Paving the road to reconciliation: a ministry project to ensure successful prisoner reentry

Janice Ivy Thompson

Etd

Paving the road to reconciliation: a ministry project to ensure successful prisoner reentry

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Janice Ivy Thompson. Paving the Road to Reconciliation: a Ministry Project to Ensure Successful Prisoner Reentry. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/b7998459-a29a-4f73-967d-5cd0e36fcc82.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

J. I. Thompson. Paving the road to reconciliation: a ministry project to ensure successful prisoner reentry. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/b7998459-a29a-4f73-967d-5cd0e36fcc82

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Janice Ivy Thompson. Paving the Road to Reconciliation: a Ministry Project to Ensure Successful Prisoner Reentry. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/b7998459-a29a-4f73-967d-5cd0e36fcc82.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Janice Ivy Thompson

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In Copyright

Abstract

This work is a systemic study on the development of a Christian church-based prisoner reentry program. The overall framework of this project is constructed according to Eldin Villafañe's 'social ethics hermeneutical circle paradigm.' This paradigm consists of three steps, raising three basic questions: Clarification -- what are the ministry issues? Conceptualization -- what are the biblical/theological themes pertinent to this ministry? Confrontation -- how should the Christian church respond to the issues? There are two main assumptions underlying this work. First is the understanding that prison is the place where criminals are punished, not the place that directs people away from criminal behavior. Many prisoner reentry issues are produced by an increasingly punitive and decreasingly rehabilitative criminal justice system. Second, the Christian church is an ideal candidate for the task of effecting permanent behavioral change in ex-offenders. The mental model is that the Christian church is a community institution which draws on religious traditions that affirm the values of human life, community, and faith, making it uniquely equipped to deal with the social and emotional challenges faced by recently released prisoners. The primary aim of this project is to use this mental model to show how church-based reentry ministries can be successful in reorienting, transforming, and empowering ex-offenders so that they might resist the temptations to crime present in our cities.

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