Executing Grace - by Shane Claiborne (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In this reasoned exploration of justice, retribution, and redemption, the champion of the new monastic movement, popular speaker, and author of the bestselling The Irresistible Revolution offers a powerful and persuasive appeal for the abolition of the death penalty.

The Bible says an eye for an eye. But is the state's taking of a life true--or even practical--punishment for convicted prisoners? In this thought-provoking work, Shane Claiborne explores the issue of the death penalty and the contrast between punitive justice and restorative justice, questioning our notions of fairness, revenge, and absolution.

Using an historical lens to frame his argument, Claiborne draws on testimonials and examples from Scripture to show how the death penalty is not the ideal of justice that many believe. Not only is a life lost, so too, is the possibility of mercy and grace. In Executing Grace, he reminds us of the divine power of forgiveness, and evokes the fundamental truth of the Gospel--that no one, even a criminal, is beyond redemption.

From the Back Cover

Review Quotes

"Executing Grace is about remembering our humanity in the midst of a culture of death. With no shortcuts or easy answers Shane has called us to wrestle with capital punishment. An entire generation of evangelicals will find in this work the radical grip of grace." - Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero, President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition

"This book presses ancient good news on our world of racism and mass incarceration in the evangelical hope of weaning church and nation off the spiraling politics of retribution and toward practices of restorative justice." - Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, authors of Ambassadors of Reconciliation

"In this engaging and compelling book, Shane Claiborne calls us-with his characteristic blend of heart and humor, faith and activism, stories and scripture-to recognize that 'grace offers us a vision for justice that is restorative, and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice, ' while affirming 'the grace thing is hard work' and so requires faith. Whether you have long worked to end the injustice of the Cradle to Prison Pipeline or are just beginning to learn about the tragedy of mass incarceration and the horrors of capital punishment, you will be moved, informed and inspired by Shane's invitation to the hard, faith-filled work of the 'grace thing' our God of love and justice intends." - Marian Wright Edelman, activist and founder of the Children's Defense Fund

"Engaging, compelling. Whether you have long worked to end the injustice of the Cradle to Prison Pipeline or are just beginning to learn about it, you will be moved and informed by Shane's invitation to the faith-filled work of the 'grace thing' our God of love and justice intends." - Marian Wright Edelman, activist and founder of the Children's Defense Fund

"Shane Claiborne is a gracist. In his book, Executing Grace, he demonstrates that he is powerfully and practically advocating that the red letters of Jesus' words in the Scriptures can become reality if we live out the grace we have been given." - David Anderson, author, radio host, pastor of Bridgeway Community Church

"The moral opposition to the death penalty has been deeply Christian, and Sojourners has been part of that. As a life-long opponent of capital punishment, I am very grateful for this book by a new generation Christian leader. In Executing Grace, Shane Claiborne clearly and passionately argues that Christians must elevate grace and mercy over revenge. He persuasively makes the deep connection between racial injustice and the death penalty and demonstrates the clear need for Christians to stand up against both. We can end the death penalty; and this book shows how the tide of public opinion is turning. I recommend this book to all who want to follow Jesus, history's most famous victim of state violence." - Jim Wallis, Founder and Editor of Sojourners

"The author and activist puts a human face on the capital punishment debate. Executing Grace goes far in helping make Christ central to our conversation about the death penalty. As Claiborne pleads, we must 'think and speak of Christ as one who was executed.'" - Christianity Today

"If you believe in the sanctity of human life--whether you support capital punishment or not--you must read Shane Claiborne's Executing Grace. Read it with an open Bible, an open mind, and an open heart: you'll never be the same." - Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D., author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions-The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer Abolitionist

"Passionate Christian activist Claiborne uses Scripture and societal statistics in an argument for the abolishment of the death penalty. Claiborne's arguments are well-structured and, perhaps necessarily, laced with pleas to emotion. In this often moving and unsettling book, Claiborne provides a meaningful contribution to a deeply fraught topic." - Kirkus Reviews

"This is a necessary book. Death penalty in a civilized state is a scandal. Death penalty is antichristian, antidemocratic, and inhuman: 'You shall not kill!'" - Jürgen Moltmann

"In his straightforward and winsome style, Shane Claiborne...offers a compelling theological case against capital punishment. He challenges readers to consider our role in not obstructing God's forgiving and redeeming work." - Relevant Magazine

"Shane makes a strong case, using Christian and secular reasoning, for ending the death penalty. As a substitute for the death penalty, the book proposes 'restorative justice'...the idea certainly provides food for thought." - Catholic News Service

"With a characteristically engaging voice, Claiborne delves into how, as a white Southern evangelical Christian, he changed his mind about capital punishment. Through stories, interviews, history, and cogent scriptural reflection, Claiborne takes the reader on a moral journey that's often hard to undertake on one's own. Claiborne's latest is a timely release as an increasing number of U.S. states move to more effective forms of justice and Pope Francis calls for a global moratorium on capital punishment." - Publishers Weekly

"With a characteristically engaging voice, Claiborne delves into how, as a white Southern evangelical Christian, he changed his mind about capital punishment. Through stories, interviews, history, and cogent scriptural reflection, Claiborne takes the reader on a moral journey that's often hard to undertake on one's own...a timely release." - Publishers Weekly

"Shane's book inspired me, brought me to tears, made me laugh out loud, but most of all, gave me hope. There IS a way out of our blood lust and he shows that we will find it together. I couldn't put it down." - Kathleen Lucas, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

"Social justice pioneer challenges Christians and non-Christians to abandon the death penalty and adopt a plan of true justice in his thought-provoking new text." - PBS Tavis Smiley

"Claiborne makes a strong case, using Christian and secular reasoning, for ending the death penalty... certainly provides food for thought." - Catholic Sentinel

"If you're looking for religious, biblical (and especially Christian) reasons on which to decide whether to support the death penalty, this is the book to read." - Faith Matters

"With his characteristic storytelling--both compelling and provocative--Shane Claiborne offers us an insightful look at the death penalty, and why it should be abolished. Executing Grace is a timely and winsome book that might just help to abolish the death penalty in our land forever." - Englewood Review of Books

"Stark and bright and hopeful and wounding all at the same time, Executing Grace is an impassioned call to all those who claim to follow the Executed One." - Christena Cleveland, associate professor of the Practice of Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School and author of Disunity in Christ

"This book will help lead to the abolition of the death penalty. I ask any Christian who promotes the death penalty to read this book. Best book on the death penalty I have read in the 30 years I have been working to abolish it." - Bill Pelke, President of Journey of Hope...from Violence

"With razor-sharp insight, Claiborne rightly divides the Word with the compelling conclusion that our waning American love for executions cannot be attributed to the God of grace and mercy that is revealed in the Christian Scriptures." - Dale Recinella, Catholic Correctional Chaplain in Florida's Death Row & Solitary Confinement

"Are we justifying murder? Author Shane Claiborne strongly believes we are as a nation and as Christians." - Belief Net

"I'm confident that Claiborne's passionate, comprehensive, and heart-wrenching examination of capital punishment provides what is, to my mind, an irrefutable case as to why Christians simply cannot support the death penalty... it's a call to engage with an issue that too many Christians are content to ignore." - Patheos "Unfundamentalist Christians" blog

"Claiborne masterfully weaves together theology, the history of America's death penalty, and firsthand accounts of its devastating effects. These pages are full of hope for a day when the death penalty is gone forever." - Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

"Even though I've worked for human rights for decades, Shane's book inspired me, brought me to tears, made me laugh out loud, but most of all, gave me hope. There IS a way out of our blood lust and he shows that we will find it together. I couldn't put it down." - Kathleen Lucas, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

"If you've never changed your mind, you may have lost it along the way. If you're open to changing your mind, here's a powerful book--intelligent, compassionate, and truly, truly important--by one of the most thoughtful moral voices alive today. Don't miss Shane Claiborne's Executing Grace." - Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity

"Executing Grace may be the best book on the death penalty. Shane weaves together narratives of people whose lives have demonstrated the miracle of grace amid murder and state killing. He shows that the Way of Jesus is incompatible with the death penalty. Indispensable, highly recommended." - David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Faith and Public Life at Mercer University

"Powerful, urgent, and right. Solidly biblical and full of wrenchingly gripping stories, this book makes a highly convincing case for ending capital punishment. Every Christian, especially those deeply committed to protect the sanctity of human life, should read it." - Ronald J. Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

"Timely, relevant, inspiring and compelling! Executing Grace awakens our imagination to the reality of living out this powerful, grace-filled alternative to capital punishment that sees the humanity of every person. A must read for anyone who refuses to let violence and death have the last say!" - Brenda Salter McNeil, author of Roadmap to Reconciliation

"Extraordinary. Shane delivers a heavy blow to the death machine. Read it at your own risk: you won't be the same when you're done." - Michael T. McRay, author of Where the River Bends

"Should be regarded as a warning to those becoming involved in American ceremonial killings. In the middle of the night it's just too late to reach out and blame it on the system." - Ron McAndrew, CPM Prison & Jail Consultant

"Knowing Shane's hectic schedule, I expected a casual opinion piece on an issue important to him. I was wrong. This is a major contribution--a thorough, carefully researched book on an issue that should be important to all of us. Shane casts the death penalty debate in the light of grace, and makes his case persuasively, creatively, and gracefully." - Philip Yancey, author of Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?

"This is a major contribution--a thorough, carefully researched book on an issue that should be important to all of us. Shane casts the death penalty debate in the light of grace and makes his case persuasively, creatively, and gracefully." - Philip Yancey, author of Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?

"The best book on the death penalty since Dead Man Walking." - John Dear, author of A Persistent Peace

"Shane Claiborne may well join the ranks of Rachel Carson and John Howard Griffin--storytellers who've pricked the conscience of our nation and nudged us toward a more perfect union." - Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Strangers at My Door

"Shane Claiborne, with his daring speech and his courageous body, every time voices all the right connections between serious evangelical faith and the real issues in God's good world. This book is no exception to his recurring practice! Claiborne will not let us off the hook about the radicality of God's grace. Nor will he look away from the social reality of barbarism masquerading as legality. One can only hope this vigorous, inescapable book will make the difference in practice that it articulates so clearly." - Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Claiborne will not let us off the hook about the radicality of God's grace. Nor will he look away from the social reality of barbarism masquerading as legality. One can only hope this vigorous, inescapable book will make the difference in practice that it articulates so clearly." - Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Shane's voice is one I've trusted for a long time because he lives what he talks about. You'll turn the last page of this book and you'll not just know more, you'll want to do more." - Bob Goff, author of Love Does

"Executing Grace is about redemption. In these pages, Shane Claiborne exposes the harm that the death penalty does to us as humans--to executioners, judges, governors, to the convicted and the exonerated, and to all of us as citizens. Here is an invitation to build a world where we reject all forms of killing, both legal and illegal. It is a call to join a movement where grace gets the last word. Shane Claiborne's brilliant book reminds us that without forgiveness, there is no future." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author of The Book of Forgiving

"Here is an invitation to build a world where we reject all forms of killing, both legal and illegal. It is a call to join a movement where grace gets the last word. Claiborne's brilliant book reminds us that without forgiveness, there is no future." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author of The Book of Forgiving

"Shane Claiborne invites us to be consistently pro-life and larger than any one culture! This is whole-making at its best!" - Richard Rohr, author of Falling Upward

"Shane is my good friend. I love and respect him deeply, and I am so glad he wrote this book. I wish the whole Church would read it. As Christians, we know we believe in grace, but we must struggle with what that means when it comes to the death penalty, especially when we have a system that is as broken as ours is. So please read Executing Grace with an open mind and consider if it might be time for us to live without the death penalty. Might it be time for us to repent and turn from death to life?" - John Perkins, author of Let Justice Roll Down

"I wish the whole Church would read this book. As Christians, we know we believe in grace, but we struggle with what that means when it comes to the death penalty. Read Executing Grace and consider if it might be time to live without the death penalty." - John Perkins, author of Let Justice Roll Down

"The moral opposition to the death penalty has been deeply Christian, and Sojourners has been part of that. Shane Claiborne clearly and passionately argues that Christians must elevate grace over revenge. I recommend this book to all who want to follow Jesus, history's most famous victim of state violence." - Jim Wallis, Founder and Editor of Sojourners magazine

"This compelling and thoughtful book is a must-read for people of faith who have in many ways been painfully silent about excessive punishment in America. Scripture, history and conviction make Shane Claiborne's writing essential for anyone serious about grace and mercy." - Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy

"Shane is a friend and brother, someone I look to to point me to the way of Jesus. In this book Executing Grace Shane has meticulously researched stories and historical facts. But it doesn't end there. He is constantly bringing a human face to the forefront of this conversation. It's grim and shocking. I was already on his side before reading and now I have read this book I am left with a moral responsibility to add my voice as small as it is to be an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and for restorative justice. May the "nagging problem of Jesus" never leave my consciousness." - Stu Garrard, musician and author

"Shane is constantly bringing a human face to the forefront of this conversation. I am left with a moral responsibility to add my voice to be an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and for restorative justice. May the "nagging problem of Jesus" never leave my consciousness." - Stu Garrard, musician and author

"Shane Claiborne is a courageous spirit filled voice and living embodiment of prophetic activism in the 21st century. His latest book has echo's Philosopher John Rawls, ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr and theologian Martin Luther King, Jr. with a dash of Woody Guthrie." - Otis Moss III, senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago

"Claiborne has called us to apply the teachings of Jesus to one of the pressing issues of our time - capital punishment. In this well-written and meticulously researched book he shows, sociologically, why the death penalty is a flawed penalty and how it demeans the society that practices it." - Tony Campolo, author and co-founder of Red Letter Christians