Welcome to the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus!
May 19, 2025
#20, Talks with Maria Stephan on Global Movements for Change
This week, John Dear speaks with Maria Stephan, teacher, advocate, and organizer, who has dedicated her life to the proposition that ordinary people, when organized and inspired, can bring about extraordinary change. She is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades, which documents how nonviolent resistance campaigns over the last century have been twice as effective as armed struggles, and been major drivers of democratization and civil peace.Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Bishop John Stowe! For more information, visit here.
May 12, 2025
#19, John Dear in conversation with Bill McKibben
Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Maria Stephan! For more information, visit here.
Upcoming Zoom Programs:
“The Nonviolent Jesus and the Violent Authoritarians” with Brian McLaren
Saturday May 17, 2025
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
A Conversation on “The God of Universal Love and Compassion”
with Elizabeth Johnson
Saturday June 7, 2025
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
“Bonhoeffer and Resistance to Tyranny and Organized Stupidity” with Larry Rasmussen
Saturday July 5, 2025
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
“The Bible as a Call Out of Empire into the God of Peace” with Wes Howard-Brook
Saturday August 2, 2025
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
John Dear’s new book now available
“The Gospel of Peace:
Reading Matthew, Mark & Luke
from the Perspective of Nonviolence”
To invite John Dear to speak in your city, write to: john@beatitudescenter.org
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE BEATITUDES CENTER
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
May 16, 2025
Dear friends, Blessings of Christ’s Peace!
Next week’s episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Maria Stephan, teacher, advocate, and organizer, who has dedicated her life to the proposition that ordinary people, when organized and inspired, can bring about extraordinary change. She is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades, which documents how nonviolent resistance campaigns over the last century have been twice as effective as armed struggles, and been major drivers of democratization and civil peace.
“On the one hand, we have more regimes taking away rights and abusing power;” she says, “but on the other, there’s an explosion of nonviolent campaigns and mass mobilizations of ordinary people around the world.”
Maria works with www.Horizonsproject.us focusing on the role of nonviolent action and peacebuilding in advancing human rights, democracy, and sustainable peace in the US and globally. Before joining Horizons, Maria founded and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, overseeing global programming, applied research, and policy engagement. She was the lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and also worked at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. She has taught at Georgetown University and American University.