E-Newsletter - What's Happening at Spirituality & Practice

Announcing the Best Spiritual Books of 2022

Greetings, Friends. We are happy to be rebooting our e-newsletter. Delivered right to your email twice a month, it will give you links to some of our new content on the website and news about our activities and plans. We hope you find it useful and will share it with your friends and colleagues. They can sign up to receive it here.

Today we are also delighted to announce our choices for the Best Spiritual Books of 2022. From all the books we have reviewed on this website during the year, we have chosen 50 Best Spiritual Books and 10 Best Spiritual Children's Books. These are the titles that have most impressed and inspired us and, since we only review books that we want to recommend to you for your spiritual journey, this selection actually represents the best of the best. Through diverse approaches, drawing upon the wisdom and practices of the world's religions and spiritual paths, these books explore the quest for meaning and purpose, wholeness and healing, commitment and community, contemplation and activism. Enjoy reviewing the list and checking out these wonderful titles!

Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace,

The S&P Team

Women Talking

Film now streaming

Our choice for the "Best Picture" Oscar is this powerful and thought-provoking drama about a group of abused women discussing how they will respond to their abusers, all men from their isolated Mennonite community. Should they forgive them, fight them, or leave the community? The women are compelled to ask questions that matter about justice and punishment, the toxins of evil and violence, anger and accountability, free will, collective responsibility, and cultural combat. Our review includes some quotations about how conversations like theirs can lead to discovery and change. We also offer a sampling of quotes about forgiveness, the key spiritual practice under consideration in the film.

Read the Review and Quotes . . .

Praying the News Blog

On February 6, 2023, an earthquake hit southern and central Turkey, and northern and western Syria with a magnitude of at least 7.8. At least 24 million people were affected with 24,000 deaths. Our prayer uses five Islamic names for God.

And so we pray . . .

Off the Page

S&P's Contributing Editor, Jon M. Sweeney, had an “Off the Page" conversation live on our Facebook page with mystic poet Chelan Harkin about her new book Let Us Dance! on Feb 7, 2023. She read some of her poems, including "The Worst Thing." We recorded it.

Watch the replay . . .

Discover More!

Good Happens. Wisdom from many traditions for our Short & Sweet Spirituality Blog.
Spiritual Perspectives on Films for Black History Month. Here's a collection of 57 feature films and documentaries about the Black experience.
Presidents' Day. From our Practicing Democracy Project, here are some ways to use the U.S. national holiday to assess your attitudes towards the presidency. If extraterrestrials landed on Earth and asked to be taken to your leader, who would you introduce them to?
Meet Adam Bucko. Christian contemplative. Leader in the new monastic movement. Advocate for homeless youth. The newest addition to S&P's Living Spiritual Teachers Project.
Leonard Cohen’s classic song “Hallelujah.” See Mark Nepo's commentary on its meanings and messages in this book excerpt.
God as a Public Park. Jay McDaniel imagines God's multiplicity as a welcoming space full of dancers, soccer players, lovers, birds, frogs, art shows -- like a park.
Spiritual Practice Toolkit. In case you haven't looked at it recently, here are links to articles/reviews/instructions for 260 classic and informal spiritual practices.