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.
April 13th, 2026
Episode #67, John Dear speaks with Prof. David Cortright on war and peace
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Prof. David Cortright, a leading scholar on war, peace and nonviolent resistance. He is the former executive director of SANE, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy which under his leadership in the 1980s grew from 4,000 to 150,000 members and became the largest disarmament organization in the U.S. He also co-founded Win Without War in 2002. He is a visiting scholar at Cornell University’s Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and professor emeritus at Notre Dame.Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Prof. Melanie Harris! For more information, visit here.
Upcoming Zoom Programs:
Wes Granberg-Michaelson, “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action”
Saturday May 16, 2026
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
Kate Common. “Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible. And the Future of Christianity”
Saturday June 13, 2026
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on “Jesus and Justice”
Saturday July 11, 2026
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
Joyce Rupp in conversation with John Dear on “Compassion and Prayer”
Saturday July 25, 2026
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
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 20th, 2026
Dear Friends, Easter blessings of Christ’s peace to you!
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend Prof. 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.
“Womanist theology came from black seminary women looking for a term to express the theology of black women,” she explains. She then connects the theology of black women with a theology of the earth. “Justice for all is connected to environmental justice. The question is: What does the Divine intend for all of humanity and all of the earth?”
When I asked her suggestions for us, she immediately responded: “Tell the story of Jesus well and truthfully. In truth, Jesus was a nonviolent person and deeply committed to compassion. Jesus was corrected by the Syrophoenician woman. For a male religious leader to be speaking with a woman was radical; this was a model of peace-giving and peace-building. It is important to recognize that the gospel of Jesus is a gospel of peace. Jesus was not one who stood for violence, hierarchy or domination.”