What Must I Do to Be Saved? Punishment and Redemption under Incarceration
This essay tells a story about how American Protestant theologies of sin and redemption, realized in a racialized caste system, have shaped an American culture of punishment where brutal forms of imprisonment have been and continue to be socially acceptable. To explore these Protestant traces, the f...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2022
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| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2022, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 298-316 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Imprisonment
/ Protestant theology
/ Racism
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics FD Contextual theology KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church |
| Further subjects: | B
Punishment
B Prisons B Christian Theology B US protestantism B Race B Redemption B Responsibility |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay tells a story about how American Protestant theologies of sin and redemption, realized in a racialized caste system, have shaped an American culture of punishment where brutal forms of imprisonment have been and continue to be socially acceptable. To explore these Protestant traces, the founding theological vision of penitentiaries in the Northeast and its evolution into professional bureaucracy is described. I contrast this standard modernist account with the distinctive development of prisons in the Southern/Sun Belt states where white domination excluded African-Americans (and other non-white peoples) from redemption/rehabilitation. This Southern heritage of racializing criminal justice has been critical for the rise of mass incarceration, turning away from rehabilitation to support harsh punishment of those who are both “sinful” and a “risk” to “order.” The conclusion points to small signs of change in this discourse. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2022.2039345 |