I rejoice in this day and in this book becoming available once again. At Jonah House, the place I've called home for 33 years, we've had numerous copies of it in the years since it was first published. One copy remains - dog-eared, read, reread, studied. It was a book that we reflected on together in community - the backbone, if you will, next to the Scriptures - of our on-going resistance out of community. Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House (from the foreword) This book has been of extraordinary significance to large numbers of young people, resisters, prisoners, searchers, many who have been increasingly perplexed and anguished by the course of American life in the world. My brother Philip and I have used it in numerous sessions with students and others, who found in it the sustenance necessary to allow them to take the next step in their struggle on behalf of life. It seems to me that this book will continue, in its own quiet and persistent way, to reach those Americans who are capable of inviting us into any future worth speaking about. Daniel Berrigan From perspectives of truth, nonviolence and resistance to personal and cultural violence, this book is among the few important books of the last decade. Neutrality to this book is impossible -- people will view it as a gift, or they will reject it as a threat....enlightening, strengthening, liberating. Philip Berrigan Jim Douglass is a writer and a Catholic Worker. He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, AL. He is currently writing three books on the assassinations of the Kennedys, Malcom X and King in the 1960's (with Orbis Books). The James Douglass Reprint Series: The Non-Violent Cross Resistance and Contemplation Lightning East to West The Nonviolent Coming of God

James Douglass's writings have been recognized as among the most challenging and inspiring explorations of nonviolence and Christian discipleship in the last century. Throughout his career, Douglass has argued forcefully for the integration of contemplation and resistance, theology and cultural critique, spirituality and prophetic involvement. His work has inspired many of the key figures in recent debates regarding just war, Christian nonviolence, and radical discipleship and continues to be highly relevant in our contemporary situation. In A Question of Being, the first book-length treatment published on Douglass's writings, Karin Holsinger Sherman provides an introduction to and engagement with this important body of work through an exploration into its contextual history, influences, and main themes. Moreover, the author argues that these themes work together to create an "ontology of nonviolence," an ontology that integrates the forces of resistance and contemplation so important to Douglass. The book begins by examining Douglass's biography and three broad historical trajectories that give context to his thought: the fusion of Christianity and American nationalism in the early Cold War period; the emergence of cultural critique in the late fifties and early sixties, and the Catholic pacifist tradition; and the post-1972 period of disillusionment. Holsinger Sherman then considers the lives and thought of Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi, and Thomas Merton, as well as their unique intellectual and exemplary influence on Douglass's ideas. After explicating the themes of the cross and the kingdom as they developed chronologically in Douglass's writing career, this book draws together Douglass's thought to reveal an "ontology of nonviolence." In her conclusion, Holsinger Sherman argues that this ontology of nonviolence is the key to understanding Douglass's integral theology of contemplation and resistance.