Hurt with Fetters

Theological Reflections on Criminal Justice

By: Jason Karch

Narrated by: Jason S. Karch

Hurt with Fetters reveals a fundamental problem associated with current practices of criminal justice. The problem is essentially one of narrative, and is built into how the story of criminal justice is told. Christians have adopted narrative understandings of justice that run contrary to the contours of the Christian story. An adequate response to the problem deals first with the primary point of contention between the current narrative of criminal justice and the Christian story. That point of contention is born out in how we identify as human beings: an identity that either eschews value and dignity, or weaves those things into it.

A reassessment of the problem draws out its central location with the natural theological force of the Christian narrative. Theologically, that central location of the problem is situated distinctly within an understanding of who we are as humans.

©2022 Crosswired Publications (P)2023 Crosswired Publications

Critic reviews

"The failed Protestant social experiment of the modern prison needs the kind of careful insider analysis that this book rings. Hurt With Fetters offers a critical yet hopeful look that will prove useful for those on the inside and outside, for believers and nonbelievers, who seek to reckon with the uniquely American moment of mass-imprisonment." (Dr. Jason S. Sexton, UCLA Department of Sociology)

"In Hurt with Fetters, Jason Karch issues a wake-up call to the Church to take the Gospel seriously and become part of a solution that restores righteousness and justice to a system that is seriously flawed." (Greg Smith, senior pastor, FBC Brazoria)