God's Just Vengeance: Crime, Violence and the Rhetoric of Salvation (Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion, Series Number 9)

God's Just Vengeance: Crime, Violence and the Rhetoric of Salvation (Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion, Series Number 9) by Gorringe, Timothy. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780521557627.

This book examines the relationship between the theologies of atonement and penal strategies. Christian theology was potent in Western society until the nineteenth century, and the so-called "satisfaction theory" of the atonement interacted and reacted with penal practice. Gorringe argues that atonement theology created a structure of affect that favored retributive policies. He reviews theory and practice in the twentieth century, and makes concrete proposals for both theology and criminal and societal violence.