In The Discipline of the Mountain Daniel Berrigan offers "ways of imagining our plight" through the poetic vision of Dante's Purgatorio. There can be found "a faithful vision, an alternative, a truthful image of God, of ourselves, of history." Berrigan employs free, poetic adaptation of the original--its themes, moods, discourses, encounters--with a prose commentary relating the text to political-moral issues of the present day. With its themes of lust and hatred, religious strife and ecclesiastical corruption, military power and oppression, the Purgatorio is an apt allegory of modern society. Thirteenth-century kings and princes shade into twentieth-century colonels and shahs and juntas. The Discipline of the Mountain is evocatively illustrated by Robert F. McGovern.

Daniel Berrigan is an internationally known voice for peace and disarmament. A Jesuit priest, award-winning poet, and the author of over fifty books, he has spoken for peace, justice, and nuclear disarmament for nearly fifty years. He spent several years in prison for his part in the 1968 Catonsville Nine antiwar action and later acted with the Plowshares Eight. Nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize, he lives and works in New York City. Robert F. McGovern, whose woodcuts appear in The Discipline of the Mountain, is Professor Emeritus at Philadelphia College of Art and lives in Narbeth, Pennsylvania. In addition to illustrating several books, his work has appeared in New Covenant Magazine and the Catholic Worker.