Detailed item info | Synopsis | The authors, who founded the widely respected "Values & Visions Guide", have spent the last 25 years combing popular movies, videos, books, and spoken-word recordings in search of resources for people on spiritual journeys. Refreshingly nonsectarian in their approach and broadly inclusive of popular culture, the authors passionately advocate the importance of "spiritual literacy," which they define as the ability to discern the spiritual forces in our own lives. Convinced that spiritual literacy is a skill that can be learned, they have culled from their labors more than 700 spiritual passages from an impressively diverse group of artists, poets, thinkers, and writers--from Leonard Cohen and Jacob Needleman, to Meister Eckhart, Annie Dillard, and Zen master Robert Aitken. Along the way are contributions from the likes of Thomas Aquinas, Helen Keller, Barbara Kingsolver and Thomas Moore. By turns thought-provoking and enlightening, this anthology will richly reward all who consult its bountiful wisdom.
| | Size | | Height: | 10.0 in. | | Width: | 6.8 in. | | Thickness: | 1.5 in. | | Weight: | 32.0 oz. |
| | Publisher's Note | Spiritual Literacy answers the universal question, "How can I live a spiritual life every day?" Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, who have been covering contemporary culture and the spiritual renaissance for more than twenty-five years, believe that we can read the texts of our lives and of the world around us for sacred meaning. All we need is spiritual literacy. To illustrate their point, the Brussats present more than 650 "readings" about daily life from present-day authors - spiritual teachers, essayists, novelists, filmmakers, poets, naturalists, and social activists. This collection is unprecedented - an enthralling treasury of brief, "aha!" passages from such writers as Maya Angelou, Wendell Berry, Ram Dass, Annie Dillard, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Robert Fulghum, Eduardo Galeano, Thich Nhat Hanh, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Kozol, Kathleen Norris, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Anne Tyler, and many more. The Brussats add demonstrations of spiritual literacy based on their personal experiences and their interpretations of contemporary movies, songs, and television dramas. These remarkable readings tutor us in the art of lingering with our experiences and seeing the world with fresh eyes. They offer spiritual perspectives on things, places, nature, animals, leisure activities, creative pursuits, work, body, illness, death, relationships, and community. Spiritual literacy does not require that we become masters of certain religious texts or that we climb to a high rung on the ladder of enlightenment. Indeed, it is the very opposite of such elitism. At the end of each chapter, the Brussats invite their readers to practice spiritual literacy themselves through journal exercises, household projects,and rituals.
| | Industry reviews | "How do we find the sacred in the ordinary? by opening our eyes and delighting in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat's extraordinary book 'Spiritual Literacy.' This rich, evocative celebration of the mystery in the mundane is a generous gift of grace."
Advertisement - Sarah B. Breathnach
"This imaginative collation of stories, sayings, and observations drawn from a variety of traditions, positions spirituality exactly where it should be, enmeshed in the web of everyday life."
Advertisement - Harvey Cox
"Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat have found creative alternatives to the usual tendency of making spirituality superior, bodiless, and far removed from the popular culture."
Introduction - Thomas Moore
"[T]his book will satisfy the primary needs and reverential desires of anyone who looks to books for guidance."
Del Negro
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