Lectures – Jim and Nancy Forest

Jim Forest makes occasional lecture trips. Are you interested in him speaking at your parish, school or university?

I Had a Dream October 2, 2020

By Jim Forest [clipped from Writing Straight With Crooked Lines] In 1967, with the war in Vietnam getting worse by the day and civilian casualties mounting steadily, I had a soul-changing dream that helped me overcome the bitter tide that was rising within me. At the time, anti-war demonstrations were turning in a hate-driven, self-righteous […]

Praying for Enemies September 1, 2020

by Jim Forest “But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”[1] In a single sentence Jesus links love of enemies with prayer for them. In fact prayer is the essential first step without which love of enemies would be hardly possible. If we have any interest in attempting […]

Contemplation and Resistance: A Dialogue Between Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan August 29, 2020

Source: WIN magazine, vol ix, nr 17, June 4, 1973, pp. 4-10 What follows is the slightly edited transcript of a conversation recorded in Paris January 4 between Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan, the one a Buddhist monk and Zen master, the other a Catholic priest well known for animosity to draft records and […]

Conscience and War: Saying Yes, Saying No August 28, 2020

by Jim Forest [written for the journal The Wheel and published in the Spring-Summer 2020 issue. See:https://www.wheeljournal.com.] Terrence Malick’s new film, A Hidden Life, is closely based on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who was beheaded in Berlin in 1943 for refusing to make an oath of allegiance to Hitler or serve […]