Best this month
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat The best of 2010
Picks for spiritually literate films include (clockwise from left): Tangled, Hereafter and Social Network.
Every year we choose the “Most Spiritually Literate Films” from all the movies we’ve reviewed. We look for films whose stories reflect the search for meaning and purpose, whose characters demonstrate the applica- tion of spiritual qualities in daily life, and whose themes raise our awareness about the challenges facing our world.
Some of our choices from the 2010 films are The Social Network (PG-13), The King’s Speech (R), Made in Dagenham (R), The Company Men (R), Hereafter (PG-13), Secretariat (PG), The Secret of Kells (not rated), Toy Story 3 (G), Tangled (PG), Secret Sunshine (not rated), Welcome (not rated), Last Train Home (not rated), Budrus (not rated), Babies (PG) and Vision: The Life of Hildegard of Bingen (not rated). Visit
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/films to read reviews of these films and to see the full list of the 45 “Most Spiritually Literate American Fea- tures, Foreign Language Films, Animated Films and Documentaries.”
99 Ways to Raise Spiritually Healthy Children
This is a helpful resource by Kathleen Long Bostrom, a Presbyterian minister and mother of three. Christian parents are always on the lookout for ideas on how to help their children delight in their spirituality. Bostrom quotes theo- logian Howard Rice: “Spirituality is a pattern by which we shape our lives in response to our experience of God as a very real presence in and among us.” Children’s spiri- tuality is played out as they are eating, during what happens at school, and in the way friends are treated, how sports are played, technology is used, money is spent and daily chores are done.
The Brussats pub- lish the website www. SpiritualityandPractice. com where you can find more information about the items reviewed in this column.
Each section of the book includes a biblical passage and a provocative question. We especially liked Bostrom’s treatments of these themes: learn how to lose, write a family creed, practice hospitality, make man- ners matter, and be kind to animals (Westminster John Knox Press,
www.wjkbooks.com).
42 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org God’s Dream
Three little children are asked what they dream about in their loveliest dreams and do they know what God dreams about. The answers come in pictures about sharing, car- ing, playing, laughing, crying
and forgiving. “God dreams that every one of us will see that we are all brothers and sisters” even when we live in different faraway lands, speak different languages and have different ways of talking to God. The picture for the last answer shows Christian, Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim children at prayer. The text is by retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his lifelong struggle to bring equality, justice and peace to his homeland South Africa. The ideas here have been adapted by him and Douglas Carl- ton Abrams from their book God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time. The illustrations by the award-winning LeUyen Pham add vibrancy to this classic story that honors unity, diversity and working together to create a better world (Candlewick Press,
www.candlewick.com).
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