“Jesus was totally nonviolent and calls us to practice and teach Gospel nonviolence and welcome God’s reign of peace and nonviolence, which means from now on, we work for the abolition of war, poverty, racism, gun violence, the death penalty, nuclear weapons, environmental destruction, and all violence.” – Fr. John Dear
Books
The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience
“The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience” Revised 2022 Edition, with new foreword by Shane Claiborne, Available on amazon, in the U.K. To order, visit: https://labora.press/product/the-sacrament-of-civil-disobedience/...
Read MoreThe Trouble with Our State
“The Trouble with Our State,” Poetry by Daniel Berrigan, Edited by John Dear (available at wipfandstock.com)...
Read MorePRAISE BE PEACE: The Psalms of Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of War and Climate Change
Introduction to “Praise Be Peace” By John Dear Driving north along California’s Highway One from my little hermitage beside the Pacific Ocean near the village of Harmony to Big Sur and its mountaintop New Camaldoli monastery, I feel a lightness of spirit amidst the breath-taking scenery and the fresh ocean...
Read MoreThey Will Inherit the Earth
Peace & Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change. To order, go to www.amazon.com or www.orbisbooks.com or call 1-800-258-5838. Advance Praise for “They Will Inherit the Earth” “If you want to know what Laudato Si! and the Sermon on the Mount look like up close and personal, as a life of consistent nonviolence, John...
Read MoreRadical Prayers
On peace, love and nonviolence. To order, go to www.amazon.com or www.paceebene.org or call 1-510-268-8765. In this beautiful new book of prayers, Rev. John Dear offers fifty prayers on peace, love and nonviolence that we can turn to every day to help us on our journey of peace. Radical Prayers offers prayers of thanks and...
Read MoreThe Beatitudes of Peace
“The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are Jesus’ blueprint for peace. I urge everyone to study John Dear’s beautiful reflections and join his campaign of peace and nonviolence.” – President Jimmy Carter “In this beautiful book, Father John Dear describes the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount...
Read MoreThomas Merton, Peacemaker:
“The God of peace is never glorified by human violence,” Thomas Merton wrote long ago. Likewise, John Dear adds, “The God of peace is always glorified by human nonviolence.” In “Thomas Merton, Peacemaker,” John Dear reflects on the teachings of peace and nonviolence by the great Trappist monk and author...
Read MoreWalking The Way
Following Jesus on the Lenten Journey of Gospel Nonviolence to the Cross and Resurrection In “WALKING THE WAY,” John Dear invites us to meditate on the nonviolence of Jesus, as he turns to march to Jerusalem, like Mahatma Gandhi on the Salt March or Dr. King from Selma. We walk...
Read MoreApostle of Peace: Essays in Honor of Daniel Berrigan
Apostle of Peace: Essays in Honor of Daniel Berrigan Edited by John Dear, (available at wipfandstock.com)...
Read MoreThe Nonviolent Life
“How can we become people of nonviolence and help the world become more nonviolent? What does it mean to be a person of active nonviolence? How can we help build a global grassroots movement of nonviolence to disarm the world, relieve unjust human suffering, make a more just society and...
Read MoreThe Nonviolent Life (Audio Book)
“How can we become people of nonviolence and help the world become more nonviolent? What does it mean to be a person of active nonviolence? How can we help build a global grassroots movement of nonviolence to disarm the world, relieve unjust human suffering, make a more just society and...
Read MoreLazarus, Come Forth!
The raising of Lazarus in John s Gospel is one of the most dramatic and poignant episodes in scripture. While traditionally read as a story about friendship and faith, Dear shows through his extended meditations how this story summarizes the persistent theme of the Gospel. If Lazarus represents humanity, the...
Read MoreThe Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life’s Great Answers
Most people think of Jesus as the one with all the answers. John Dear’s new book, “The Questions of Jesus,” suggests that Jesus is instead the one with all the questions, questions which have remained unanswered for two thousand years. In this new collection, John offers a 2-3 page reflection...
Read MoreDaniel Berrigan: Essential Writings
Through this selection from his many books, journals, poems, and homilies, a chronicle of Fr. Berrigan’s life and work unfolds from the early steps in his vocation, to his decision to cross the line and go to prison, his ongoing witness for peace, and his extraordinary commentaries on scripture and...
Read MoreJesus the Rebel: Bearer of God’s Peace and Justice
Jesus the Rebel explores the life of Jesus from the perspective of active nonviolence, and includes stories from John Dear’s own journey to oppose war and violence and promote Jesus’ way of peace and nonviolence. With over thirty chapters, it reflects on the peacemaking side of Jesus’ life, in a...
Read MoreLiving Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action
Living Peace meditates on the contemplative life of inner peacemaking as well as the active life of public peacemaking. It features three parts: “The Depths of Peace,” a section on the inner journey toward personal peace through prayer, silence, solitude, listening, imagining God and mindfulness; “The Heights of Peace,” a...
Read MoreThe God of Peace: Toward a Theology of Nonviolence
The God of Peace, John Dear’s classic theology of nonviolence, broke new ground when it was first published in 1995 as a breakthrough toward a new understanding of scripture, theology, social concerns and churches issues–looking at them from the perspective of Gospel nonviolence, in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin...
Read MoreTransfiguration
“This book is a clarion call for us to be engaged in the project for world peace. We ignore it at our peril.” –Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his foreword “Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World” (published by Doubleday in 2007, with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu)...
Read MoreYou Will Be My Witnesses
“You Will Be My Witnesses” is a collection of essays based on the magnificent icons of Fr. William Hart McNichols. Over thirty colorful icons of various saints, prophets and martyrs are featured, including Mary Magadelene, St. Francis, St. Clare, and St. Ignatius to Dorothy Day, Jean Donovan, Mychal Judge and...
Read MorePut Down Your Sword
“Put Down Your Sword” features inspiring essays on Christian nonviolence by John Dear. First, John invites us to consider the nonviolence of Jesus, the Beatitudes, the nature of God and the mystery of the resurrection. Then, he shares stories from recent protests and journals from recent missions to India and...
Read MorePeace Behind Bars: A Peacemaking Priest’s Journey from Jail
This journal, taken when John Dear was in jail for eight months after a disarmament action, allows you to enter into the world of prisoners and a committed peacemaker. Available from: Sheed & Ward Amazon.com www.forusa.org...
Read MoreMary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace
Mary of Nazareth made the difficult but beautiful journey from contemplative nonviolence to active nonviolence to prophetic nonviolence. She was faithful to the God of peace and the journey to God. She loved God, loved her neighbors and in her prophetic call for justice, loved her enemies. She was a...
Read MoreMohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings
“A timely book that will go a long way in understanding Gandhi’s approach to nonviolence. A must read for all peacemakers.” — Arun Gandhi “John Dear, who writes that Gandhi’s example challenges us to become prophets and apostles of nonviolence, organizes the short sections thematically, arranging them around issues such...
Read MoreJohn Dear on Peace: An Introduction to His Life and Work
“John Dear on Peace is not intended to capture all that John’s writings teach. This is simply an introduction to an authentic gospel approach to peace, a way of active nonviolence that John lives and invites others to enter. Each reflection leads readers to the books from which the material...
Read MoreSeeds of Nonviolence
Originally published in 1992 by Fortkamp Publishing Co., the critically acclaimed Seeds of Nonviolence chronicles John Dear’s early experiments in Gospel nonviolence, from his service to the homeless in Washington, D.C.; various nonviolent civil disobedience actions against war and injustice; journals and diaries from Central America, the Philippines, death row...
Read MoreDVD Movie about John Dear: “The Narrow Path”
From the Director “Father Dear is a celebrated peace activist and the author of over twenty books; he also served as a chaplain ministering to the families of those killed on September 11th at the World Trade Center. His life’s story has been a journey into the radical message of...
Read MoreThe Sound of Listening: A Retreat Journal from Thomas Merton’s Hermitage
Available from Wipf and Stock publishers. To order, call: 1-541-344-1528. See also: www.wipfandstock.com “It’s a real soul art to be engaged in fever pitch in social action and to be a contemplative, too. In these pages, John Dear, the activist, brings us to the still, dark places where he wrestles...
Read MoreThe Vision of Peace
Foreword by John Dear The Vision of Peace, edited by John Dear, features the first ever collection of writings by Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Winner from Belfast. To order, go to: http://www.amazon.com...
Read MoreTestimony: The Word Made Fresh by Daniel Berrigan
Edited with a foreword by John Dear In word and deed, whether in courts, jail cells, classrooms, or chapels, Daniel Berrigan has proclaimed the Word of God: ‘Blessed are teh peacemakers.’ That testimony rings loud and clear in this collection of recent writings on peace, faith, and the imperative of...
Read MoreBooks Featuring John Dear
- Landmark Speeches On U.S. Pacifism, Ed. Susan Schultz Huxman, includes John’s “Speech at the National March against the Iraq War, 2003.” Texas A & M Univ. Press, 2015.
- Love, Henri: The Letters of Henri Nouwen, Features letters to John Dear from Henri Nouwen, Penguin Press, Fall, 2016.
- Nonviolent Lives, by Ken Butigan, with a chapter profile on John (Pace e Bene Press, 2016)
- Divine Rebels: American Christian Activists for Social Justice, By Deena Guzder, Features a chapter on John Dear, Lawrence Hill Books, 2011.
- We Are Already One: Thomas Merton’s Message of Hope, Ed. By Gray Henry and Jonathan Montaldo, Features John’s chapter, “Thomas Merton’s Hopeful Life of Peace,” Fons Vitae, 2014.
- Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family and Community, Ed. By Rosalie Riegle, Features a chapter on John Dear, Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 2012.
- Waging Peace: a Memoir of David Hartsough, With a foreword by John Dear, PM Press, 2014.
- Love Is What Matters: Writings of Louie Vitale, With an Afterword by John Dear, Pace e Bene Press, 2015.
- Lightning East to West by Jim Douglass, With an Afterword by John Dear, Wipf and Stock, 2006.
- Peacework by Henri Nouwen, With a Foreword by John Dear, Orbis Books, 2006.
- Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton’s Peace Retreat, by Gordon Oyer, With an afterword by John Dear, Cascade Books, 2014.
- Remembering Henri, Eds., Gerald Twomey and Claude Pomerleau, With a chapter by John Dear, Orbis Books, 2016
- A Faith Not Worth Fighting For, Ed. By Tripp York and Justin Barringer, With a chapter by John Dear, Cascade Books, 2012.
- It’s a Sin to Build a Nuclear Weapon, By Richard McSorley, Ed., with an introduction by John Dear, Wipf and Stock, 2010.
- Challenging Empire (Sabeel Conference, Palestine, 2011) With a chapter by John Dear, Sabeel Center, Jerusalem, 2012
- The Merton Annual, 2006, With a chapter by John Dear, Ed. Victor Kramer, Fons Vitae, 2006.
- Witness Against Torture: The Campaign to Close Guantanamo, with a chapter by John Dear, www.yellowbikepress.com 2008.
- Peace Is the Way: Writings from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, with a chapter by John Dear, Orbis Books, 2000.
- Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, with a chapter by John Dear, Plough Publishing House, 2003.
- “To Dwell In Peace”, by Daniel Berrigan (autobiography) Foreword by John Dear. Wipf and Stock Edition, www.wipfandstock.com 2008.
- “Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings” edited by John Dear,AUDIOBOOK, from Blackstone audio, CDs, available from amazon.com
- “Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence,”edited by Marie Dennis, featuring a chapter by John Dear, Orbis Books, 2018
- “John Dear: Ein Mensch des Friedens und der Gewaltfreiheit warden,”an anthology of writings by John Dear, 2018, available only in Germany.