Religion has played a significant role in shaping the character and mission of the American penal system. There has been interplay between religion and the developing American penal system that is historical in nature taking its meaning from and reflecting broad social forces of a given culture at a particular time. However, today there is an emerging discourse about whether society might benefit from recovering a more explicit role for religion in addressing issues of crime, punishment, and rehabilitation. This overview presents the essays and studies in this collection in the current cultural and religious context of faith-based initiatives from the White House and from a number of religious groups that affect the justice and correctional system in the United States. The papers are organized around four different levels of inquiry concerning the relationship between religion, the community, and offender rehabilitation. The first five articles address the nature of the relationship between religion and corrections today suggesting that given their understanding of the nature of the relationship, religion should have a positive influence on offender rehabilitation. The next set of papers address whether religion indeed does influence rehabilitation. The third and final set of papers relate to ethical questions and questions of compassion or love. It is vital that the community have a thorough understanding of what the interplay is, to what degree the interplay is effective, and if the interplay is both moral and loving.