April 27th, 2026
Episode #69, John Dear’s Reflections on Daniel Berrigan for the 10th Anniversary of His Death
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear reflects on the life, witness and teachings of his friend and mentor, the legendary peacemaker and war resister Rev. Daniel Berrigan who died ten years ago this week on April 30, 2016, just before his 95th birthday. [see www.danielberrigan.org]Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Bishop Marian Budde! For more information, visit here.
April 20th, 2026
Episode #68, John Dear speaks with Prof. Melanie Harris on “Ecowomanism”
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with his friend Dr. Melanie Harris, Professor of Black Feminist and Womanist Theologies jointly appointed with African American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. A graduate of the Harvard Leadership Program, she is the author of Gifts of Virtue: Alice Walker and Womanist Ethics, and Ecowomanism: Earth Honoring Faiths. She is a former broadcast journalist who worked as a news producer for ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates. Dr. Harris earned her PhD. and M.A. degrees from New York’s Union Theological Seminary, her M. Div. from Iliff School of Theology and a B.A. from Spelman College in Atlanta.Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes John Dear! For more information, visit here.
Upcoming Zoom Programs:
John Dear’s new book available February 17th, 2026
Universal Love:
Surrendering to the God of Peace
By John Dear
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Quote for the Day:
“The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the God of peace as the waters cover the sea.”
(Isaiah 11:6–9)
Quote for the Day:
“I am called in the Word of God — as is everyone else — to the vocation of being human, nothing more and nothing less … To be a Christian
means to be called to be an exemplary human being. And to be a Christian categorically does not mean being religious. Indeed, all religious versions of the gospel are profanities. In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, define the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies,
cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed,
raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.”
–William Stringfellow
April 27th, 2026
Dear Friends,
Easter Blessings of Christ’s peace to you!
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I offer reflections on the life, witness, and teachings of my friend and mentor, the legendary peacemaker and war resister Rev. Daniel Berrigan, who died ten years ago this week on April 30, 2016, just before his 95th birthday.
This special episode begins and ends with my friend Dar Williams singing her great song “I had no right” about Dan, and features recordings of Dan reading three of his poems. Dan was born in 1921, was a Jesuit priest, poet, author of 50 books, lecturer, and antiwar activist who was arrested over 200 times in protests. I’ll share about his two great actions, the Catonsville 9 and the Plowshares 8, and talk about his teachings on resistance, peacemaking, nonviolence, hope, detachment from the results of our action, and Jesus.
Here’s a quintessential Dan Berrigan statement: “The Bible teaches in many places and warns, denounces and illumines this one bitter truth: the violence of humans is, in essence, genocidal, mass suicidal. War is not itself until it is total war, claiming the total person, the human family in its entirety, universal life. Such a will, in our lifetime, creates weapons to match its madness, and for once, the weapons are equal to the will. They are as merciless as we are; they at length resemble us, our alter ego. War has thus become the ultimate anti-Christ, the obscene god of death, condemning all of life to capital punishment.”


Wes Granberg-Michaelson, “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action”
Kate Common. “Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible. And the Future of Christianity”
Joyce Rupp in conversation with John Dear on “Compassion and Prayer”
Todd Walatka on Saint Oscar Romero’s Prophetic Voice for Peace