so I include it.

Restorative Justice – Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice – Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform

2021

Rediscovering Spiritual Roots: The Judeo-Christian Tradition and Criminal Justice

Justice That Transforms, 2018

The Judeo-Christian tradition arguably most impacted contemporary Western jurisprudence, leaving mainly a retributive, non-restorative, stamp. The essay discusses three representative points of revision of the tradition: the biblical concept of justice, in particular the idea of tsedeka, whereby emphasis is placed upon the outcome of justice, one of healing and reintegration; the dynamic of scapegoating by which Western criminal justice systems may be seen as “scapegoating mechanisms” for a violence-prone culture, and the way out of this kind of punitiveness through inclusive forms of justice-making; and forgiveness, which challenges towards a self-transcendence without which victims wallow in unhealthy pathologies. This paper is reproduced in the upcoming Volume Two of my "Justice That Transforms" series. I later co-authored a piece for similarly themed "The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice" with Pierre Allard, a variation of which is the last chapter of Volume One. I repeatedly returned to this theme over the years. Hence there is evident overlap in chapters of this series. Abstract The Judeo-Christian tradition arguably most impacted contemporary Western jurisprudence, leaving mainly a retributive, non-restorative, stamp. The essay discusses three representative points of revision of the tradition: the biblical concept of justice, in particular the idea of tsedeka, whereby emphasis is placed upon the outcome of justice, one of healing and reintegration; the dynamic of scapegoating by which Western criminal justice systems may be seen as " scapegoating mechanisms " for a violence-prone culture, and the way out of this kind of punitiveness through inclusive forms of justice-making; and forgiveness, which challenges towards a self-transcendence without which victims wallow in unhealthy pathologies.

Restorative Justice Vision and Spirituality

2005

Restorative Justice Spirituality

Justice That Reforms, 2018

Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Presentation, Langley Canadian Reformed Church, March 5, 2000. I was grateful to co-present at this evening with longstanding Member of Parliament Mark Warawa, a former volunteer with the M2/W2 Association. It was politically a stretch, but the church is all about “strange bedfellows” brought together in the messiness of God’s grace. The article about the presentation is on the ARPA website too. ARPA may accurately be described as a conservative (small “c”) think tank. This paper is a chapter in "Justice That Transforms: Volume One", Kindle Direct Publishing, 2018.

Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins

2004

This may be found also on my website here: https://waynenorthey.com/2022/03/07/restorative-justice-and-spiritual-origins-november-19-2004/. In 1974 two youths who had been drinking and had been "talked to" by the police already, took out their frustrations on the small community of Elmira, Ontario, by doing damage to twenty-two different vehicles and homes. Several months later the youths pleaded guilty to the charges, and Judge Gordon McConnell in Kitchener ordered a Pre-Sentence Report. Mark Yantzi, the Mennonite Probation Officer writing up the report, discussed the case with the local Mennonite Central Committee court volunteer, Dave Worth. Both had been reading recent publications by the Law Reform Commission of Canada in which it had been stated that reconciliation played an important role in criminal justice. They also knew that reconciliation was the central concept of their Christian faith. This brief paper discusses Christian understandings of the origins of Restorative Justice as corrective to such understandings that over the centuries highlighted and ran harsh retributive justice systems in the West; in turn exported to the whole world. (There is so much more on my website here: https://waynenorthey.com/justice/. Three books have also been published of a projected five, in a series called Justice That Transforms. All essays in them are uploaded onto this site. To order any of the books, please learn more on this page: https://waynenorthey.com/justice/justice-that-transforms/.)

War, Police and Prisons: Cross-Examining State- Sanctioned Violence, Streams of Justice

Justice That Transforms: Volume Three, 2018

This “talk” was subsequently reworked to what follows. What was later discovered were two excellent books by William Cavanaugh relating to the modern state as sole authorized user of violence. Cavanaugh challenges this and so much more! My review of both books may be found here, and will be included in another series on Peace/Peacemaking, likely titled: “Justice That Yields Peace”.

Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality

Justice That Transforms, 2018

Some of this material, now reworked, first appeared in "The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice", 'Christianity: The Rediscovery of Restorative Justice', editor, Michael Hadley, by Pierre Allard and Wayne Northey; New York: SUNY Press, 2001. In light of two books by historian William Cavanaugh, I would be less sweeping now about the oxymoron “Christian Violence”, accepting that so much of the Middle Ages violence – and subsequently was greatly tied to the emergence of the Western “state”. But there is still a tragic and squalid story to tell, which others have done many times. This paper is also a chapter in "Justice That Transforms: Volume One", Kindle Direct Publishing, 2018.

The Sex Offender as Scapegoat: Vigilante Violence and a Faith Community Response The Problem

Justice That Transforms, 2018

In May of 1996, an offender was released from prison to a halfway house in Toronto. The response of the community to his presence in their midst was anger and hostility, and the insistence that corrections officials remove him. This situation, while not unique in the North American context, was particularly noteworthy as it became the subject of a documentary film which chronicled the actual events that took place. The film, "Hunting Bobby Oatway", focused on the controversy around the release of a convicted pedophile and incest perpetrator after serving ten years in prison. The story of his victims and the harm that was done to them and his own story of an abusive childhood are mingled with the hostility of the community and fellow offenders in the halfway house toward him. The calls of local community activists and politicians to move him out of their community are particularly pointed. " Bobby Oatway, you are not wanted here, you are not wanted anywhere " , shouted a local politician, through a bullhorn, to cheering protestors gathered on the street and the frightened offender hiding inside the halfway house. In an ironic twist, the perpetrator had become the victim. This attempted expulsion, which led ultimately to Bobby Oatway requesting to be returned to the prison he was released from, to serve the remainder of his sentence, is reminiscent of other expulsions and other victims. The broken taboos that sexual offending, particularly those offences against children, represent, create a kind of " holy fear ". But this alone does not explain the visceral and violent response which demonizes individuals like Bobby Oatway, rendering them less than human and the most heinous of offenders. There are other impulses that prompt such responses that legitimize the violence that is an all too common response to them. Viewed through the lens of mimetic theory these realities beg the question, 'Is it possible that sex offenders have become scapegoats among us?' In the case of Bobby Oatway's offenses, there is no question that harm was done and that the pain and suffering of his victims, presented in the film, and that of other victims of sexual offenses, is real and lamentable. Let us be clear, these things ought not to happen. And further, more than merely recognizing the harm, and dealing with the perpetrator, we must work to find concrete ways to address the needs of 1 John Kastner, an award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto, produced this hour-long documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) program Witness. It was first aired in January 1997. This paper, co-authored with friend and Chaplain Hugh Kirkegaard, is also a chapter in "Justice That Transforms: Volume One", Kindle Direct Publishing, 2018.

Is There A Place For Dreaming?: Restorative Justice and International State Conflict Scholar-In-Residence Public Lecture Saint Paul University, September 13, 2007

Justice That Transforms, 2018

The first part of the title is of a wonderful song by singer/songwriter, Ken Medema, from his album, “In the Dragon’s Jaws” (no date), that I played at the end of the presentation. I had the joy of spending 5 spring/summer months in 2007 at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (I believe the first university in North America, with the largest theological library in North America) as the first “Scholar in Residence” of the Conflict Studies Department of which Vern Redekop is head. I had a small office just down from the library, professor borrowing privileges at the library, and a thoroughly wonderful time! Part of the deal was a public lecture at the end of my time there. The paper below is that lecture. Well, much longer than it – but my presentation was based on what you may click on. Acknowledged: it is quite rambling, with lots thrown at it…