2001 Kuyper Lecture
Papers from the 2001 Kuyper Lecture
Lecture: "Can Force be Used Justly? Questions of Retributive and Restorative Justice" (PDF, 14 pages) by James Turner Johnson, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Response: "Enemies, Foes, and Retributive and Restorative Justice in the Domestic and International Contexts" (PDF, 9 pages) by Kenneth D. Johnson, Azusa Christian Community and the Ella J. Baker House
Response: "Force and Restorative Justice" (PDF, 6 pages) by Daniel W. Van Ness, Centre for Justice and Reconciliation/Prison Fellowship International
The context
What is the basis for a government's claim of "sovereign authority"? When is the use of force, whether by police or the military, just and unjust? What is legitimate punishment for violent offenders of the law? How should order and justice be upheld and restored? Today, these questions are urgently practical. They arise in the debates over capital punishment, missile defense, and humanitarian intervention abroad in countries practicing genocide. These questions are at the heart of questions about how to restore victims and offenders in domestic crimes. How ought we as Christians to understand and act on these matters? This is the challenge of the 2001 Kuyper Lecture.
The lecture took place at Gordon College in Wenham, MA, on November 1, 2001.
The lecturer
James Turner Johnson is Professor of Religion and Associate Member of the Graduate Department of Political Science at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where he has served on the faculty since 1969. His work focuses on the historical development of moral traditions concerned with war, peace, and the practice of statecraft. Johnson is the recipient of Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. He is co-editor of the Journal of Military Ethics and former general editor of The Journal of Religious Ethics. Among his many books and articles are Morality and Contemporary Warfare (1999), The Holy War in Western and Islamic Traditions (1997), and The Quest for Peace: Three Moral Traditions in Western Cultural History (1987).
Panelists
Kenneth Johnson is Director for Policy Advocacy of Ella J. Baker House, the social service arm of the Azusa Christian Community (and the Ten Point Coalition) in Dorchester, Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard College and for 13 years a businessman in California, he now works to educate and mentor at-risk youth in Dorchester and the greater Boston area. He also helped to establish the Pan African Charismatic Evangelical Congress to organize U.S. churches to assist their counterparts in Africa in dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Daniel Van Ness is Vice President with Prison Fellowship International and directs its Center on Justice and Reconciliation. He has been involved in criminal justice issues for more than 20 years as a lawyer, reform advocate, and teacher. He is the author (with Karen Strong) of Restoring Justice; Crime and Its Victims; and (with Charles Colson) Convicted. A graduate of Wheaton College, he holds a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and an L.L.M. from Georgetown University Law Center.
