Study: Selected Resources

Image credit: Peace Studies Section, International Studies Association

To form our consciences on issues of war, nonviolence, Just Peace, and justice and injustice, we need to be lifelong learners. The field of peace and justice studies has grown tremendously in recent decades. Universities worldwide offer degrees in Conflict Resolution (or Conflict Transformation), International Peacebuilding, Sustainable Development, and related fields.  

The literature has grown accordingly. Below we offer a brief selection of titles that we have found useful. Please share your favorites with us!

General Catholic Social Teaching and Faith in Action

• Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers: A Virtue Ethic for Catholic Social Teaching and U.S. Policy by Eli Sasaran McCarthy (2012)

• The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today by Charles Marsh (2005)

• Catholic Social Teaching by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2004)

• Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the Unity States by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2011)

• Foundations of Catholic Social Teaching: Living as a Disciple of Christ by Ave Maria Press (2015)

• Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice by Daniel Groody (2007)

Resources for Focus Issues

Nonviolence and Just Peace

• Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies edited by David P. Barash (2000) 

• The Art and Soul of Building Peace by John Paul Lederach (2010) 

• Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding by Lisa Sowle Cahill (2019)

• Catholic Nonviolence Initiative: Resources on Just Peace

• Catholic Peacebuilding Network, University of Notre Dame

• Catholic Realism and the Abolition of War by David Carroll Cochran (2014)

• The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response: A Pastoral Letter on War and Peace by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1983)

• Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence edited by Marie Dennis (2018)
  

• Christian Peace and Nonviolence: A Documentary History by Michael G. Long (2011)

• Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace eight-week group study and discussion program from JustFaith Ministries
  

• A Faith Not Worth Fighting For: Addressing Commonly Asked Questions about Christian Nonviolence edited by Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer (2012)

• Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire by Philip Berrigan (1996)

• A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict by Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall (2000)

• Give Peace a Chance: Preventing Mass Violence by David A. Hamburg and Eric Hamburg (2013)

• Jesus Christ, Peacemaker: A New Theology of Peace by Terrence J. Rynne (2014)

• Just Peacemakers: An Introduction to Peace and Justice by Mary Evelyn Jegen (2006)

• Justice & Peace: A Christian Primer by J. Milburn Thompson (2003)

• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg (2015)

• Peace: A Dream Unfolding edited by Penney Kome and Patrick Crean (1986)

• Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas by David Cortright (2008)

• Peace: A World History by Antony Adolf (2009)

• The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace edited Beacon Press (2002)

• Prevention Works: 50 Stories of People Resolving Conflict by Dylan Matthews (2002)

• Transforming Power for Peace by Lawrence S. Aspey and Karen Eppler (2001)

• What about Hitler: Wrestling with Jesus’ Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World by Robert W. Brimlow (2006)

• What Would You Do? by John Howard Yoder (1992)

• Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan (2011)

Human Dignity

• Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship by Gregory Boyle (2017)

• Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity by Rob Arner (2010)

• Human Dignity Resources by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day, 1952

• Revolution of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Social Worker edited by Patrick Coy (1988)

• Voices from the Catholic Worker compiled and edited by Rosalie Riegle Troester (1993)

Nuclear Disarmament

• The Nuns, The Priests, and The Bombs film (2017)

• Nuclear Weapons by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Sojourners articles on disarmament

Drone Warfare

• Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin (2012)

• Sojourners articles on drones

• “What Are Drones Doing to Us?” by Eli McCarthy, America (2013)

Israel-Palestine

• America articles on Israel-Palestine

• Israel-Palestine by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Sojourners articles on Israel-Palestine

Gun Violence

• America articles on Guns

• Backgrounder on a Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Bullets into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence edited by Brian Clements, Alexandra Teague, and Dean Rader (2017)

• Confronting Gun Violence in America by Thomas Gabor (2016)

• Sojourners articles on Gun Control

Military Spending

• A Peace Economy: Rebalancing Spending Priorities by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Sojourners articles on Military Spending