Reading Ricoeur has been very stimulating, though at times he comes accross almost as a naive thinker. He says this in a touching essay about the excess of grace, called 'the Logic of Jesus, the Logic of God':
...are we not invited to discern even in the most just punishment, the disquieting countenance of wrath and vengeance? It is good that, goaded by the paradoxes of Jesus we would distrust our better works. But it is not only a question of distrust Does not the more positive way become for us deliberately to orient punishment to improvement rather than expiation? Because on which side is the gospel? Is it on the side of the vengeance of society or on the isde of the rehabilitation of the culpable?
This is well said: a Christian ethics of punishment must stem from the evangel of mercy, surely... And yet, Western society is speeding fast away from this logic.
2 comments:
I suspect what I have always thought about this is somewhat ill formed and naive, but I don't find this passage helping much.
For me the ethics of human punishment has always stemmed from the orderly running of society. I don't have a problem with it being a bit for vengance of victims, for rehabilitation of the culpable, and a bit for practical safety from further danger. Whatever gets us through. You can argue endlessly about the mix - and indeed we have in this very forum.
I confess I never really understood God's punishment to have a purpose: the best I have come to terms with it is as the consequence of separation from god. The law exists to teach us to desire grace. Punishment just seems to exist. And human notions of punishment seem to have no connection to that, and are generally worse for attempting to.
I mean, I'm a pretty soft hearted broadsheet reading guy and all, and if Ricoeur is saying "don't lose sight of the ghastliness of even the fairest punishment" in the way that you feel with the "this is the face of evil" type tabloid headlines, then sure, but heck telegraph headline writers can be saved too. Its a nice step, but is it a path you really want to walk down?
it seems that the point of punishment swings from restorative/rehab to retributive every time the state elections are close.
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