The focus of this contribution is on the esoteric view on mankind as depicted in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. Within this context, the stages of development of the conscience and soul that a man can go through will receive additional attention. This development can also be influenced by external factors. According to esotericists, the purpose or destination of man is that he comes into contact with his divine nature, but also that he identifies himself with this nature and that he will live in accordance with it. Such a life can be characterized by wisdom and love and therefore by virtue (charity), which is the opposite of sin or mis-doing. Before the identified development of man can be visualized based on The Magic Flute, this opera firstly needs to be embedded in the tradition of the freemasonry (‘Royal Art’) and other, older initiation schools. It is therefore important to recognize that the esoteric view on mankind has historical roots and that, only in recent centuries, this view has been marginalized, due to the rise of the scientific view on mankind. Finally, the question is posed what criminal law and restorative justice can learn from the esoteric view on mankind. In response to this question, a starting point will be presented of the development of a spiritual life-cycle approach, which complements the existing life-cycle approach and the related desistance theories within contemporary criminology. Furthermore, the concept of interconnectedness, which plays an important role in the context of the esoteric views on mankind, will be connected to a restorative crime approach, which provides restorative justice with spiritual legitimization.

Hip-hop and restorative justice may seem odd bedfellows, but according to Antony Pemberton they have more in common than many would assume. In the first place hip-hop shares a common history, at least with restorative justice's modern incarnations, spanning four decades, to become a similarly global phenomenon. Much of the social ecology shaping RJ is similar to hiphop. In addition hiphop's criticism of criminal justice almost goes without saying. Almost no source offers similar scathing critique of criminal justice and penal institutions as rap lyrics. Pemberton concludes that rituals in hip-hop are connected with the need to deal with conflict. The way respect and disrespect can coincide in rap-battles might offer insights in the way similar dialectics can be navigated within restorative justice processes. The extent to which this is possible is necessarily limited. Pemberton finds that hip-hop – with the exception of graffiti- does not seem currently to criticize the key neo-liberal values of the American Zeitgeist. The much maligned chasm between the old-school and the new school can be situated in this observation. Where hip-hop, as a social movement, used to deploy the depiction of injustice as a means to underline the necessity of social change, the current motto appears to be rich or die tryin”. The life of the thug and the gangsta is depicted as the epitome of the American Dream. Here Pemberton sees grounds for a cautionary warning for restorative justice, which is nurtured by a similar neo-liberal undercurrent in a number of jurisdictions.

In a recent novel that received much public revulsion, Flemish writer Kristien Hemmerechts identifies with Michelle Martin, ex-wife and accomplice of the notorious criminal Marc Dutroux. To a certain extent her book is a plea for rehabilitation and re-socialization of Martin. By the wider public this ‘humanization’ is experienced as unacceptable. Nowadays re-acceptation of ex-convicts has become increasingly problematic. It seems the public would prefer to banish many ex-offenders to a desert island or a distant country. This development shows that the ethic of forgiveness has lost social influence. In this essay Hemmerechts' position is compared to that of Dostoevsky, especially with his novel Crime and Punishment in which the Gospel message of humility, charity and compassion reverberates.