Sacred: Milestones of a Spiritual Life (2018)

This 86-minute documentary by PBS was released on December 11, 2018. It's a robust affirmation of what so many of our secularist friends seem unable to grasp, which is that virtually all people from all times and places have always been religious. Academy Award winning director and producer Thomas Lennon sent over forty film teams to twenty-five countries to capture the every day faith of ordinary people. The movie doesn't try to untangle the conflicting truth claims among religions (like polytheism v. monotheism), nor does it delve into the socio-political expressions of religion (like sacred violence). Rather, it's a positive push back against all the negative connotations that are associated with religion in our cultural conversations. As one reviewer put it, the movie is a celebration of religion, and "purely observational," a "kind of National Geographic travelogue," rather than a critique of religion. With no narrative or any explanation by experts of what we are watching, Lennon lets the images speak for themselves to affirm that religious faith is a "primary human experience." The film is organized around three themes: “Initiation,” “Practice,” and “Passage.” I watched this film from the PBS website.

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net