Grace Episcopal Church will host John Dear, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author and long-time peace activist, on Sunday, April 6 at 7 p.m. as part of its ongoing Grace Speaks lecture series. He will speak on his new book, The Nonviolent Life, in which he articulates a vision of the power, meaning and impact of the spiritually grounded nonviolent life—and invites us to put this into practice in both immediate and long-term ways. The talk is followed by a book-signing reception.
After thirty years of preaching the Gospel of nonviolence, John Dear offers a simple, original yet profound way to capture the crucial elements of nonviolent living, and the possibility of creating a new nonviolent world. According to John, “Most people pick one or two of these dimensions, but few do all three. To become a fully rounded, three dimensional person of nonviolence, we need to do all three simultaneously.” Perhaps then he suggests, we can join the pantheon of peacemakers from Jesus and Francis to Dorothy Day and Mahatma Gandhi.
In his new book, John Dear proposes a simple vision of nonviolence that everyone can aspire to. It will help everyone be healed of violence, and inspire us to transform our culture of violence into a new world of nonviolence!
John Dear is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. He is a popular speaker, peacemaker, organizer, lecturer, retreat leader, and the author/editor of 30 books. He has organized and participated in nonviolent campaigns for over three decades; been arrested some 75 times in acts of civil disobedience against war and injustice; and spent nearly a year of his life in jail for peace.
Grace Speaks is a program by Grace Church started in 2007. Every year, Grace invites scholars to speak on topics relevant to contemporary religion and society. Past speakers represent of broad spectrum of interests and perspectives, and our lectures have been well attended by parishioners and members of the community at large.