Review of <i>No Godforsaken Place: Prison Chaplaincy, Karl Barth, and Practicing Life in Prison</i>

A careful reading of Holy Scripture reveals God's consistent care for the incarcerated.Consider Joseph in Genesis, or John the Baptist under Herod, or even Jesus himself, famously killed by state-sanctioned execution.Chaplains reflect this care while serving at the margins of society in the context of power.Exploring the role of prison chaplains can help military chaplains navigate power, especially as the military supports federal law enforcement at home and prepares for detainee missions in large-scale mobilization and combat operations.With the above in mind, any chaplain can grow from reading Sarah C. Jobe's No Godforsaken Place.The subtitle, "Prison Chaplaincy, Karl Barth, and Practicing Life in Prison," presents a clear overview of her project.Karl Barth's Christocentric theological framework serves as her anchor as she explores how chaplains minister in prisons.Her work engages in life's foundational questions while keeping in mind the basic concern of who the chaplain is serving at any given moment.Jobe's reliance on Barth delivers an unapologetically Christian perspective.Nineteen of the twenty chaplains she interviews are Christian.Motifs from incarnation to atonement, confession to resurrection, as well the deep struggle with personal and systemic sin, provide the air from which the book breathes.She does write, however, mindful of interfaith prison ministry environments.Jobe draws on Barth to show how Jesus shares common humanity and circumstance with the incarcerated person.