Theology for the miserable ones

I have long said that one day I’d like to write an article or a book examining the theology and social ethics of Les Miserables. The recent release of the newest film adaptation has spurred some theological commentary across the internet on this subject. Two of the best examples of this are Beth Haile’s use of the film as a typology of ethical theories and Richard Beck’s “missional” interpretation of individual mercy in light of social justice. Beck’s placing Enjolras and Javert along a continuum of justice is an especially interesting move. However, Beck is tempted by the common interpretation of placing mercy/grace in contention with justice. It is here that I make my intervention: Les Miserables isn’t about grace vs. justice (at least not wholly). Les Mis is about restorative and transformative justice vs. retributive justice.

During my years managing a homeless shelter I worked with numerous men who had become homeless upon leaving prison. With empty pockets they entered a society unwilling to give them jobs because of past sins and they wound up in the street. The executive director of the nonprofit, in passing, once told me that Les Mis was the greatest story ever told. I had never read or watched it at that point. Since then, I’ve seen the musical in London and Atlanta, watched the 1998 film countless times, read the (unabridged!) novel, and seen the most recent film. And after all of this I am convinced that my friend and boss may have been correct. (Tangentially, he is also the one who began my move toward seeing the value of a Niebuhrian interpretation of social life. Trying to do justice for and with the poorest can do that to a neophyte Yoderian.)

Anyways, I digress. Clearly, mercy and grace are part of the story. However, and I think the movie does this better than the play (though the novel is most explicit), there is a strong condemnation of the prisons and treatment of those who have committed crimes in Victor Hugo’s France. Indeed, Valjean commits his second crime, in part, because he can’t get a legitimate job. In this way he is not unlike many of the homeless friends I have known. And the Bishop surely shows mercy by not having Valjean arrested after stealing he steals the Bishop’s silver. But it is here where many people miss or skip over the justice argument.