Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  Unbelievable                                  Why Neither Ancient Creeds     Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today By   John Shelby Spong Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton ( suttong.com ) Spong provides examples of Unbelievable doctrines of the church and calls for a second reformation. He presents 12 challenging theses as foundational to building a new understanding of the Bible by relying on a more rational appreciation of the metaphorical and meaningful truths of the scriptures rather than the implausible literal interpretations that obscure a meaningful spiritual life. His presentation appears focused on educated adults who have not lost their interest in Christian spirituality but are not satisfied with current presentations of Christianity found in Protestant or Catholic pulpits. He is particularly concerned with the distortion of faith found in those who present simplistic and literal, or near literal, views of creation, biblical violence, and

Vital Friends:                                The People You Can't Afford to Live Without   By Tom Rath Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton Events like Covid-19, severe illnesses, and disasters remind us of the importance of friends.   Weaving together stories, historical examples, published research, and survey data, Rath makes the case for the importance of close friends (i,e, Vital Friends) to life-satisfaction and productivity. The author organized 14 chapters into four parts. Four appendixes, research notes, suggested reading, and acknowledgments complete this  easy-to-read paperback.   In the six chapters that comprise part one, we learn Rath's point that our culture may have focused too heavily on personal growth to the exclusion of developing relationships with others. In addition to examples from daily life, Rath invokes the research of Gottman to show the importance of positive interactions to marital and individual well-being.   The three chapters of pa