Rethinking Incarceration | Books on Science and Faith

Rethinking Incarceration | Books on Science and Faith | [View online]( [Give Now]( Advertisement [CT Books Newsletter]( [Home]( [Reviews]( [Subscribe]( Tuesday, April 3, 2018 Doing the Crime Without Doing the Time Half a century ago, when Richard Nixon touted his law-and-order bona fides, the topic of criminal justice bitterly divided the country. In more recent decades, however, something surprising has happened: Right and Left have come to agree, by and large, that our legal system locks up too many people and locks them up for too long. They arrive at this conclusion for different reasons, of course—left-leaning people, for instance, might place a greater emphasis on racial disparities in sentencing and incarceration rates, while right-leaning people might place a greater emphasis on the massive taxpayer expense of maintaining so many prisons (among other contrasts). But despite a rekindling of “tough on crime” sentiment in the Trump era, both sides want to find alternatives to the paradigm of mass incarceration. Evangelicals of many political persuasions have been at the forefront of the movement for criminal justice reform. In the March issue, CT [interviewed]( one such evangelical, Dominique DuBois Gilliard, director of racial righteousness and reconciliation for the [Love Mercy Do Justice]( initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church. His new book is [Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores](. In the interview, Gilliard speaks about his own evolution in thinking on criminal justice. “For me,” says Gilliard, “there hasn’t always been a place for grace in the conversation. The situation was black and white: We submit to earthly authorities, and if you do the crime, then you have to do the time. But if Jesus died on the cross for us while we were yet sinners, then it can’t be that simple. I learned to realize that our prisons are not set up to bring about reform and equip offenders with the tools needed to reintegrate into society in healthy ways. “The more I read Scripture, the more I could see how prevalent prison is within the Bible—how Christ himself and so many leaders of our faith were impacted by the criminal justice system. People who have been locked up, then, are still people God can use powerfully. If that weren’t true, you’d have to take away Jesus. You’d have to take away Paul. What is our faith without these people? I could see how Scripture was subverting the way we’ve been taught to think about criminals. No one is irredeemable in God’s eyes.” Books That Reconcile Science and Faith Whenever I assign one of our periodic Top 5 Books lists for the magazine, I always ask the author to consider picking at least one book that’s a little on the unpredictable side. Whatever the theme of the list, I like to see it approached from a variety of angles. And so when Greg Cootsona, whose latest book is [Mere Science and Christian Faith]( turned in his choices for “5 Books that Bring Science and Christianity Together,” I was pleased to see some out-of-left-field selections (like a [John Updike novel]( alongside more orthodox fare (like Francis Collins’s [The Language of God](. Cootsona, who directs Science and Theology for Emerging Adult Ministries (STEAM) at Fuller Theological Seminary, is one of the leading voices in the arena of reconciling science and Christian faith. You can find his Top 5 list, which appears in the March issue, [here](. [Matt Reynolds] [Matt Reynolds] [Matt Reynolds](mailto:ctbooks@christianitytoday.com) Associate Editor, Books [Visit Those in Prison. Just Don't Assume Jesus Didn't Get There First]( [Interview]( | [CT Magazine]( [Visit Those in Prison. Just Don't Assume Jesus Didn't Get There First]( Very often, people behind bars already have a relationship with God. Interview by Morgan Lee [Read More]( [5 Books That Bring Science and Christianity Together]( [My Top 5]( | [CT Magazine]( [5 Books That Bring Science and Christianity Together]( Responding to atheism, understanding genetics, and considering what evolution means for biblical interpretation. Greg Cootsona [Read More]( Advertisement In the Magazine [Remembering Billy Graham - April]( [Cover Story]( [How a Humble Evangelist Changed Christianity As We Know It]( Churches were divided. Believers eschewed cultural influence. Liberal modernism was on the move. Then God made Billy Graham. 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