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What is PeaceDocs?

PeaceDocs is a digital library for Christian peacemaking, conscience, nonviolence, and prayer. We gather the wisdom of two thousand years of Christian peace tradition into one place — from the Sermon on the Mount to Dorothy Day, from early church pacifism to modern prayer practices.

This is not a news site or a debate forum. It is a quiet resource for Christians who want to understand what their tradition actually teaches about peace, violence, forgiveness, and the inner life — and who want to practice it.

How Christians have thought about peace

Peace is not a peripheral topic in Christianity. It stands at the center of Jesus' teaching: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Yet Christians have understood and applied this teaching in remarkably different ways across the centuries.

Some traditions — like the Mennonites, Quakers, and the Church of the Brethren — have understood Jesus' words as an absolute call to nonviolence. Others, following Augustine and the Catholic just war tradition, have argued that peace sometimes requires the disciplined use of force. And many Christians have wrestled somewhere in between, seeking reconciliation and enemy-love while facing the moral complexity of a broken world.

PeaceDocs does not take a single side in this conversation. We believe the conversation itself is valuable — and that encountering these voices can deepen your understanding of what it means to follow the Prince of Peace.

Where prayer fits in

Peace is not only about politics, war, and social justice. It is also deeply personal. The Christian tradition teaches that inner peace — peace of heart, peace of conscience, peace with God — is the foundation for all outward peacemaking.

Thomas Merton wrote that “we are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.”

If you want to change the world, begin by changing your inner life. That is where peace starts — in silence, in prayer, in attention.

This is why PeaceDocs also covers prayer, contemplation, digital distraction, and attention. We believe that choosing prayer before scrolling, stillness before reaction, and attention before impulse are daily acts of peacemaking.

Our companion app, Prayer Lock, is designed to help you build this habit — pausing for a moment of prayer before opening distracting apps.

Best beginner articles

If you're just starting, we recommend these five guides:

• Christian Peacemaking: A Beginner's Guide — The big picture of what the tradition teaches.
• Bible Verses About Peace — Scripture for peace of mind, forgiveness, anger, and anxiety.
• Prayer Before Scrolling — Why attention matters spiritually.
• Dorothy Day — One of the most compelling peacemakers of the 20th century.
• Prayers for Peace — Short, practical prayers for daily life.

Recommended reading path

If you want to go deeper, we suggest this order:

1. Start with Christian Peacemaking for the foundation.
2. Read Bible Verses About Peace for scriptural grounding.
3. Explore Christian Nonviolence to understand the tradition's most radical claim.
4. Meet Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton — two people who lived it.
5. Dive into the Catholic Peace Tradition for the deepest historical roots.
6. End each day with Prayers for Peace — and consider making prayer before distraction a daily habit.