Photos, clockwise from top center: Martin Sheen (CNS/Bob Roller); Bernard Lafayette (Wikimedia Commons); John Dear (Courtesy of John Dear); St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean (CNS/Paul Haring); Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr (CNS/Courtesy of Franciscan Media)
John Dear, the noted peace activist familiar to longtime readers of the National Catholic Reporter, has a new podcast, "The Nonviolent Jesus." It launches today and can be found here.
Dear is the founder of the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus, which teaches and promotes "the Gospel message that Jesus was totally nonviolent, and that all his followers are called to be totally nonviolent."
The Beatitudes Center is releasing weekly podcast episodes. Links to the programs can be found here on the NCR website as they become available. The podcast intends to answer the question, "What if the key to a more peaceful world is following the path of the nonviolent Jesus?"
- Episode 1 (Jan. 6): John Dear on "Living the Beatitudes." What does it mean to practice "Blessed are the peacemakers" in a world often ruled by violence? The podcast can be found here.
Future episodes:
- Episode 2 (Jan. 13): John Dear in conversation with actor and activist Martin Sheen.
- Episode 3 (Jan. 20): John Dear in conversation with Bernard Lafayette, Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal assistant.
- Episode 4 (Jan. 27): John Dear in conversation with St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking.
- Episode 5 (Feb. 3): John Dear in conversation with Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr about his new book on the prophets, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage.
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A former Jesuit and previously an NCR columnist, Dear is executive director of the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus, a charitable organization founded in 2020 and based in Morro Bay, California.
Dear's most recent book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence, was published by Orbis in 2023. The author of many books, Dear is editor of several essay collections on nonviolence and Catholic advocates for peace.
Disclosure: Terry Rynne, an NCR board member, is on the board of the Beatitudes Center.
