Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World

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)