2024 Speaking Tour

Host Fr. John Dear on his 2024 Speaking Tour for his Forthcoming Orbis Book: “’The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.” For more info, click here

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Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter

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July 6, 2026

Episode #79, John Dear in conversation with Wes Howard-Brook

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with scripture scholar Wes Howard-Brook, author of several great books, including his commentary on the Gospel of John, Becoming Children of God, his free YouTube commentary “The Radical Bible,” and his study of the Bible as a whole called, Come Out My People!: God’s Call out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond. He just published a smaller, more accessible version of it called: Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond.
 
“Most Christians treat the Bible like someone who’s been on a one-week tourist trip with a bad tour guide, which is to say they’ve gotten a superficial overview and had it interpreted wrongly, and then concluded, ‘Why would I want to go there again?’” he says. “The heart of my work is trying to re-establish a passion for biblical literacy, because as all indigenous cultures know, as a people, you are the stories that carry you forward.
 
“The Bible is a set of narratives, poems, proverbs, and other texts that were written by our Israelite and Judean ancestors to get their children to grapple with one central question: what kind of people does God intend us to be?
 
“The Bible proposes two choices: the religion of creation and the religion of empire. Jesus enters into that 2,000 year old argument among his people: are we to be a powerful empire in the name of God, centered in Jerusalem, to which all the nations will stream and bow down to us and our God? Or is creation the temple; do we find the Creator in the creation, and every created being is part of that? Jesus plainly and explicitly sides with the religion of creation and resists empire.” Listen in and be inspired by this Bible scholar to find the Creator in creation and resist empire! God bless you!

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Fr. Ron Rolheiser! For more information, visit here.

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Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter

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June 29, 2026

Episode #78, John Dear in conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with Lisa Sharon Harper. Lisa is a theologian, speaker, author, activist and trainer who has worked in Ferguson and Charlottesville, as well as South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Ireland and across the U.S.  
 
Her 2022 book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World–And How To Repair It All, was named “Book of the Year” by Word and Way. Her 2016 book, The Very Good Gospel, was named “Book of the Year” by the Englewood Review of Books. After her leadership at Sojourners magazine, she founded Freedom Road, where she is the host of its podcast and column on Substack. The Huffington Post named her one of 50 Women Religious Leaders to Celebrate on International Women’s Day. (See: www.freedomroad.us)
 
Asked about these days of social injustice, white supremacy and permanent warmaking under Trump, she said she cries every day. “I actually have hope but I’m grieving like the rest of the country,” she said. “I cry because of the Church’s silence during the Obama era and back to the 70s/80s during the rise of the religious right. People didn’t know what was right, just and Jesus’s way…Evil goes all the way back to the Constitution, in the 3/4 compromise. I grieve for our inaction in the past. It didn’t have to be this way, but in every generation, there is a remnant. There has always been a witness of the actual Jesus way of being in the world. Right now, that witness is alive and well.”
 
She told three stories: of her time in Ferguson in August, 2014 after Michael Brown was killed by a white policeman; her time in Charlottesville, VA, when she was present in the protest against Trump’s neo-Nazis who killed Heather Heyer; and our experience in the D.C. Central Cell block jail after protesting at the Supreme Court on the 40th anniversary of the U.S. death penalty. She shared about her organization, Freedom Road, which trains people of faith to take public action for justice, as well as her recent best-selling books.
 
“Nonviolence is the only way for people who are not on the upside of empire to fight back,” she concluded. “Nonviolence is the only way to not be at war with God.” Listen in and be inspired by this peacemaker to carry on! God bless you! 

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Lisa Sharon Harper! For more information, visit here.

John Dear’s new book now available!

“The Gospel of Peace:
Reading Matthew, Mark & Luke
from the Perspective of Nonviolence”

For info, click here
 
To order, call Orbis Books at 1-800-258-5838
 

To invite John Dear to speak in your city, write to: john@beatitudescenter.org 

National Catholic Reporter Review of “The Gospel of Peace,” click here
 
To watch Fr. John’s interview with Dean Young of Grace Cathedral about the book, click here
 
To watch Fr. John’s sermon at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, on Jan. 21, 2024, (at the 30 minute mark) click here
 
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast, a free weekly podcast with John Dear
click here

John Dear’s New Book

Universal Love:
Surrendering to the God of Peace

By John Dear

For more information, click here
 
Available from www.orbisbooks.com or call 1-800-258-5838, or Amazon.com 
 
“One of the people I respect most on this earth and whose winsome company I enjoy most is Fr. John Dear. In this short, valuable, and practical book, John shares his conversations with a young spiritual seeker named Will who came to him seeking spiritual guidance. As I read each chapter, I felt like I was meeting with John for coffee, sharing my struggles, and receiving his wisdom and encouragement.
This book is a treasure.”
 
— Brian McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt and The Last Voyage

Recent Books

GospelOfPeace
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“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/

Recent Articles

John Dear Talks Nonviolence with Joan Baez: A Conversation

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The Peacemaking Life of Pope Francis

A few years ago, three French peace activists met with Pope Francis and asked him for advice. “Start a revolution,” he said. “Shake things up! The world is deaf. You have to open its ears.” That’s what Pope Francis did — he started a nonviolent revolution and invited us all to join. 

I’m grateful for him for so many reasons, but mainly because he spoke out so boldly, so prophetically in word and deed for justice, the poor, disarmament, peace, creation, mercy and nonviolence. It is a tremendous gift that we had him for 12 years, that he did not resign or retire, but kept at it until the last day, Easter Sunday.

Read More

My Long Lost Conversation with John Lewis

Last summer, after Congressman John Lewis died, I posted a photo on social media of me and John from a memorable afternoon we spent together in his congressional office. It was 26 years ago. We had talked for a while, and then filmed a formal conversation on nonviolence.

Needless to say, it was one of the greatest days of my exciting life.

Read More

Recent News

“Nonviolence,” a new 147 page special edition
of Richard Rohr’s journal Oneing, now available from www.cac.org

John Dear on “Democracy Now” talking about Thich Nhat Hanh and Archbishop Tutu 

Visit
www.DanielBerrigan.org

“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

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