How Do You Spell God? Book Review

I just finished reading How Do You Spell God? by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman. I read this book hoping to find a book that I could use to teach my children about the world’s religions and to help my children gain a respect for the teachings of those religions. I will be reading this book to my kids soon. I found it interesting, humorous and remarkably unbiased coming from a Rabbi and a Priest. It is written with a young audience in mind so the way they teach will reach children from about age 8 up to adult, as I thoroughly enjoyed their style.

I thought I would share this book here because I know some of us that are parents and struggling through a faith crisis wonder how we can share spiritual ideas with our children, especially when we have previously raised them in a TBM environment. I feel that this book will help me do just that.

Here are some quotes from the others who have read the book:

“This creative book invites the young to take a look at the world’s religions. [It] is a sensitive portrayal of the importance of their own religion, coupled with a noncoercive explanation of why others think their religions are important too.” William J. Byron, S.J. President Georgetown University

“How Do You Spell God? offers a most beautiful service to children everywhere. It answers their penetrating questions about God with clarity-light and wisdom-delight and it teaches them to love and respect all the different branches of the world family of religions.” Sri Chinmoy auther of Beyond Within

From the forward by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “For most of us, our religion depends on our family and where we were born and grew up. Usually I think it is better not to change that. However, the more we understand of each other’s ways, the more we can learn from each other. And the more easily we can develop respect and tolerance in our own lives and in our behavior towards each other. This will certainly help to increase peace and friendship throughout the world, which is one of the aims of all major religions.”

From the Contents: Chapter 1. What’s a Religion? Chapter 10. What are the Holy Times in My Life? Chapter 6. Who are the Big Teachers? Chapter 18 What are some of the Bad Things in Religions? Chapter 19 What are some of the Good Things in Religions?

If you are looking for a place to start some great religious discussions with your kids, check out this book. I’m glad I did.