We are pleased to provide the following essays and related materials on religion and the death penalty. A printed conference reader/study guide—containing historical documents, biblical passages, and articles, notes and comments by conference participants—will be distributed at the conference. Unfortunately, copyright restrictions prevent us from posting the entire Reader online; if you would like a copy mailed to you, please contact the conference organizers. Please note that all materials posted here have been edited and all footnotes have been omitted; the Bibliography will direct you to the original sources and other recommended reading.

Introducing the Conference Reader

• Erik Owens, Introduction

Theological and Philosophical Readings

• Selected passages from sacred Scriptures
• Thomas Aquinas, “On Murder,” [Excerpts from Summa Theologica, II-II q64]
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion [excerpts]
• Marshall Dayan, “Lessons from the Jewish Experience about Capital Punishment in the U.S.”
• David Novak, The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism [excerpts]
• William Schabas, “Islam and the Death Penalty”
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Statement on the Death Penalty” (1980)
• Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae [excerpts]
• Avery Cardinal Dulles, “The Death Penalty: A Right to Life Issue?”
• Thomas R. Rourke, “The Death Penalty in Light of the Ontology of the Person: The Significance of Evangelium Vitae”
• Roger Cardinal Mahony, “A Witness To Life: The Catholic Church and the Death Penalty”
• James Nuechterlein, “Forgiveness and the Death Penalty”
• Keith Pavlischek, “Capital Punishment, Justice, and Timothy McVeigh”
• J. Daryl Charles, “Crime, the Christian and Capital Justice”
• J. Daryl Charles, “Thoughts on Revenge and Retribution”
• J. Budziszewski, “Preliminary Thoughts on Irrevocable Punishment”
• Albert Camus, “Reflections on the Guillotine” [excerpts]
• Victor Hugo, “The Last Days of a Condemned” [excerpts]
• John Carlson, "Justice, Religion, and the Death Penalty"

Legal and Sociological Readings

• Beth Wilkinson, “Closing Argument at the Timothy McVeigh Sentencing Trial”
• The Constitution Project, “Mandatory Justice: Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty”
• John H. Blume and Sheri Lynn Johnson, “Limiting Religious Arguments in Capital Cases”
• Arnold Loewy, “Religious Neutrality and the Death Penalty”
• Thomas Berg, “Religious Conservatives and the Death Penalty”

Personal Accounts

• Jeanne Bishop, “Grief, Closure & Forgiveness”
• Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., “Would Jesus Pull the Switch?”
• Marc Racicot, “The Death Penalty in the 21st Century”