Customer Reviews

Capital Punishment and the Bible /Out of Print

5 star:		(4)
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Gard wrote this book in response to readers' reactions to the first two chapters of Against the Death Penalty. And I read it because I helped edit it, and therefore my five star rating is biased. However, Gard and I thought it was much better written than his first book, but it definitely only examines the biblical/religious arguments against the death penalty.

In the Old Testament someone could only be sentenced to death under very stringent conditions. For example: Two eye witnesses had to testify. No relative of the victim could testify. No person involved in the crime could testify. The cultural and historical examination of Old and New Testament beliefs is very thought provoking and you will find close parallels to Ohio's recommended guidelines for ending the moratorium on the death penalty.

Gard died on February 2nd after being sick for over a year with cancer. He did not see this book in publication.

Written by death penalty abolitionist Gardner C. Hanks (Amnesty International State Death Penalty Action Coordinator for Idaho) as a stringent denouncement of the process of state-sanctioned execution, Capital Punishment And The Bible draws directly from the Christian scriptures to emphasize the importance of forgiveness, love, and restoration. A strongly worded, powerfully articulated, highly persuasive, theological and humanitarian stand that invokes both Biblical and secular reasonings against capital punishment, Captial Punishment And The Bible is a welcome and timely contribution to the on-going national dialog, especially in these troubled times. Also highly recommended reading is Gardner C. Hanks earlier work, Against The Death Penalty: Christian And Secular Arguments Agasint Capital Punishment.

The late Gardner Hanks compiled this close and comprehensive examination of our Old and New Testaments as reply to reactions to his earlier work: Against the Death Penalty: Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment.

Both works demand our most careful study, and reflection, in particular those of us who call ourselves pro-life and moral persons, but all Americans need to study these books.

There is no religious support for the death penalty. No manner of tweaking makes the Bible support capital punishment. Gardner here traces the trajectory in our tradition towards the absolute abolition of the death penalty.

Thou shalt not kill.

This great work runs towards three hundred pages, complete with careful notes, an extensive bibliography as foundation for this work and a suggestion for further study, a long Scriptural Index, etc.

The great main body of the work goes chapter by verse, throughout the Bible, reading what is really written, within the context of the whole history of salvation, and finds an ineluctable arc towards peace and nonviolence, and away from capital punishment or any violent wreaking of vengeance. We come at last to Love thy enemy.

This is where we stand.

The death penalty must be abolished, as it is already throughout the civilized world.

Read this great work.
And work for peace.

While I am opposed to the Death Penalty in all circumstances and think that Jesus was and remains our best model for how a human should live, I would not call myself an evangelical Christian. I believe that Hindus, doubters,atheists, Buddhists, Muslims & all manner of believers serve God by being true to what they believe. Furthermore, I do not as a general rule try to make sense and explain the Bible - there are too many follies in both the Hebrew story and in the Christian story for me to consider it important to appreciate every little detail or peccadillo in the Christian Bible. Indeed, taking the Bible too literally is often just another self-justifying form of idolatry--in this case, bibliolatry.
However, I was wonderfully surprised by this book. Gardner Hanks tells a story of spiritual movement - the Mosaic 'lex talonis' replacing untethered vengeful feuds, Talmud injunctions making clear that punitive and non-restitutional punishment is counter to God's mercy, until the story reaches the forgiving standard of Jesus on the Cross. This book illustrates that the spirit of the reader can be as important as the actual stand alone text. There is a firm and consistent gentleness in this book that reminds me of St. Francis of Assisi. [This is a standard that I cannot match.]
I was particularly moved by how Gardner gets so quickly to the heart of the matter - esp. when he describes and characterizes our own caste-and-class, revenge driven capital jurisprudence as little more than 'updated' forms of human sacrifice.

Lon Clay Hill