Review of "Healing Justice: Stories of Wisdom and Love"

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of this book from the author himself and my only obligation is to give it an honest review. And before anyone points it out, yes, I have not given a bad review to any of the books I have reviewed, but this is not because I am not critical. Rather it is because I do not have time to read books that suck, nor do I have a desire to draw attention them either. So I am very careful about which ones I accept.

With that said, Jarem Sawatsky has written a book for our time touching on the topics of relationships, conflict, grief and healing; basically much of the human experience.

Jarem takes his readers through three different communities that are genuine alternatives to the problematic norms and beliefs of dominate culture. Healing Justice is built on the premise that there is brokenness in people and brokenness in the ethos that forms our civilizations, but it has deteriorated the human ability to build and maintain healthy relationships.

 However, the communities’ stories that we hear from in this book model ways of being and relating that are healing; ways in which peace is not an end objective, but a way of doing life together and belonging to each other. In an age where we deconstruct and forget to reconstruct, this shows the process of doing such a rebuilding from the micro to macrocosm, specifically in a way that administers healing to everyone. This is no shallow feel good story, but it shows the complexity of succeeding in some areas and failing in others all while having to listen, learn, and change together.

Healing Justice comes from an academic version the author had previously written, but the goal here was to make a version accessible to all audiences, which he does well. It is also worth noting that his research is not just a disconnected intellectual project, but it does draw from his personal struggles as-well-as from the time he spent with each community observing and learning from them. This book is definitely worth the read and at least a re-read as there is much to glean from their stories.