Jim Forest

Jim Forest, (November 2, 1941–January 13, 2022) was an American writer, Christian lay theologian, educator, and peace activist.

In the late sixties and mid-seventies, Forest worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, first as Vietnam Program coordinator and later as editor of Fellowship magazine. From 1977 through 1988, he was Secretary General of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which brought him to live in the Netherlands. He received the Peacemaker Award from Notre Dame University’s Institute for International Peace Studies and the St. Marcellus Award from the Catholic Peace Fellowship.

The author of biographies of peacemakers Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Daniel Berrigan (All Is Grace, Living with Wisdom, and At Play in the Lions’ Den), Jim Forest was a historian with a keen eye for detail. He published his last book just before his death, an affectionate memoir of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and their time together campaigning for peace during the 1960s and 1970s. Jim Forest lived with his wife, Nancy Forest, in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.