They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change

by John Dear

"This is a remarkable testimony summing up a remarkable nonviolence is our greatest tool, and here you see it wielded with kindness, firmness, and skill." --Bill McKibben

In the Beatitudes, Jesus says of the meek, "they will inherit the earth." Meekness, John Dear argues, is the biblical word for nonviolence. He makes the connection Jesus makes at the start of his Sermon on the Mount between our practice of nonviolence and our unity with our rejection of nonviolence is inevitably linked to the catastrophic effects of climate change and environmental ruin.

Drawing on personal stories of his life in the desert of New Mexico, his time as a chaplain at Yosemite, his friendship with indigenous and environmental leaders, his experience at the Standing Rock protests, as well as his work with the Vatican on a new stance on nonviolence, John Dear invites us to return to nonviolence as a way of life and a living solidarity with Mother Earth and her creatures.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2018

About the author

Father John Dear (The Society of Jesus) is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. A Jesuit priest, pastor, peacemaker, organizer, lecturer, and retreat leader, he is the author/editor of 30 books, including his autobiography, “A Persistent Peace.” In 2008, John was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

From 1998 until December 2000, he served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the United States.

After the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, John served as a Red Cross Chaplain, and became one of the coordinators of the chaplain program at the Family Assistance Center. He worked with some 1,500 family members who lost loved ones, as well as hundreds of firefighters and police officers, while at the same time, he spoke out against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

From 2002-2004, he served as pastor of several parishes in northeastern New Mexico. He co-founded Pax Christi New Mexico and works on a nonviolent campaign to disarm Los Alamos. These days, he lectures to tens of thousands of people each year in churches and schools across the country and the world. He also writes a weekly column for the “National Catholic Reporter” at www.ncrcafe.org.

A longtime practitioner and teacher of nonviolence, John has written hundreds of articles and given thousands of talks on nonviolence. John has two masters degrees in theology from the Graduate Theological Union in California.

* BIO EXCERPT FROM http://www.johndear.org/

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father John Dear argues that nonviolence is inexorably linked to Jesus' ministry and teaching in the Beatitudes. He warns about impending catastrophic climate change and calls us all to action in protecting the earth.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this book will be of value to those working toward social justice in communities in addition to Earth's stewards witnessing the many forces causing the changing of our physical world, and the people attempting to bring change within our world for those being suppressed by poverty, violence, inequality, etc.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many of Fr. John Dear's books, and always benefited from his insights. Essentially, Fr. Dear's position is the same as that of MLKJr.: nonviolence, or nonexistence. The American Northwest just experienced temperatures so high that an estimated BILLION sea creatures just boiled to death. California and Las Vegas are measuring temperatures of 120+ Fahrenheit. Death Valley just logged the highest temperature ever reliably measured on earth: 130 degrees. It is July, and we are on our fifth or sixth named storm in the Atlantic. And that's just in America. The rest of the world is experiencing the inescapable realities of global climate change as well. Not good.

Our ability to respond to this man-made crisis is limited by our politics, and by our myopia. Like trying to convince people that white privilege is measured by things that didn't happen to them, trying to convince people to do things today that will help those whom they will never know (because they aren't born yet) is an uphill battle. Yet, if we do not rise to this occasion, physics and chemistry will continue to be indifferent to our ideas about the world around us. Earth abides, my friends. Every continent on this planet can sink beneath the seas then rise again in a billion years sans mankind. As the poet wrote: "And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn/Would scarcely know that we were gone..." (Sara Teasdale).

So yeah: we are in deep shit.

[Debbie Beeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. He should use better examples than Leonardo DiCaprio the man who flies all over on his private jet. The Pope needs to get his own house in order before he starts telling the rest of us how to live. He also needs to tear down his wall and start giving out all the assets of the Catholic Church. He needs to set the example or it is hypocrisy at its finest. I could go on and on.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually read books on nonviolence from Buddhist thinkers, so found this Christian perspective intriguing. When turn-the-other-cheek nonviolence is taken to its ultimate conclusion, though, it definitely covers violence against the earth and its other life forms, something that Pope Francis has treated in his encyclicals. Refreshing and thought-provoking.

[Dennis Coday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 14 is the heart of the book and presents many ideas worth exploring. Chapter 14 should have been Chapter 1 and let the ideas there guide the rest of the book. As a long-time reader of John Dear, I found the first several chapters replete with stories I have heard and read before. Not much insight there. Still a worthy read.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earnest essays about the intersection of nonviolence and the environment, centered on the author’s move to his home in a remote area of New Mexico and his recent activities within and outside the Catholic Church for peace and environmental responsibility.

[Jill M Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking

I read this book for a study group at my church. Given what Pope Francis has said many times, we are the primary stewards of our environment, and we must think carefully and critically about all of our actions.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a new book, but the alarm is ringing even louder now. Would be a good book for a group/book study, especially among a faith community who believes stewardship and doing no harm to earth are part of their calling as believers.

[James P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally like and believe in the authors philosophy and theories. However he doesn't do a good job of supporting the premises this book is built on.

[Thaddeus Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An urgent, earnest message that could've been fit into one essay, rather than a repetitive book.