Timothy Gorringe, Cambridge University Press, 1996, 280 pages
Reviewed by Wayne Northey
[Note: A version of this was first published in The Contemporary Justice Review]
In 1978 Roman Catholic lay theologian Gerald McHugh wrote Christian
Faith and Criminal Justice: Toward a Christian Response to Crime and
Punishment. Nothing in English has since appeared that gives the
breadth and depth of theological treatment as the publication under
review. The book is the ninth study of a series entitled "Cambridge
Studies in Ideology and Religion". Timothy Gorringe, an Anglican
theologian, is obviously well suited to the task, with several noted
publications already to his credit.
"This
book examines the relationship between the theologies of atonement and
penal strategies." is the description from the inside cover. Its theme
is "[t]he question of the impact of religious sensibilities, or the
structure of affect surrounding the crucifixion, on penal practice, and
the correlative effects of the development of criminal law on the
understandings of the atonement…" Publication of such a book is
highly significant to Western readers and all cultures impacted by the
West, given the dominance of Christian ideology upon criminal justice
practice for a millennium. "…Christian theology constituted the most
potent form of ideology in Western society for at least a thousand
years, up to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and its
ideological importance is by no means dead (p. 7)."
The book’s structure is simple. An introductory chapter on "Religion
and retribution" gives way to three sections: Part I, "THE CULTURAL
FORMATION OF ATONEMENT: BIBLICAL SOURCES"; Part II, "MAKING
SATISFACTION: ATONEMENT AND PENALTY 1090 – 1890"; Part III,
"CONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS IN ATONEMENT AND PENAL PRACTICE".
The opening chapter tells the story of a saintly 18th century Anglican
divine who was exemplary to his contemporaries in every way as a
Christian minister. But he condoned fully the execution of an 18-year
old for housebreaking and highway robbery. The author instructs that
this was the normal Christian attitude throughout England at that time.
"How is it", he asks "that the question whether the law might be wrong,
or even wicked, does not arise for these good Christian people? How
could they come away from scenes of judicial murder feeling that this
was ‘the most blessed day of their lives’? (p. 5)" The reason, explored
fully throughout the book, is the "satisfaction theory of the atonement
(p. 6)", a doctrine which drew on legal notions that "formed part of a
formidable body of legal-theological rhetoric which exercised a potent
ideological function (p. 6)". "Atonement" is the word describing the
theorized effect upon humanity in Christian theology of Christ’s death
upon the cross. "Satisfaction" connotes the need for punishment in
response to sin (wrongdoing). Satisfaction theology became in theory
and practice rationalized vengeance, first of an angry deity in
response to sin, and by analogy, of an angry state ("Regina" or "the
people") against crime.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033 – 1109) is the first person to
systematize the atonement teaching into a theory that greatly impacted
the Christian and secular West ever since. The landmark publication of
his satisfaction theory was Cur Deus Homo?. Gorringe not only provides
a helpful account of Anselm’s theology of atonement, he also critiques
it solidly as a "mysticism of pain which promises redemption to those
who pay in blood (p. 102)". This, the author contends, is nothing other
than an inversion of the gospel which validates "criminal law as the
instrument of God’s justice instead of what it is in the gospel, an
alienating construction which is at best a tragic necessity (p. 103)".
Over against Anselm’s view, which dominated Western and secular views
of criminal justice from the 11th century, a contemporary theologian,
Abelard (1079 – 1142) proposed a different understanding of the
atonement which the author argues reflects the founding texts more
accurately, though has remained a minority view within Christian
theology. This alternative reading of the texts "deconstructs (p. 58)"
retributivism, undergirded by the satisfaction theory of the atonement,
and points to the New Testament as a "protest against judicial cruelty
(p. 81)" and of "God’s movement ‘downwards and to the periphery, his
unconditional solidarity with those who have nothing, those who suffer,
the humiliated and injured’ (p. 82)".
Gorringe states near the outset: "I shall argue that whilst a powerful
tradition in Christian atonement theology reinforced retributive
attitudes, an alternative tradition, as I hope to show more squarely
rooted in the founding texts, always existed to critique these. In
understanding the roots of retributivism I hope at the same time to
contribute to its deconstruction (p. 7)". Gorringe follows two writers,
Norbert Elias and David Garland, in his positing of the "structures of
affect (p. 8)" which for several centuries predisposed an entire
Western culture towards the practice of retributivism in response to
crime. Given that "satisfaction theory emerged, in the eleventh
century, at exactly the same time as the criminal law took shape. (p.
22)" there was a fateful interplay between law and religion for the
next millennium – to the despite of the gospel and criminal alike!
The author has done an admirable job of deconstructing retributivism in
this publication. In both his careful rereading of the biblical texts
(Chapters 2 and 3) and in his pointing towards alternative directions
in penal practice (Chapters 9 and 10) he has offered secular and
religious readers much by way of challenge. One can complain that the
discussion appears too continental and British, but that is minor. (I
wonder at his non-use of Law and Revolution by Harold Berman, an
American author, who wrote a classic on "The Formation of the Western
Legal Tradition". He also fails to cite (American) Gerald McHugh’s
earlier work, mentioned above.) He is in excellent command of his
theological and historical sources, and is highly competent to exegete
the scriptural texts in an insightful fashion.
In conclusion, not only has Gorringe in the reviewer’s opinion achieved
an admirable theological challenge to retributivism, he has pointed
hopefully to another way in theory and practice, the way of costly
forgiveness, which, in the end, is our only hope. "In holding before us
the claims of an imagined community the New Testament, far from
providing legitimation for retributivist practice, in fact advanced the
claims of an alternative, non-violent, way of life. Forgiveness… lies
at the heart of that – not as a benign doctrine, but as a remorselessly
difficult praxis (p. 265)".
From this study, the reader might be encouraged to consider next
Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, by L. Gregory Jones.