Herald Press has released a book that collects the writings of John Howard Yoder on capital punishment. Who is John Howard Yoder? Some have called him one of the most important theologians of the past century. Certainly he's the most renowned Mennonite theologian, though Yoder saw himself as more of an historian than a theologian.
Yoder, who died in 1997, wrote many books and articles, and new collections of his writings keep coming out, along with books by others responding to his thought. This recent book, The End of Sacrifice: The Capital Punishment Writings of John Howard Yoder, is edited by John C. Nugent. Nugent points out in his introduction that this book is not exhaustive, that "several essays have been omitted because they primarily repackage old material for new contexts." The book consists five chapters, and the longest is Chapter 4, which contains all of Chapter 2 and more.
In reading this book, I kept underlining passages, and I thought, These are too important to let pass by, so I've decided to share some of those quotes here. Capital punishment is an important topic too often ignored and too easily accepted by Christians who claim to follow the Bible's teachings. For related material, see my earlier blog, "The Shame of U.S. Prisons."
In his introduction, Nugent writes: "Central to [Yoder's] position is his conviction that both biblically and culturally, from ancient society until today, capital punishment is an inherently cultic and ritual practice."
He describes Yoder's core thesis thus: "Since the death of Jesus brought a decisive end to sacrifices for sin, Christians should proclaim its abolition, and death penalty advocates should no longer claim biblical validation."
In a footnote, Nugents writes that "this collection should put to rest the notion that Yoder had no theology of atonement."
Now to Chapter 4: "Against the Death Penalty: A Debate with Wayne House," which includes Yoder's position. A footnote explains that "none of House's material is presented, nor is Yoder's critique of House's specific position."
In response to the use of Genesis 9:6 ("Whoever sheds the blood of Man / In Man shall his blood be shed / For in the image of God / He made Man.") to support capital punishment, Yoder writes: "It is then a mistake to read the word to Noah as if it were a command ordering its hearers to do something that they would otherwise not have done. It is not that; it is a simple description of the way things already are, an accurate prediction of what does happen, what will happen, as surely as summer is followed by winter, seedtime by harvest. That killers are killed is the way fallen society works; it is not a new measure that God introduced after the deluge to solve a problem that had not been there before, or for which God had not yet found a solution."
More from Chapter 4: "The killing of a killer is not a civil, nonreligious matter. It is a sacrificial act. … If there is killing, the offense is a cosmic, ritual, religious evil, demanding ceremonial compensation. It is not a moral matter; in morality a second wrong does not make a right. It is not a civil, legislative matter; it is originally stated in a setting where there is not government."
In reference to the book of Hebrews' mention of the high-priestly sacrifice of Christ, Nugent quotes the famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth in a footnote: "Which category of particularly great sinners is exempted from the pardon effected on the basis of the death penalty carried out at Calvary? Now that Jesus Christ has been nailed to the cross for the sins of the world, how can we still use the thought of expiation to establish the death penalty?"
In reference to "an eye for an eye," Yoder writes: "The appetite for imposing symmetrical suffering is thus a natural reflex in primitive cultures, poetically apt but not always applicable. … It is a standard cultural reflex rather than a prescriptive guide. Jesus explicitly sets it aside."
In reference to Jesus and the civil order, Yoder writes: "The Christian challenge to the death penalty properly begins where Jesus does, by challenging the self-ascribed righteousness of those who claim the authority to kill others." See John 8:1-11.
He adds: "The saviorhood of Jesus applies to law and to social punishment for sin, no less than to prayer."
"The civil order is a fact. That it might be done away with by pushing the critique of love 'too far' is inconceivable. … Thus the Christian (and any believer in democracy) will be concerned to restrain the violent vengeful potential of the state."
"Justice is a direction, not an achievement. It is a relative, not absolute concept."
"Christians begin to deny their Lord when they admit that there are certain realms of life in which it would be inappropriate to bring Christ's rule to bear."
"It is thus formally wrong to look in the New Testament for specific guidelines for a good civil society."
In reference to Christ transforming culture, Yoder writes: "To say that every human being is endowed at birth with an inalienable right to life is our analogy to the Bible's speaking of the sacredness of blood."
"The primary threat to human dignity is not the impunity of individual offenders not proven guilty, but the absolute power of the state itself to punish."
In reference to the clash of rationales for capital punishment, Yoder writes: "The Bible's witness on these matters is a long story, not a timeless, unchanging corpus of laws or of truths. What matters for us is not the cultural substance of where the story started (with is racism, its superstition, its slavery, its holy warfare, its polygamy, and its abuse of women), but where it was being led. That direction is toward Jesus; toward validating the dignity of every underdog and outsider, of the slave and foreigner, the woman and the child, the poor and the offender. This is done not on the grounds that this or that outsider is an especially virtuous person, but on the grounds of God's grace."
"By unjustly condemning the Righteous One in the name of the Pax Romana and the welfare of the people (John 11:50; 18:14), the claimants to human righteousness refuted their claim for the rightness of the death penalty in the very act of imposing it."
Yoder goes on to make other arguments tied less directly to the Bible, including how the death penalty is often murder, as people are put to death who are later proved innocent. And there are many more fine quotes I could have used from this excellent book, but I've gone on long enough.
Bottom line: Don't accept the frequent claim that the Bible supports capital punishment. The death penalty is a ritual of sacrifice, and Jesus put an end to sacrifice. Today is Good Friday, the celebration of Jesus freely giving himself up to death at the hands of the Romans, who certainly believed in capital punishment.
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