My mate John Dear has just released his new book and I’m heaps excited cause I just received my copy in the post. Much like Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship” and Shane Claiborne's “The Irresistible Revolution”, I’m likely to be accused of getting a cut from the book sales cause of the way I hand it out and suggest it like it was going out of fashion. Like Lee and Shane what sets John apart is his integrity and accessibility.   I’m thoroughly biased so here’s what others are saying about Nobel Peace Prize Nominee John Dear’s new book that I think everyone should read :) (here's the website: http://loyolapress.org/johndear/John_Dear_SJ-Persistent_Peace.html)

• [John Dear] is the embodiment of a peacemaker. He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these.

—Desmond Tutu, Archbishop, Cape Town, South Africa

• John Dear understands that peacemaking is not a part-time job. A Persistent Peace is the story of his passion for Jesus’ way of peace, a commitment that guides his life. John has walked the talk for years, an inspiration to all of us to do more than we think we can.

— Jim Wallis, author, The Great Awakening and president, Sojourners.

• Once more, and in a plenary way, we are blessed by the eloquence and moral passion of John Dear. A Persistent Peace is both a celebration and a cautionary tale. John loves the world and walks the edge of endangered creation. He rejoices in his friends an mourns the lethal follies of the powerful. More power to this intrepid disciple of Christ—the Peacemaker.

— Daniel Berrigan, author of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and winner of the Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award

• John Dear has been arrested in the cause of peace and human decency more times than anyone else I know. I am honored to consider him a friend.

— Joan Baez, singer and peace activist

• John Dear not only talks about Jesus, he lives Jesus—radical, loving, nonviolent Jesus. He prisms Jesus through his own life and brings us into the adventure.

— Sister Helen Prejean, leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, author of Dead Man Walking

• John Dear is a great spiritual progressive leader whose wisdom, courage and gentleness make him one of the most beloved teachers of nonviolence in America, and a beacon of light not only in his Jesuit world, but to people from every faith. A Persistent Peace is more than inspiring, it is instructive about what each one of us could be doing even in the darkest of times. Dear gets into the nits and grits of building a social change movement with very imperfect people as well as many quite amazing people.  Reading this book will make you less lonely by knowing that you're sharing your time on earth with John Dear.

— Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of Tikkun magazine and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives

• To take care of each other should be our primary concern in this twenty-first century, and Father John Dear is steady on this course.

— Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist

• John Dear’s extraordinary autobiography reaches its climactic scene when a National Guard unit, prior to going to Iraq, stands in the early morning outside the door of his parish in New Mexico, where he has been preaching against the war, chanting ‘One bullet, one kill!’ His life might well be summed up by that scene: a Jesuit priest whose commitment to nonviolence and peace carries him to El Salvador, the Middle East, and all over the United States, and whose protests land him in jail again and again. His deep faith and steadfast devotion to the principles of Jesus, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Daniel Berrigan, lead him to defy the authority of hierarchies, whether in his church or in the nation, and hold fast to his beliefs even when soldiers chanting threats show up at his door. John Dear’s life story is inspiring and heartwarming.

—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

• This inspiring book is deeply challenging to all of us. Its author weaves together the intellectual, spiritual, and practical works of Christian nonviolence and active resistance. At the heart of it all, Father John Dear reveals where his power comes from—out of his love of Jesus and the Gospels. John’s enthusiasm and passionate commitment to his calling to be a beloved disciple called ‘John,’ is moving and contagious. “Deo Gracias” for John Dear’s life and work.

—Mairead Corrigan Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner