Daniel Berrigan

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The renowned poet, priest, and activist brings to life his namesake and role model, the biblical prophet Daniel. Daniel Berrigan’s powerful, poetic commentary on the biblical book of Daniel brings to life a prophet who has as much to say to our hedonistic, warring world as he did to the people of Old Testament times. Continuing the series he began with Isaiah and Ezekiel, Berrigan fuses social critique, Jewish midrash, and political commentary to bring us a book of stylistic distinction and spiritual depth. A bold and unorthodox application of the Old Testament to current political and social discourse, Daniel is not simply a book about a bygone prophet, but a powerful charge to all people of conscience. As Berrigan writes, “There are principalities of today to be confronted, their idols and thrice-stoked furnaces and caves of lions, their absurd self-serving images and rhetoric. Someone must pink their pride, decode the handwriting on the wall. Who is to stand up, to withstand?”

On the face of it, Deuteronomy seems to be a book filled with triumph -- the pronouncement of the commandments, the end of the Israelites' long exile, the coming of the Promised Land. But Daniel Berrigan here turns a searching eye toward this text and finds its darker side. Moses, the people's leader for forty years, is denied entrance to the land he dreamt about. The people desperately create a golden calf to worship even as God is giving Moses the two tablets. The Promised Land, full of milk and honey, is also full of inhabitants -- gaining entrance means destroying or driving out a number of its people. Berrigan draws clear parallels between Deuteronomy's time of mingled triumph and broken law and our own moment in history, uncovering the stories within the story of this complex biblical book. With both great grace and incisive candor, he turns Deuteronomy inside out and makes us look at it -- and ourselves -- in a fresh light.

Sorrow Built a Bridge: Friendship and AIDS chronicles Daniel Berrigan's work with people with AIDS during the 1980s at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. For decades Berrigan protested war and nuclear weapons. Then in the early 1980s he also began to minister to those dying of cancer. When AIDS exploded in New York, he offered to accompany the dying at St. Vincent's, one of the first and best care facilities in the nation for people with AIDS. This account tells of the suffering of those with AIDS, an epidemic which now afflicts millions around the globe. It also shows a compassionate Christian response to such suffering. In the process, Berrigan once again teaches us how to make peace. ""I list myself among the many admirers of Father Daniel Berrigan. His writings are always poetic and inspirational, his message ever timely and beneficial. Sorrow Built a Bridge is no exception. Father Dan has put a human face on AIDS, the malady which has reached epidemic proportions. He recounts here his own personal journey and ministry with fourteen specific persons for whom 'death was given a royal welcome.' He does not dwell on the causes of AIDS nor does he pass judgment on its victims doomed to 'atrocious suffering.' Father Dan gives meaning to his own experience by choosing and reflecting on selected scripture passages. He also connects his encounters with the deaths of those who were once 'young and vigorous' with his own peacemaking. In both cases, 'dreams turn into nightmares, ' 'old hatreds don new fatigues' and 'immunity systems break down both in a person and in a nation.' This book is a special gift to those committed to compassionate care for persons with AIDS."" Bishop Walter F. Sullivan (from the Foreword)

Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine is a powerful, poetic commentary on one of the Bible's most politically charged books by one of America's greatest peacemaking prophets, Daniel Berrigan. Using the insights he has gained from a lifetime of nonviolent resistance to war and empire, Berrigan walks us through these ancient biblical stories of nonviolent resistance to war and empire, pointing out how we can learn from Daniel and his friends to keep the faith, stay hopeful, and resist every war, injustice, and empire today. It is not only one of Berrigan's best books, but one of the best commentaries on the book of Daniel. Through the scripture and the author's life, we discover the power and duty of civil disobedience to the culture of war and divine obedience to the God of peace.