Lectures – Jim and Nancy Forest

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

The Road November 24, 2020

by Jim Forest Consider well the highway, the road by which you went. — Jeremiah 31:21 The road was the most imperative and first of our necessities. It is older than buildings and than wells. — Hillaire Belloc, The Old Road Now my body seemed to walk itself, the road walking my body. — an […]

Join the Navy and See the World November 13, 2020

[extracts from Writing Straight With Crooked Lines: A Memoir] By Jim Forest Like many teenagers before me, I found myself gazing at military recruiting posters. “Join the Navy and see the world” was a slogan that had immense appeal. See the world? Yes! The local recruiting office was located in the basement of the Post […]

Refusing to Take Shelter November 11, 2020

By Jim Forest [an extract from All Is Grace, a biography of Dorothy Day (Orbis Books) / the photo was taken in City Hall Park in 1955] In the spring of 1955, the press reported that a civil defense drill, “Operation Alert,” was scheduled for June 15. The news came with a warning: anyone refusing […]

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 […]