Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World [Paperback]

John Dear (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2007

Spiritual leader and peace activist John Dear guides readers on the path to finding peace within, and bringing harmony to a world torn by hatred and violence, through following in the footsteps of Jesus.
John Dear’s efforts on behalf of social justice and world peace have won him international admiration and spurred features in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, USA TODAY, and the National Catholic Reporter. Seen by many to be the spiritual heir to the Berrigan brothers, Dear believes that the key to the spiritual life is not just finding inner peace, but also bringing that peace to bear on the outside world. In his latest work, Dear uses the Gospel account of the Transfiguration, inviting readers to shape their lives along the story of Jesus and to continue his mission of love and peace. These practices have sustained him through his work with the homeless in Washington, D.C., and New York City, as a human-rights advocate in Northern Ireland and Iraq, and on his many missions for peace in war-torn places around the world. Dividing the lifelong pursuit of peace into three distinct parts—an inner journey, a public journey, and the journey of all humanity—he delves into the challenges of learning to love ourselves as we are, diffusing the hatred we feel toward others, and embracing the choice to live in peace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Jesuit priest, successful author and peace activist, Dear uses Jesus' Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor as a model for personal and corporate transformation to the ways of peace and nonviolence. Using the biblical texts as a metaphor, he explores how we, too, can journey up the mountain, be transfigured and then walk back down into the world as transformed people and churches willing to go to the cross. Dear also includes helpful suggestions on spiritual practices that lead to embracing nonviolence, as well as questions for individual contemplation or group discussion. Like many who are passionate about their subject, Dear's sense that he absolutely knows God's will is daunting at times. He also stretches some of the biblical texts, arguing, for instance, that Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration specifically to affirm Jesus' call to nonviolence. Dear is much to be admired for his persistence in the call for peace and nonviolence, a mission for which he has been willing to go to prison, and those who already share the author's views will find this book inspiring. Those who do not will probably go away unconvinced that the account of the Transfiguration makes his case. (Feb. 20)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Priest, retreat leader, and peace activist Dear has been executive director of the interfaith organization Fellowship of Reconciliation and a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains in New York City after 9/11. A true man of peace, he takes the life lessons of Jesus seriously. In Transfiguration, he goes a step further by insisting we all can have a transfigurating experience by following Jesus. The further we enter into the story of Jesus, the more we will share "his every experience." The book isn't a manual, however. It's a personal journal, a "little meditation" on Jesus' transfiguration as the risen Christ that we can apply in our own lives through contemplative prayer, gospel study, and shared community. Such transfiguration involves going up the mountain with Jesus, recognizing the transfigured Christ in our daily lives, going down the mountain to the cross, and fulfilling Jesus' mission of nonviolence. In a quiet, even unobtrusive manner, Transfiguration sounds a call for world peace, achieved one person at a time. Archbishop Desmond Tutu contributes the foreword. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Image (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038551008X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385510080
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Dear, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, peace activist, organizer, lecturer, and retreat leader. He is also the author/editor of twenty books on peace and nonviolence. John was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. John lives in northern New Mexico. Visit his Web site at www.persistentpeace.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of John Dear's Transfiguration, May 2, 2007

By 

Joseph P. Mahon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World (Paperback)

Transfiguration
Transfiguration is the latest book from the Jesuit peace activist and spiritual leader John Dear. The entire book is a meditation on the story of the Transfiguration. It is a must read for all Christians, especially those involved in working for peace and justice.
Father Dear speaks of moments of transfiguration in our lives, times when we go up the mountain to be affirmed by the Father and come down ready to take up the cross and live the nonviolent Gospel of Jesus. Our lives are a walk with Jesus. Like Jesus, we proclaim nonviolent peace and justice. At times, we are affirmed and consoled by the Father, "You are my beloved son or daughter." The Father tells us to listen to Jesus.
When we listen to Jesus, we hear, "Love your enemies." "Love one another as I have loved you." "Put away your swords." "Pray for those who persecute you." "Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Clothe the naked. Shelter the homeless. Care for the sick. Visit the imprisoned. Declare a year of jubilee for debt relief." When we listen to this and try to make it a reality in our lives and in our world, we take up our crosses, go forth from the mountain, and walk with Jesus to Jerusalem.
Father Dear reminds us that we must be prayerful people. We must contemplate the nonviolent teachings of Jesus every day. Contemplation is not the prayer of the Pharisees--words piled upon words. It is resting in the presence of God and listening to what God is telling us. Action without contemplation is futile. I pray daily for a more peaceful heart because I really need one and that is where it all really begins. I cannot make my heart more peaceful. Only Jesus can gift me with a peaceful heart.
He also reminds us that Jesus was nonviolent but not passive. Jesus actively resisted the evil of the empire and the Temple cult that surrounded him and oppressed him and his fellow Jews. He willingly absorbed the evil of crucifixion rather than retaliate in violence. He showed us that the only way to true peace and justice is by the suffering of the cross. We take up our crosses when we enter into the suffering of the poor and oppressed, the victims of all the structural violence in our world.
One of the main points I got from my first reading of the book (I will ponder this book many times!) is that we must let go of fear as we come down from the moments of transfiguration to work for peace and justice. In 2005, Father Dear personally taught me to let go of fear and cross the line at the Nevada Test Site to protest nuclear proliferation on the sixtieth anniversary of Hiroshima. I will never forget the moment when I walked into the barb wire holding area. Father Dear immediately came up to me and asked me, "Are you doing all right?" He is a powerful activist and a very sensitive, compassionate man. More recently, while I was reading the book, I let go of fear and signed up for a study mission to Israel and Palestine which now has been postponed. But, I will go. In the meantime, I am going to Ireland and to Northern Ireland this summer in order to study peacemaking there.
I also learned from the book that life is a series of transfigurations. That is what energizes us for our work. Each transfiguration brings us to a deeper awareness of the nonviolent Jesus. I am retired now and my wife and I spend a lot of our time working for peace and justice.
I fondly recall the moments of transfiguration in my life where the Father encouraged me to follow his nonviolent Son--a retreat at Agnes Scott College with Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy over twenty years ago, a retreat with Father John Dear at Kirkridge Retreat Center, and a retreat with Father Daniel Berrigan and Elizabeth McAllister also at Kirkridge. These gentle giants proclaim the nonviolence of Jesus to a world and a country that wants to have nothing to do with what they are proclaiming. However, they have taught me that being faithful to nonviolence is what it is all about. We live with hope beyond hope that Jesus will transform us and our world into the New Heaven and New Earth as promised.
I encourage you to read and reread the book. The Questions for Reflection that are scattered throughout the book give readers ample opportunity to contemplate the truth of Jesus' nonviolence and apply it to their own lives.
As Christians, our "weapons" are the towel and the bowl. We are to wash one another's feet. We are to serve not be served. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We are to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.
J. Patrick Mahon, Ph.D.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint of heart!, May 3, 2007

By 

J. Hinderer (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World (Paperback)

John Dear's book of Transfiguration is not for those faint of heart.

The chapters lead the reader up the mountain to "eavesdrop" on Jesus' encounter with Moses and Elijah. Like Peter, the reader cannot settle into comfort and ease. One is challenged to surrender to being disturbed by the God who speaks "cloud talk" and

desires us to listen to Jesus. John's words call us all to live a life of nonviolence through commitment to contemplative prayer. The book is interspersed with questions for personal reflection and steps for pondering one's journey on the road to nonviolence.

Encountering this book, you will never be the same if you are an "observer" of life.

John says it well when he writes: "To follow Jesus on the path of transfiguring nonviolence, we have to leave our lofty heights, comfortable safety, and private spiritualities and go with him down the mountain into the world of war, where we must confront the structures of violence head-on. The real discipleship journey beings now, after the Transfiguration, as we follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem."

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Read is a Great Spiritual Writer, April 2, 2007

By 

Armando Maggi "book lover" (chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World (Paperback)

When you read John Read, you are reminded of the "madness" of Saint Francis of Assisi and all those powerless holy men and women who believe that Jesus always sides with the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, the "wrong" people. Unlike many arrogant and self-righteous "Christians" of our times who claim they know that Jesus supports war and the persecution of "immoral" people, John Dear insists that Jesus' love is all-inclusive and peaceful. Against the many Christian "prophets" who in their own TV programs support those powerful politicians who are pro-war and pro-capital punishment, John Dear reminds us that to follow Jesus means to question the numerous forms of violence that dominate our times. Dear's "insanity" is like opening a window and smell some fresh air. I highly recommend that you read this and all the other books written by John Dear.