“We’re living through a dark night of our species, our society, and our souls,” my friend Matthew Fox tells me. A world-renowned theologian, Episcopal priest, and long-time activist, Matthew has written over 37 books, including Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and The Hidden Spirituality of Men.

This episode is for all seekers of peace, spiritual warriors, contemplative artists, and activists of the heart. If you're longing to root your nonviolence in deeper spirituality, and your spirituality in bold action — this conversation will speak directly to your soul.

In our conversation, Matthew pulls no punches.

“We’re in the middle of a coup,” he says. “American democracy is being hijacked by billionaires in the name of authoritarianism. The movement culminating in Trump began over 40 years ago—gathering racism, revenge, and resentment. Project 2025 is deeply anti-Christ. But we don’t talk about evil—we reduce it to sin.”

Find out what "spiritual forces" really are—and what he names as the evil spirits that return every generation and how we resist and transform our society.

🔔 Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help spread the message of gospel nonviolence and sacred resistance.

📢 Invite your friends, spiritual communities, protest circles, and music collaborators to tune in. The time to gather and rise is now.

🎧 Listen and 👉Follow Fr. John Dear and The Nonviolent Jesus on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and beyond.

The Nonviolent Jesus is a production of the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus.

beatitudescenter.org

This is a conversation for anyone seeking to link deep spirituality with bold, prophetic action. I hope you’ll join us, take Matthew’s words to heart, and let them strengthen your own path of nonviolence.

“Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil” (Mt. 5:39)--the most revolutionary—and most disobeyed—teaching in the Gospels, says John Dear

This week, I take a deep dive into Jesus’ specific commandment on nonviolent resistance in the Sermon on the Mount, Mt. 5:39-43. I tell how Leo Tolstoy learned the power of this verse from the Abolitionists, and then wrote his classic text, “The Kingdom of God Is Within You, or Christianity not as a mystical teaching but as a new concept of life.”

There, on the first page, Tolstoy declares that Christianity has totally failed Christ because it ignores and disobeys Matthew 5:39. He asks: Did Christ want us to put this teaching into practice or not? Tolstoy hoped to disarm the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, he inspired Gandhi to launch national movements of nonviolent resistance, and bring the power of organized nonviolence to the world.

This one verse of scripture opens a new way to understand Jesus’ life and teachings. These words launch a permanent nonviolent revolution, because they forbid all violence. This new commandment holds the key to a new way of life and the disarmament of the world. As Dr. King explained and Gandhi demonstrated, this teaching was intended not just for individuals, but for nations and the whole world. We are commanded to figure out creative nonviolent alternatives to violence.

Jesus throws out the old teaching, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and calls for an immediate end to the downward cycle of violence, John Dear says. But he does not advocate meek submission to violence, or using the same means of violence as one’s opponent and then becoming as violent as everyone else.

Instead, Jesus commands “a Third Way”--active, courageous, fearless, nonviolent resistance to evil and he insists that this is God’s will for humanity.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus leads a nonviolence training session just Dr. King did, Jesus says, ‘I want you to be bold, daring and creative in your nonviolence, to claim your power, confront all systemic violence and injustice, and disarm your oppressor--not kill them.’

The good news is that today millions of people around the world are taking Jesus at his word and engaging in grassroots campaigns of nonviolent resistance to oppression, war, and empire.

Listen in and be inspired to experiment in Sermon on the Mount nonviolence in your own life!

For further reading, get John Dear’s latest book, The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence (Orbis)

beatitudescenter.org

Episode #21. "The nonviolent Jesus hasn't been preached enough in our churches:"

This week I speak with Bishop John Stowe,Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky and head of Pax Christi, on how we can transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity.

“We have to sustain each other in hope!”.

“It's so essential to root out the violent tendencies within ourselves, or to think violently about others. Violence doesn't provide the lasting solution that Jesus does. But the nonviolent Jesus hasn't been preached enough in our churches…

It's a lack of faith to think it's impossible to live in a nonviolent way.”

Bishop John joined the Conventual Friars Minor, as a Franciscan in 1984, was ordained in 1995, served in El Paso, Texas; then served as its vicar general and chancellor, then vicar provincial of his Franciscan province. In 2015, Pope Francis named him the Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky.

“What we believe about Jesus has consequences in our personal lives and in our politics. We need to know who Jesus was. It's exciting to see how Jesus took on the establishment of his day. How do we build up a spirituality of nonviolence when it's missing in our catechism?”

Bishop Stowe shares why he thinks addiction to guns and violence is so prevalent in Kentucky, and how young people are connecting to make a change in the world.

"We can’t just paper over our differences, our division. We have to confront it all. It has to be healed. Inner work has to begin with the Word of God and prayer for the grace to be able to live in the way of nonviolence--to absorb violence instead of contributing to violence. We have to find ways to move beyond war and get along together and be at peace with nature.”

Listen as we talk about the nonviolent Jesus and peacemaking, be inspired and encouraged to go forward in hope!

CONNECT AND CHANGE THE WORLD

www.beatitudescenter.org

www.paxchristiusa.org

www.paxchristi.net

(Note: This episode was recorded days before the passing of Pope Francis on April 21).

#20 John Dear speaks with political scientist, author, teacher, advocate and organizer Maria Stephen on how ordinary people can bring about extraordinary change: “The resistance is alive and well across the United States today."

This week, I speak with Maria Stephan, a political scientist, 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.

“The resistance is alive and well across the United States today, with over 1300 protests with 3.5 million participants at the recent ‘Hands Off’ Day of Action… Faith communities are a glue that give people hope, and promote unity throughout these protests.”

“On the one hand, we have more regimes taking away rights and abusing power, but on the other, there's an explosion of nonviolent campaigns and mass mobilizations of ordinary people around the world,” Maria Stephan tells me.

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.

“Nonviolent resistance is a skill based activity; you can learn how to do better and how to build broad-based coalitions… We need to think big, both globally and locally. We need a more interconnected ‘movement of movements.’ We need to change the popular consciousness so that movements and campaigns are seen as a cool form of activity.”

KEEP THE MOVEMENT MOVING

www.horizonsproject.us

www.beatitudescenter.org

Check out her recent article, "We Are Stronger Than We Think," at https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/02/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/

#19 Fr. John Dear Talks with Legendary Environmental Activist Bill McKibben

This week, Fr. John Dear speaks with best-selling author and environmental activist and organizer Bill McKibben about catastrophic climate change and how to respond by joining movements, taking to the streets, and building political will. It will be jam packed with inspiration for anyone who supports environmental activism.

“I started life as a writer, I still am a writer. But to win the fight, we're gonna have to take on money and power, that's why we have to organize, and build a movement to change hearts and minds and change power. We keep our humor, our love for each other and our eyes fixed on the future, and on we go!”

He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal.

He’s one of the world’s leading environmental activists and founder of 350.org, a global grassroots climate campaign which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action.

Bill’s 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and was published in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament.

Hear more about his newest book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization will be available in August 2025.

Recently, Bill also founded www.ThirdAct.org, a global grassroots movement of people over the age of 60, which has taken off.

During this podcast also he announces the upcoming global day of action for solar power, “Sun Day,” September 21st. "The sun is willing to provide us with all the power we could ever use, but that great gift is a threat to powerful interests." Go to sunday.earth for more about resources, events, organizations and creative partners.

BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT.

Check out:

www.sunday.earth

www.thirdact.org

www.350.org

www.BillMcKibben.com

🔥This week, John Dear speaks with Kazu Haga, a brilliant young author and teacher of Kingian nonviolence about his new book, Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse.

Kazu Haga shares with us the six principles of Kingian nonviolence, how to build the Beloved Community and that "we are in a polycrisis and we are not crazy for thinking the world is burning all around us."

He is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy, a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm.

He is a practitioner, trainer and teacher of nonviolence, restorative justice, organizing and mindfulness and works with incarcerated people ("incarcerated people are some of my greatest teachers"), youth, and activists from around the country.

He has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work, and has been an active trainer since 2000. He resides in Oakland, CA, with friends at Canticle Farm, an inner city community of nonviolence that has a public garden right there in the neighborhood.

In his new book, Kazu suggests that the "real issue behind humanity’s violence and insanity is trauma", and that our goal really is healing on a personal, social, and global level.

He calls to get beyond “us vs. them” and “right vs. wrong” thinking, to pursue our interdependence and interrelatedness, as Dr. King and Thich Nhat Hanh taught.

👉Learn more about Kazu Haga:

kazuhaga.com

canticlefarmoakland.org

👉🏽More information on Fr. John Dear and The Nonviolent Jesus:

beatitudescenter.org

#17, “Start a revolution! Shake things up! The world is deaf. You have to open its ears.” Fr. John Dear on Pope Francis—The Most Radical Pope in History.

Fr. John shares his own outreach to Pope Francis and the Vatican on nonviolence; reflects on the great themes of Pope Francis; and in particular, reviews Francis’ extraordinary efforts at peacemaking and how he started to turn the church back to its roots in Gospel nonviolence. In this episode he reflects on the life and death, of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.

He calls Francis “the most radical, most progressive, most nonviolent, most prophetic, most peace-activist-oriented pope in history, and therefore, the greatest pope in history, hands down.”

“I give thanks because Francis spoke out so boldly, so prophetically in word and deed for justice, the poor, disarmament, peace, creation, mercy, nonviolence, and the nonviolent Jesus; that we had him for 12 years; that did not resign and retire, but kept at it till the last day, Easter Sunday, and that we got to live during his time.

I think he’s one of our greatest saints, and I hope he will be named a Doctor of the Church.”

“Let us pray for a more widespread culture of nonviolence,” Francis said, “that will progress when countries and citizens alike resort less and less to the use of arms.” Fr. John calls us to honor Pope Francis by rising to the occasion, speaking out, and resisting war, injustice, poverty, racism, corporate greed, fascism, genocide in Gaza, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, that we might be Gospel peacemakers like Francis.

Listen as Fr. John recounts the times Pope Francis went into the world at risk of his own safety to actively promote peacemaking and reconciliation in the world, many of which never made the media headlines. A truly unique POV on the most radical Pope ever in history and certainly in our lifetime.

#TheNonviolentJesus

BeatitudesCenter.org

#16 "We are experiencing the thrashing of empire and death throes of capitalism", says Dorothy Day's granddaughter Martha Hennessy in this week's conversation with Fr. John Dear. Dorothy Day was an activist, author, anarchist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Martha Hennessy, also a longtime peace activist, lives on her family farm in Vermont and volunteers part time for the last fifteen years at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City. She speaks regularly on the issues of war, poverty, the works of mercy, and nuclear weapons, and has traveled to Russia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Korea to witness for peace.

She reminds us that "solutions will never come from the state... we need to "find one's niche...to create a new world from the shell of the old world, to create a society where it's easy to be good."

John asks Martha about Dorothy’s shocking, brilliant statement after Pearl Harbor saying “Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount.” Even if everyone else runs off to war, they will obey the teachings of Jesus and not support war. Dorothy Day said "No" to every. single. war.

Martha says that "the U.S. church desperately needs her (Dorothy Day) as a saint: (as a) laywoman, a mother, a grandmother...and Pope Francis recognizes her as a saint. She was a mystic, she was touched by God. She was an extraordinary grandmother."

Martha tells about her recent arrest on Ash Wednesday outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations calling upon the U.S. to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; her work at Maryhouse; her imprisonment for the King’s Bay Plowshares disarmament action; and her grandmother’s impending canonization.

beatitudescenter.com

catholicworker.org