In ‘Making History’—

Richard Cohen has some short (and long) answers.

THE FIRST QUESTION raised at our publishing house, when we receive the manuscript of a column for Read The Spirit online magazine or a book for our Front Edge Publishing house is: “What makes a great story?” That’s the crucial question we must answer to decide whether to publish that column or book—and to explain to the writers who submitted those texts why we are either accepting or rejecting their work. That’s often a very challenging discernment to make. And, that’s why Front Edge founding Editor David Crumm is beginning an occasional series of columns about: “What makes a great story? What makes a great book?” In the first part of that series, we draw on lessons from Richard Cohen’s remarkable new book about the world’s most successful historians: Making History—The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past. Please, enjoy this week’s cover story and share it with friends via social media and email.

.

.

Speaking of Great Stories …

Carol Trembath, asks …

Earthrise: What brought us to honor Earth Day?

CAROL TREMBATH has devoted her professional talents to reporting stories about our world’s fragile environmental balance. This week, she writes about the milestones that stirred us to create Earth Day, which is right on the horizon—on Friday April 22.

.

WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

.

Lucille Sider

‘Act your age!’ may lead to some healthy surprises

IN OUR CAREGIVERS SECTION THIS WEEK, our popular columnist Lucille Sider points out that the advice “Act your age!” is not necessarily an insult. In fact, if we pay attention to our bodies, as we age, we may discover some healthy surprises. Please, enjoy this column and share it with friends.

.

.

Suzy Farbman

One family makes a tasty difference for so many

IN THIS WEEK’S GOD SIGNS COLUMN, Suzy Farbman introduces us to Beaver Shriver, whose visionary coffee and ice cream shop has become a friendly hub for inclusion. Please, share this inspiring column with friends.

.

.

David Gushee

Ukraine’s ‘Just War’

THIS WEEK, CHRISTIAN ETHICIST Dr. David Gushee writes on his website about moral issues surrounding this tragic conflict. Why should we read this timely column? Dr. Gushee puts it this way: “The Russian assault on Ukraine, taking place before the eyes of a watching world, should and will affect current Christian moral thinking about war. It will contribute to reviving the meaningfulness of classic just war theory and challenging the (principled or functional) pacifism regnant for a generation in Christian ethics and some church bodies.”

.

.

.

Larry Buxton

Feeling ‘Hopeless’? Consider this ‘Possibility’ …

LARRY BUXTON’S LEADNG WITH SPIRIT VIDEO, this week, zeroes in on the despair that so many of us feel in the face of the world’s tragedy these days—by talking about Christianity’s miracle of Easter. “Over time … empty branches blossom again,” Larry says, evoking Emily Dickinson’s “House of Possibility.” He continues, “You and I can catch the pale, persistent glimmers of grace and surprise.”

.

.

And from our friends at the International Association of Religion Journalists

A dialogue on the complex role of religion in public life

OUR FRIENDS AT THE IARJ have been convening a series of global dialogues among journalists and scholars about the complex role of religion in shaping public life, these days. A new 52-minute dialogue now is available on the IARJ website, exploring such thought-provoking questions as: “Is religion shaping politics, or are political movements now reshaping our religion?”

.

.

Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

• COMPARTMENT 6—”Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen takes on the strangers on a train genre in this slow moving story about Finnish student Laura (Seidi Haarla) studying in Moscow sometime during a winter of late 80s or mid 90s.”
• 7 DAYS—Director Roshan Sethi is also the co-writer (with star Karan Soni) of this romantic tale of two Americans, Ravi (Karan Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan), whose Indian parents want to set them up for an arranged marriage.
• THE BATMAN—”Director Matt Reeves and co-writer (with Peter Craig) have given us an almost three hours long story so dark that film noir looks like screwball comedy by comparison.”
• THE OUTFIT—”Set in the 1950s, director Graham Moore’s film is the story of Leonard, who has been opening up his modest shop in the same seedy side of Chicago ever since leaving London’s Saville Row after WWII.”
• SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE—Netflix now is streaming two dozen episodes of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2015-19 TV series, Servant of the People. Ed McNulty highly recommends the series, writing: “What a series of visual parables about lifting up the lowly and of the great reversal proclaimed by Jesus in the gospels!“
• FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN FIVE SPEECHES—Ed writes, “Although in just 54 minutes director Julia Marchesi cannot possibly include all of the massive amount of information in David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Frederick Douglass, she does an excellent job in portraying the man and his great influence upon his times and especially upon President Lincoln.”
• FLEE—”Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s triple Oscar contender about a war refugee is different from other documentaries in that it is 95% animated.”
• WINTER ON FIRE—“I hope that freedom-loving people all over the world will tune in to Netflix’s new documentary. An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, it provides a fitting prelude to the current violence unleashed by the ruthless land-grabbing Russian tyrant, as well as a fitting tribute to the brave people opposing him.”
• CARRIE’S WAR—“The story is set during the London Blitz when the decision was made to ship the children out into the country-side for their safety and their parents’ peace of mind.”
• WRITING WITH FIRE—”This Oscar-nominated documentary’s title must have been derived from the white hot passion of journalist Meera Devi and her colleagues at their newspaper located in northern India. Khabar Lahariya, which means in English “Waves of News,” is staffed by Dalit women.”

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.