#74 Part 2 of 2: John Dear with authors John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on their new book "Jesus and Justice" and organizing work on the streets of Chicago: "We have a savage culture".

About this episode

Fr. John Dear discusses nonviolence and community organizing with John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, focusing on their book 'Jesus and Justice'.

Today is Part 2 of my conversation with scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan along with Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, about their new book, Jesus and Justice: Organizing for God’s Reign on Earth Then and Now. Co-author Michael Okinczyc-Cruz is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership in Chicago where he is a community organizer. He is also a professor at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago. “One cannot look at our current political moment and not think about Jesus,” Dom Crossan says. “ Jesus’ teaching had to do with the lived realities of the oppressed people of his time. Jesus did faith-based community organizing and his nonviolent movement has ongoing relevance for today,” he says. Their new book, Jesus and Justice, reflects on Jesus as a grassroots movement organizer of nonviolent resistance, and combines Dom’s scholarship with Michael’s organizing work on the streets of Chicago. “ In Chicago,” he says, “you could encounter Border Patrol and ICE agents roaming the streets, arresting people based on the color of their skin. Conditions were so horrific in detention, one local judge described it as a…

People in this episode

Host: Fr. John Dear

Guests: John Dominic Crossan, Michael Okinczyc-Cruz

Topics covered

• nonviolence
• community organizing
• Jesus' teachings
• social justice
• Chicago
• grassroots movements

Keywords

• nonviolence
• community organizing
• Jesus
• social justice
• Chicago
• grassroots
• political activism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago

Books & works: Jesus and Justice

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