In A Persistent Peace, John Dear, S.J., takes readers inside his life as a modern-day Don Quixote. Dear's story moves from his family home in Bethesda to Duke University, where he had the first of several conversion experiences; to Central and South America; the Middle East; Asia; Africa; and back to the U.S., where he ministered to a dying Philip Berrigan, a former activist priest from Baltimore. When in 1984, Dear joined the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order of priests, he wanted to follow Jesus Christ, which for him meant being a peace activist. But in the eyes of some of his Jesuit superiors, he was a troublemaker.
Undaunted, Dear spent close to 30 years serving in soup kitchens, homeless shelters and prisons. Along the way, he joined the Plowshares Movement, helped to organize campaigns of civil disobedience, attempted to destroy nuclear weapons, protested acts of war, prayed and meditated on the lives of luminaries like Robert Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa. As Dear sees it in this picaresque, rambling account, life isn't about the impossible dream of peace on Earth; it's about making that dream possible.
— Diane Scharper,The Baltimore Sun
John Dear understands that peacemaking is not a part-time job. A Persistent Peace is the story of his passion for Jesus’ way of peace, a commitment that guides his life. John has walked the talk for years, an inspiration to all of us to do more than we think we can.
— Jim Wallis, author, The Great Awakening and president, Sojourners.
Once more, and in a plenary way, we are blessed by the eloquence and moral passion of John Dear. A Persistent Peace is both a celebration and a cautionary tale. John loves the world and walks the edge of endangered creation. He rejoices in his friends an mourns the lethal follies of the powerful. More power to this intrepid disciple of Christ—the Peacemaker.
— Daniel Berrigan, author of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and winner of the Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award
John Dear has been arrested in the cause of peace and human decency more times than anyone else I know. I am honored to consider him a friend.
— Joan Baez, singer and peace activist
John Dear not only talks about Jesus, he lives Jesus—radical, loving, nonviolent Jesus. He prisms Jesus through his own life and brings us into the adventure.
— Sister Helen Prejean, leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, author of Dead Man Walking
John Dear is a great spiritual progressive leader whose wisdom, courage and gentleness make him one of the most beloved teachers of nonviolence in America, and a beacon of light not only in his Jesuit world, but to people from every faith. A Persistent Peace is more than inspiring, it is instructive about what each one of us could be doing even in the darkest of times. Dear gets into the nits and grits of building a social change movement with very imperfect people as well as many quite amazing people. Reading this book will make you less lonely by knowing that you're sharing your time on earth with John Dear.
— Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of Tikkun magazine and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives
To take care of each other should be our primary concern in this twenty-first century, and Father John Dear is steady on this course.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist
John Dear’s extraordinary autobiography reaches its climactic scene when a National Guard unit, prior to going to Iraq, stands in the early morning outside the door of his parish in New Mexico, where he has been preaching against the war, chanting ‘One bullet, one kill!’ His life might well be summed up by that scene: a Jesuit priest whose commitment to nonviolence and peace carries him to El Salvador, the Middle East, and all over the United States, and whose protests land him in jail again and again. His deep faith and steadfast devotion to the principles of Jesus, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Daniel Berrigan, lead him to defy the authority of hierarchies, whether in his church or in the nation, and hold fast to his beliefs even when soldiers chanting threats show up at his door. John Dear’s life story is inspiring and heartwarming.
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
This inspiring book is deeply challenging to all of us. Its author weaves together the intellectual, spiritual, and practical works of Christian nonviolence and active resistance. At the heart of it all, Father John Dear reveals where his power comes from—out of his love of Jesus and the Gospels. John’s enthusiasm and passionate commitment to his calling to be a beloved disciple called ‘John,’ is moving and contagious. “Deo Gracias” for John Dear’s life and work.
—Mairead Corrigan Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner
The Catholic social justice tradition, particularly the part condemning weapons production, easy resort to violence, and modern warfare, is often referred to as the church’s best kept secret. Few in the church work harder at bringing that tradition to the fore than Jesuit Father John Dear. A prolific writer and tireless activist, he has written more than 20 books and been arrested some 75 times in acts of civil disobedience, all the while traveling non-stop, it seems, to give lectures on peacemaking throughout the country.
—The National Catholic Reporter
John Dear is a prophet. And, like all prophets, his actions and writings are inspiring, clarifying, liberating, unsettling, challenging, mysterious, exciting, confusing and even dangerous. His new memoir reveals the steady progression of a person totally committed to a world of peace and nonviolence, and his compelling story reminds us that Jesus of Nazareth really did mean what he said during the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers!”
—James Martin, SJ, author of My Life with the Saints
Fr. John Dear is a Jesuit priest who has been in the forefront of the religious peace movement in the United States. He is the embodiment of a peacemaker. He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these.
—Desmond Tutu, Archbishop, Cape Town, South Africa
John Dear has the gift to capture the social gospel as Jesus and the apostles proclaimed it. His writing is in the tradition of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Jean Vanier, and Daniel Berrigan.
—J. Christoph Arnold, author of Be Not Afraid, leading elder of the Church Communities International
Some teachers are all theory and some are all practice. John Dear has earned ability to be both. Some teachers are very orthodox and some open new ground. John Dear puts the two together knowing they are the same.
—Richard Rohr O.F.M., Founding Director of the Center for Action and Contemplation and author of Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
John Dear’s inspired journey—inside and out—gives us renewed hope for our own personal and public peacemaking.
—the late Fred Rogers, TV star of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”
