Restorative Christ: Jesus Justice and Discipleship

The conviction that Jesus is the restorative Christ demands a commitment to the justice he articulated. The justice of the restorative Christ is justice with reconciliation justice with repentance justice with repair and justice without retaliation. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts portray the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the radical concept of enemy-love. In conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jesus-for-others) John Howard Yoder (a nonviolent Jesus) Miroslav Volf (an embracing Jesus) and Chris Marshall (a compassionate Jesus) Broughton demonstrates what the restorative Christ means for us today. Following the restorative Christ faithfully involves imaginative disciplines (seeing remembering and desiring) conversational disciplines (naming questioning and forgiving) and embodied disciplines (absorbing repairing and embracing). To understand what it means to enact the reconciling justice of Jesus Christ in the world today Geoff Broughton brings the text of Scripture the insights of prominent theological thinkers and lessons learned from years of practical ministry on city streets into a rich and intriguing mix. This is a welcome contribution to elucidating the theological foundations of the restorative justice vision the need of which has never been more urgent. --Christopher Marshall Professor of Restorative Justice Victoria University of Wellington Wellington New Zealand Broughtons impressive Restorative Christ offers the reader a fresh insightful intellectually rigorous and eminently practical approach to issues of justice and reconciliation today. The author develops key practices (e.g. remembering forgiving repenting repairing) that bear witness to the restorative Christ. Broughton shows how genuine restoration is multilayered involving not only victims and wrongdoers but also the community. The discussion is grounded throughout by insights from Christian ministry reflection on core Scripture texts and practical application. An important theological contribution to a contemporary challenging topic. --Stephen Pickard Executive Director Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture Charles Sturt University Canberra Australia Geoff Broughton is Acting Director of St Marks National Theological Centre and Lecturer in Practical Theology Charles Sturt University in Australia. He is an ordained Anglican minister in the inner-city of Sydney Australia.