"To take care of each other should be our primary concern in this 21st century and Father Dear is steady on this course." --Thich Nhat Hanh For John Dear, a Jesuit priest and respected leader of the ecumenical peace movement, the spiritual life is a combination of contemplation and action, of maintaining inner peace and projecting that peace into the greater world. It is the spirituality exemplified by the lives of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and others throughout history who remained true to the highest ideals while addressing the most difficult problems and conflicts of the real world. As a tireless advocate for social justice and human rights, Dear has followed that path in his own life, and in Living Peace he describes his journey. Breaking down the life of peace into three parts an inner journey, a public journey, and the journey of all humanity he shares the spiritual practices that have sustained him and teaches readers how to integrate these practices into their own lives.

Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action

Biographies & Memoirs

Dear, John

Leaders & Notable People

Image+

PRH Christian Publishing

This illuminating examination of the Gospels reveals how the questions Jesus asks of his followers lead the way to a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and the mystery of God. The Gospels are filled with stories, parables, miracles, commandments, and dramatic incidents that trace Jesus’ life and recount his teachings. A close reading of the Gospels reveals, however, that they are also filled with questions. As John Dear points out in this remarkable book, Jesus, like any great teacher and rabbi, “has a question for everyone he meets, for every occasion, for every experience, for every potential disciple.” Dear uses these questions as a starting point, an invitation to readers to discover the lessons they contain by searching their own hearts and minds for answers. Throughout The Questions of Jesus, Dear interweaves insights from ethical and religious teachers ranging from Buddha to Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr. Using recent events as powerful and poignant examples, he shows why a renewed commitment to Jesus’ message of nonviolence, compassion, justice, and peace is essential to healing a world torn by violence and war.

The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

Spiritual leader and peace activist John Dear guides readers on the path to finding peace within, and bringing harmony to a world torn by hatred and violence, through following in the footsteps of Jesus. John Dear’s efforts on behalf of social justice and world peace have won him international admiration and spurred features in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, USA TODAY, and the National Catholic Reporter. Seen by many to be the spiritual heir to the Berrigan brothers, Dear believes that the key to the spiritual life is not just finding inner peace, but also bringing that peace to bear on the outside world. In his latest work, Dear uses the Gospel account of the Transfiguration, inviting readers to shape their lives along the story of Jesus and to continue his mission of love and peace. These practices have sustained him through his work with the homeless in Washington, D.C., and New York City, as a human-rights advocate in Northern Ireland and Iraq, and on his many missions for peace in war-torn places around the world. Dividing the lifelong pursuit of peace into three distinct parts—an inner journey, a public journey, and the journey of all humanity—he delves into the challenges of learning to love ourselves as we are, diffusing the hatred we feel toward others, and embracing the choice to live in peace.

Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Few books on the market share not only a vision of Jesus' nonviolence but also ways of actuallyliving out that same vision today. Who better to write such a work than Father John Dear, an internationally known peacemaker? Put Down Your Sword invites us into Jesus' way of nonviolence as presented by the Gospels. Arguing that all Christians must follow Christ's example in the ways of peace, Dear outlines the many actions he himself has taken following the path of nonviolence, modeling his own vision of peace in this turbulent world. First sharing his convictions and insights about the nonviolence of Jesus, the Beatitudes, the nature of God, and the mystery of the resurrection, Dear goes on to relate stories from the various protests in which he has been involved. Journal entries from missions to India and Colombia offer a poignant backdrop for his impassioned argument. Dear also profiles the peacemakers he finds most inspiring, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Henri Nouwen to Joan Baez. Finally, he reflects on care for the earth, the teachings of Thomas Merton, and the vision of a new world without war, poverty, or violence.

Put Down Your Sword: Answering the Gospel Call to Creative Nonviolence

History

Ancient Civilizations

Eerdmans

Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Paulist Pr

Our God Is Nonviolent: Witnesses in the Struggle for Peace and Justice

Pilgrim Pr

Herald Pr

The gospel teaches that every human is sacred. Refugee children and Islamist terrorists. Police officers and young African Americans. Unborn babies, always, and also abortionists. Orange-haired casino owners, former First Ladies, progressive hipsters, prosperity-gospel televangelists, members of Congress, Confederate-flag-waving white nationalists? Sacred. This absurd claim is at the heart of the gospel. Each person is created in the image and likeness of God. Each is someone for whom Jesus died. And if this is true, we have much work to do. The writers in this issue may not agree on the best ways and means, but each challenges us to consider the implications of this gospel of life that makes no exceptions.Also in this issue:-- A former asylum seeker returns to Iraq to stand with Christians on the run from ISIS.-- Shane Claiborne tells us why abolishing the death penalty is the church’s business.-- Joel Salatin, America’s most famous farmer, reveals what pigs can teach us about the glory of God.-- John Dear reports on the Vatican’s historic turn toward nonviolence.-- Erna Albertz tells Richard Dawkins how her sister with Down syndrome can help him.-- Gun owners respond to gun violence with a fresh take on “swords into plowshares.”-- Ron Sider looks at the consistently pro-life witness of the early church.-- A hospice nurse reflects on euthanasia and the value of being a burden.-- Jason Landsel asks what made MohammadMuhammad Ali great.Then there’s new poetry, book reviews, a children’s story, insights from Pope Francis and George MacDonald, and art by Pawel Kuczynski, Xenia Hausner, William H. Johnson, Käthe Kollwitz, and Deidre Scherer.Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 10: What Makes Humans Sacred? (Plough Quarterly, 10)

Reference

Claiborne, Shane

Yousif, Yacoub

Salatin, Joel

Sider, Ron

Douglass, Shelley

Albertz, Erna

Mielke, Rober

Fouch, Steven

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Plough Publishing House

The fruit of committed action as well as study, The God of Peace represents the first effort to outline a systematic theology beginning with the insight that God is nonviolent. This insight has been embodied in our time by figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day. Dear shows what Christian faith looks like when nonviolence is treated not simply as a subtopic of ethics or a political tactic, but as a hermeneutic lens through which every aspect of traditional Christian theology may be viewed. After establishing his methodology, Dear explores every aspect of traditional theology: the identity of God, the person of Jesus (prophet of nonviolence), Christ (Incarnation of nonviolent love), the nature and meaning of the Trinity (the nonviolent community at the heart of reality), as well as doctrines of creation, sin and redemption, theodicy, salvation, the church, eschatology, spirituality, and liturgy. Finally, Dear addresses Catholic social teaching and the "just war" theology, feminist and liberation theologies, and the consistent ethic of life.

The God of Peace: Toward a Theology of Nonviolence

Orbis Books

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