ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the movements that led to a structural and spiritual dualism in which law and punitive judgment, deriving their force and legitimacy from the interests of the state and the individual, were placed in an ethical category separate from the demands of the gospel. This definitive rupture in what has been termed the sacred canopy can be traced to the Enlightenment. In the Enlightenment, the very language of faith was transformed to dismiss to a large degree the relevance of the non-judgmental and non-violent teachings of Jesus in deference to practical, pragmatic concerns of the state. The chapter begins with an overview of speculative thought on law, judgment, and Christian ethics among several principal Enlightenment thinkers, then discusses the dismissal of a specifically Christian ethic in favor of the philosophy of Deism and the concept of civil religion. It describes specific references to the way in which law and judgment impacted the practice of criminal justice.
