BOOKS: ​“Executing Grace”

In his new book, Executing Grace, evangelical Christian speaker, activist, and author Shane Claiborne weaves together personal narratives, theology, and research to make a Christian case against the death penalty. Claiborne says “[t]he death penalty did not flourish in America in spite of Christians but because of us.” Arguing that “[w]e can’t make death penalty history until we make death penalty personal,” he tells the stories of people affected by the death penalty in a variety of ways: family members of murder victims, executioners and corrections officers, death row exonerees, and death row inmates. Each chapter closes with an individual story he calls “Faces of Grace.” Claiborne also explores biblical history and the Bible’s teachings on capital punishment, forgiveness, and mercy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “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.”

(S. Claiborne, “Executing Grace,” HarperCollins, 2016.) See Books and Religion. Shane Claiborne will speak at the Annual Fast and Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty in Washington, DC on June 30.