Resistance and Contemplation


Book Description

I rejoice in this day and in this book becoming available once again. At Jonah House, the place I've called home for 33 years, we've had numerous copies of it in the years since it was first published. One copy remains - dog-eared, read, reread, studied. It was a book that we reflected on together in community - the backbone, if you will, next to the Scriptures - of our on-going resistance out of community. Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House (from the foreword) This book has been of extraordinary significance to large numbers of young people, resisters, prisoners, searchers, many who have been increasingly perplexed and anguished by the course of American life in the world. My brother Philip and I have used it in numerous sessions with students and others, who found in it the sustenance necessary to allow them to take the next step in their struggle on behalf of life. It seems to me that this book will continue, in its own quiet and persistent way, to reach those Americans who are capable of inviting us into any future worth speaking about. Daniel Berrigan From perspectives of truth, nonviolence and resistance to personal and cultural violence, this book is among the few important books of the last decade. Neutrality to this book is impossible -- people will view it as a gift, or they will reject it as a threat....enlightening, strengthening, liberating. Philip Berrigan Jim Douglass is a writer and a Catholic Worker. He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, AL. He is currently writing three books on the assassinations of the Kennedys, Malcom X and King in the 1960's (with Orbis Books). The James Douglass Reprint Series: The Non-Violent Cross Resistance and Contemplation Lightning East to West The Nonviolent Coming of God




Elizabeth Johnson


Book Description

Who is God? That is the question Elizabeth A. Johnson has spent her life exploring. As a Catholic theologian, writer, teacher, and religious woman, Johnson has searched for “the Living God” and ways to understand God that make sense for our time, perhaps most famously in her groundbreaking book She Who Is. Her work is firmly grounded in the Catholic tradition while it explores the edges of that tradition, pushing it to be more inclusive—a project that has caught the attention of other scholars, everyday Catholics, and sometimes critics. Johnson’s own relationship with God as Holy Mystery has helped her to navigate her life’s challenges, including finding herself thrust into the spotlight as a headline-making symbol of religious women facing challenges from the church leadership. With this first biography of one of the preeminent Catholic theologians of our time, those who have been enriched by Johnson’s work will now find themselves inspired by her remarkable life story.




A Question of Being


Book Description

James Douglass's writings have been recognized as among the most challenging and inspiring explorations of nonviolence and Christian discipleship in the last century. Throughout his career, Douglass has argued forcefully for the integration of contemplation and resistance, theology and cultural critique, spirituality and prophetic involvement. His work has inspired many of the key figures in recent debates regarding just war, Christian nonviolence, and radical discipleship and continues to be highly relevant in our contemporary situation. In A Question of Being, the first book-length treatment published on Douglass's writings, Karin Holsinger Sherman provides an introduction to and engagement with this important body of work through an exploration into its contextual history, influences, and main themes. Moreover, the author argues that these themes work together to create an "ontology of nonviolence," an ontology that integrates the forces of resistance and contemplation so important to Douglass. The book begins by examining Douglass's biography and three broad historical trajectories that give context to his thought: the fusion of Christianity and American nationalism in the early Cold War period; the emergence of cultural critique in the late fifties and early sixties, and the Catholic pacifist tradition; and the post-1972 period of disillusionment. Holsinger Sherman then considers the lives and thought of Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi, and Thomas Merton, as well as their unique intellectual and exemplary influence on Douglass's ideas. After explicating the themes of the cross and the kingdom as they developed chronologically in Douglass's writing career, this book draws together Douglass's thought to reveal an "ontology of nonviolence." In her conclusion, Holsinger Sherman argues that this ontology of nonviolence is the key to understanding Douglass's integral theology of contemplation and resistance.




Awakening from Anxiety


Book Description

Use this spiritual guide to equip yourself with the tools needed to tear down anxiety and build inner peace. Spiritual people often find that their own expectations of living a life dedicated to a higher power makes them more susceptible to high-functioning anxiety. Sometimes, traditional relaxation techniques either do not work, don’t last, or, in some cases, actually increase their anxiety. Psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and interfaith minister Rev. Connie L. Habash has helped hundreds of spiritual people overcome fear and anxiety, regain happiness, and feel calmer. In over twenty-five years as a counselor helping spiritual people overcome anxiety, Rev. Connie has taught that it takes more than chanting mantras, stretching, or relaxation techniques to calm anxiety. It requires a transformation in perception, moment-to-moment body awareness, and a conscious response to thoughts and emotions. Awakening from Anxiety provides valuable psycho-spiritual tools to deepen spiritual awakening and calm fears:Learn what anxiety is and when it becomes a problemUnderstand the six mistakes spiritual people make that increase anxietyDiscover the seven keys to a more calm, confident, courageous lifeKnow how to break through the old patterns of stress, worry, and fear into a new perception of your true selfExplore spiritual principles and yoga philosophy to cultivate inner peace If you enjoyed Stop Anxiety from Stopping You and First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, Awakening from Anxiety will take your healing and renewal from anxiety to the next level. “A book I will recommend to many for both practical advice and spiritual insights for handling stress, worry, and anxiety.”?Becca Anderson, author of Prayers for Calm




The Lost Art of Reading


Book Description

Reading is a revolutionary act, an act of engagement in a culture that wants us to disengage. In The Lost Art of Reading, David L. Ulin asks a number of timely questions - why is literature important? What does it offer, especially now? Blending commentary with memoir, Ulin addresses the importance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Reading a book, flipping through hard pages, or shuffling them on screen - it doesn't matter. The key is the act of reading, and it's seriousness and depth. Ulin emphasizes the importance of reflection and pause allowed by stopping to read a book, and the accompanying focus required to let the mind run free in a world that is not one's own. Are we willing to risk our collective interest in contemplation, nuanced thinking, and empathy? Far from preaching to the choir, The Lost Art of Reading is a call to arms, or rather, to pages.




Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America


Book Description

Over the last thirty years, conservative evangelicals have been moving to the Northwest of the United States, where they hope to resist the impact of secular modernity and to survive the breakdown of society that they anticipate. These believers have often given up on the politics of the Christian Right, adopting strategies of hibernation while developing the communities and institutions from which a new America might one day emerge. Their activity coincides with the promotion by prominent survivalist authors of a program of migration to the "American Redoubt," a region encompassing Idaho, Montana, parts of eastern Washington and Oregon, and Wyoming, as a haven in which to endure hostile social change or natural disaster and in which to build a new social order. These migration movements have independent origins, but they overlap in their influences and aspirations, working in tandem to offer a vision of the present in which Christian values must be defended as American society is rebuilt according to biblical law. This book examines the origins, evolution, and cultural reach of this little-noted migration and considers what it might tell us about the future of American evangelicalism. Drawing on Calvinist theology, the social theory of Christian Reconstruction, and libertarian politics, these believers are projecting significant soft power. Their books are promoted by leading mainstream publishers and listed as New York Times bestsellers. Their strategy is gaining momentum, making an impact in local political and economic life, while being repackaged for a wider audience in publications by a broader coalition of conservative commentators and in American mass culture. This survivalist evangelical subculture recognizes that they have lost the culture war - but another kind of conflict is beginning.




The Non-Violent Cross


Book Description

One of the ten best religious books of 1968 . . . a fascinating proposal of revolutionary action through non-violence from the Judeo-Christian faith and the experiments in truth of Gandhi. 'New Book Review' 'The Non-Violent Cross' was a crucial text to push me into becoming a pacifist. It remains as relevant today as it was when first published in 1966. Douglass was in conversation not only with Catholic perspectives but also John Howard Yoder. Indeed he was among the first to show us how the most orthodox Christian claims committed the church to the practice of non-violence. We are in Wipf & Stock's debt for bringing the book back into print. Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University It will be Jim's reflections on nonviolence and just war theory for which he will be remembered best. And it is here that his language stretches, bends, and breaks under the strain of the inexplicable. For he is not just settling arguments. He is trying to convey the meaning of the kingdom of Reality which will be the final victory of Truth in history. If that kingdom is ever to come, it will be people like Jim who blazed the way. Walter Wink Not only is this book the most thoroughgoing treatment to date of non-violence...but in its analyses of the current scene it is also a 'tract for the times.' The Christian Century




Gandhi and the Unspeakable


Book Description

In 1948, at the dawn of his country's independence, Mohandas Gandhi, father of the Indian independence movement and a beloved prophet of nonviolence, was assassinated by Hindu nationalists. In riveting detail, author James W. Douglass shows as he previously did with the story of JFK how police and security forces were complicit in the assassination and how in killing one man, they hoped to destroy his vision of peace, nonviolence, and reconciliation. Gandhi had long anticipated and prepared for this fate. In reviewing the little-known story of his early "experiments in truth" in South Africa the laboratory for Gandhi's philosophy of satyagraha, or truth force Douglass shows how early he confronted and overcame the fear of death. And, as with his account of JFK's death, he shows why this story matters: what we can learn from Gandhi's truth in the struggle for peace and reconciliation today.




JFK and the Unspeakable


Book Description

THE ACCLAIMED BOOK, NOW IN PAPERBACK, with a reading group guide and a new afterword by the author. At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark "Unspeakable" forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up. Douglass takes readers into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the President’s motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.




Deep and Wide


Book Description

Commitment to a life of prayer and community can prove to be a great help for those involved in politics. Rather than being distracted away from action, Evan B. Howard argues that committed Christians often find both freedom and empowerment to contribute to the greater good of the world. A review of the history of committed Christian life (monasticism) shows that devout communities have engaged in a wide range of socio-political arenas. We can explore today what nuns and monks have accomplished in the past. We can speak into political conversations. We can care for those in need. We can model new ways of ordering life together. We can take concrete political action in governmental process. We can pray. This book blends examination of history with musings about the Christian life and politics generally. It also offers a collection of monastic practices to equip communities and individuals to embody an appropriate blend of "deep" and "wide" for themselves.