Marjorie Suchocki, author of a dozen books and jury member at international film festivals from Berlin to Montreal, will be discussing spiritual themes in Chocolat and other movies in Vancouver in July.

One of North Americas leading progressive philosopher-theologians who also happens to be an internationally renowned film specialist will be in Vancouver in July.

Marjorie Suchocki author of a dozen books and jury member at film festivals from Berlin to Montreal will be showing a variety of movies and reflecting on their philosophical, human and spiritual significance.

Before describing more of her work with films, its of note that Suchocki will also be teaching a course at Vancouver School of Theology titled Practicing Gods Presence:A Theology of Prayer. It runs from Monday July 17 to Wednesday, July 19.

This course explores the practical and theological effect of taking the omnipresence of God seriously, says Suchocki. She doesnt accept that God is a kind of divine dictator, with omnipotent power to do whatever He wants.

Instead, as co-director of Californias Center for Process Studies, she talks about how the divine is present in every moment of experience, luring all living things toward creative transformation and the common good.

(Navigate this website to register for the three-day course on prayer at VST, which is on the UBC campus. Or phone 604-822-9031.)

The more public event with Suchocki offers a chance to watch and discuss films on the evening of Friday, July 21, and during the day of Saturday, July 22.

Suchockis two-day film event is titled Does God go to the movies?

It will take place at St. Andrews Wesley United Church at Burrard and Thurlow in downtown Vancouver, where Rev. Gary Paterson and Dan Chambers often discuss films in their sermons.

Suchocki will show excerpts from and discuss the spiritual themes in three films, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Chocolat and Troubled Waters. (Go here for more information and to sign up.)

The movie, Troubled Waters, will also be shown in part and probed for its spiritual content.

Suchockis most recent book is Through a Lens Darkly: Tracing Redemption in Film. It explores the movies of six directors, including Clint Eastwood, Ang Lee, the Coen brothers and Woody Allen.

Suchockis visit is co-hosted by VST and the West Coast Centre for (r)Evolutionary Theology, which in 2016 brought philosopher-theologians John Cobb, Jay McDaniel and Tripp Fuller to Vancouver.

SIDEBAR 1: Seeing spirituality in the movies

Each spring Paterson, past moderator of the United Church of Canada, and his colleague at St. Andrews Wesley, Rev. Dan Chambers, lead an Oscar series of sermons on movies nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Heres Paterson (who is frequently heard on CBC radio):

Fewer and fewer people are going to church these days, but that doesnt mean theyve stopped asking the big questions about lifes meaning

Instead, I would suggest, they do their theology at the movies. Oh, they wouldnt call it that perhaps, but many films are indeed addressing spiritual questions, and inviting people to do some serious wrestling about purpose, ethical decisions, the good life.

Some films explicitly centre on religious issues like this past years Hacksaw Ridge or The Silence. Other films make use of what I call an alternative spirituality where you catch glimpses of and borrowings from the great faiths, that resonate, perhaps, with people who are spiritual but not religious films like Star Wars,The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter.

But the films that interest me the most arent obviously religious, but rather, films where depth questions emerge out of everyday life.- ordinary humans, facing real dilemmas.

So, in The Dark Knight or No Country for Old Men how do we understand and respond to the challenge of evil?

Or, watch a film like Manchester by the Sea and you have to wrestle with the question of redemption. Is forgiveness possible when youve done something unspeakable?

Incarnational films thats maybe what Im looking for where weighty spiritual issues are embodied, lived; are an integral part of the story; where you care about what happens, with your heart, mind and spirit; where you go deep films that leave you pondering, with questions, sometimes with tears, or compassion or excitement.

SIDEBAR 2: Marjorie Suchockis three-day VST course on prayer

A brief excerpt from her description:

The purpose is to explore the implications that follow when our understanding of God shifts from a centrality of omnipotence to omnipresence, particularly for a theology of prayer.

Students will be expected to become minimally conversant with the historical role of omnipotence in the shaping of spirituality, and the subtle changes that occurred in medieval mysticism when omnipresence took a more central role.

Students will also be expected to understand process theology as part of the shift toward omnipresence in our own time, and to explore its implications for prayer in the Christian tradition.

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Finding spirituality at the movies, in Vancouver - Vancouver Sun (blog)

Samson is the most Spiritual man in the Old Testament, the most Pentecostal of Israels heroes. Given his reputation for lechery and bravado, my thesis seems counterintuitive to say the least. But its an easy case to make, provided we insist on the capital S in Spirituality.

Early in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is active as the wind of the Creator (Gen. 1:2) and as muse of the sacred craftsman Bezalel (Ex. 31:3). He comes into his own during the time of judges and early kings. He empowers Othniel (Judg. 3:10), Gideon (Judg. 6:34), and Jephthah (Judg. 11:29). Saul fights in the power of the Spirit (1 Sam. 11:16) until the Spirit abandons him to help David (1 Sam. 16:13).

No one in the Hebrew Bible, though, encounters the Spirit as often or as dramatically as Samson. The Spirit of Yahweh stirs (Judg. 13:25), sending Samson down to Timnah to court a Philistine woman who has caught his eye. When a lion attacks, the Spirit rushes on Samson and he kills the lion barehanded (Judg. 14:6). The Spirit comes again and Samson kills thirty Philistines in Ashkelon and plunders their clothes (Judg. 14:19). The Philistines try to bind him, but the Spirit melts the ropes like flax in a fire and drives Samson to kill another thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey (Judg. 15:14). The Spirit leaves him when he breaks his Nazirite vow and allows his hair to be cut, but we can surmise that the Spirit is back when Samson breaks down the house of Dagon, killing more in his death than during his lifetime.

You can put money on it: When the Spirit comes, things get broken and people get hurt.

With pneumatology, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Christians have an unfortunate tendency to ignore the Old Testament, starting with Matthew rather than Genesis. Older theologians institutionalized this tendency by distinguishing between the Spirits theocratic-official work in Israel and his ethical or soteriological work in the church.

That contrast is semi-heretical or worse, and cant be supported from the New Testament. Jesus is the Spiritual man from the moment of his conception by the Spirit (Lk. 1:35). The Spirit descends on him at his baptism (Lk. 3:22), then drives him out into the wilderness to battle the devil (Lk. 4:1). Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus announces release to captives and freedom to prisoners, opens blind eyes, and drives disease from human bodies (Lk. 4:18). The Spirit is the finger of God by whom Jesus casts out demons (Lk. 11:20).

Jesus receives the Spirit to finish what Samson startedto take out the enemies of God, which are the enemies of the human race. By the Spirit, he follows Samsons path, defeating more enemies by his death than in his life.

The same Spirit who empowers Jesus to fight devils, battle disease, and break chains rushes onto the disciples at Pentecost so they can carry on his mission. Jesus tells his disciples that they will receive power when the Spirit comes (Acts 1:8). Filled with the Spirit, Peter preaches repentance to Israel and confronts Israels leaders (Acts 4:8). Powered by the Spirit, the apostles deliver the demon-oppressed and heal the sick (Acts 5:16). Stephen is so full of the Spirit that he is irrefutable in debate (Acts 6:10), and his success provokes murderous outrage.

When Ananaias baptizes Saul, he becomes Paul, an apostle who carries on his missionary work by the Spirit (Acts 13:24). Filled with the Spirit, Paul blinds the magician Elymas with a rebuke, an act of power that so impresses the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus that he converts on the spot (Acts 13:412). Bound by the Spirit, Paul makes his final journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22), where he follows Jesus to arrest and trial and, so tradition has it, a martyrs death.

There is a difference between the Spirits work in ancient Israel and in the church. The church is a company of new Samsons, armed not with jawbones but with weapons that destroy fortresses of speculation and take captives for Christ (2 Cor. 10:36). Samson killed in the power of the Spirit, but at Pentecost, the Spirit of Jesus equips the church with power to raise the dead.

This Sunday, praise the Creator Spiritus. Worship the Spirit as Paraklete, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of holiness, life, and peace. Revel in the Spirit who searches all things, gives gifts, and produces fruit in the soil of the church, the Spirit of Jesus and of the living God, the Love and Gift of Father and Son.

But on this Pentecost Sunday, remember that hes also the Spirit of battle, the Passion by whom God is a Warrior.

Peter J. Leithart is President ofTheopolis Institute.

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Samson's Spirituality - First Things

Are chimpanzees spiritual?

It's a question that Jane Goodall made famous by proposing that the rhythmic swaying and rock-throwing by chimpanzees at waterfalls in Gombe, Tanzania, is an expression of awe and wonder of spirituality.

It's a question, too, that takes on new twists and turns as new data come in. In 2016, a group of 80 scientists reported in Scientific Reports that chimpanzees at four sites across West Africa cache stones and throw them repeatedly at trees. One of those scientists, Laura Kehoe, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Baum Lab at the University of Victoria, earned global media headlines for a passage she included when writing a post at The Conversation:

"Maybe we found the first evidence of chimpanzees creating a kind of shrine that could indicate sacred trees. Indigenous West African people have stone collections at 'sacred' trees and such man-made stone collections are commonly observed across the world and look eerily similar to what we have discovered here."

My response to this passage was skepticism, both at The Atlantic and here at 13.7, because the leap from "potential chimpanzee stone-throwing ritual" to "sacred trees" is just too great for me.

Fast forward to last month, when Wisconsin Public Radio's Steve Paulson aired an interview with Kehoe at To the Best of Our Knowledge. Kehoe described the basics for Paulson's audience: how chimpanzees in Guinea, often but not exclusively adult males, throw large (8 kg. to 9 kg.) stones at selected trees repeatedly, and sometimes place the stones in a tree cavity instead of hurling them. Could this be a ritual with a spiritual dimension? Could the trees be shrines? "Plausibility shouldn't be mistaken for proof," Kehoe replied to Paulson. "I do think that it's a possibility some things can seem unlikely until they are discovered."

In the same segment, Paulson also interviewed me and primatologist Frans de Waal. We each suggested simpler explanations like apes wishing to impress an audience of other apes, or pure pleasure in aimed throwing at trees.

But then an interesting thing happened. Kehoe reached out to me by email to express her regret about how her views on stone-throwing have been presented in the media, including in Paulson's interview, which, she felt, focused disproportionately on the spirituality angle at the expense of other possible explanations that she offered.

When I communicated this with Kehoe's permission to Paulson, he pointed out that he had "left in [the interview] her comments about this being a highly speculative possibility something worth considering and her dislike of the newspaper headline about chimps finding God."

But here's the main point, and a surprising one: Kehoe told me that she doesn't, in fact, really think that the spirituality explanation is the most likely one at all.

I followed up by asking questions of Kehoe, who started by noting that her own observations in Guinea at a site part of the Pan African Program with 34 chimpanzee field locations across Africa came about through collaborative research:

"Our field guide, Mamadou Alioh Bah, first spotted the marks on a hollow tree. Lucy D'Auvergne (an experienced primatologist) and I decided to set-up a motion-activated camera and caught the elusive behavior on tape a few weeks later."

What range of explanations, I asked, does she think are reasonable to consider for the stone-throwing behavior, and which does she find most likely? She answered:

"This is the first time we have found chimpanzees repeatedly using stones at specific sites with no relation to finding food. I think it most likely came about as part of a male display and could be related to long-distance communication as there aren't many roots with large buttresses for drumming in this area and the sound of a stone hitting a hollow tree may carry better in a savannah ecosystem.

It is also possible that the stone accumulations may serve as some kind of territorial landmarks. However, both of these theories are tricky to test given that many of these sites are outside of protected areas and undergoing local habitat loss."

The notion of chimpanzee spirituality, Kehoe thinks, "simply makes for a more riveting story" than the other more pedestrian explanations. She continued:

"Of course, it is partly my fault for alluding to the possibility that this mysterious behavior could be linked to something sacred this is because these sites are superficially very similar to human stone accumulations at 'sacred' trees. While I do think this aspect is worth pondering, it is a highly speculative remark that is by far one of the least likely explanations to this behavior. It has no concrete evidence."

So, if a person closely associated with the idea of chimpanzee spirituality doesn't after all think it's likely, where does that leave us? Well, with several things:

With Goodall's enduring view, of course.

With the remark of James Harrod, also interviewed by Paulson, that chimpanzees "of course" have an experience of religion (not just spirituality) because they experience reverence, awe, and wonder in the ways Goodall described.

With the fascinating scholarship of Donovan Schaefer, that claims also full-on religion for chimpanzees, and which I described in my piece for The Atlantic:

"Religion is something we feel in and express with our whole bodies, Schaefer insists, and once we realize this, we are free to see religion in other animals in certain instances of their embodied and emotional practices."

And for that matter, with Paulson's own view. (Yes, I turned the tables and interviewed the interviewer). Paulson told me this by email on Monday:

"While science can tell us a great deal about the evolutionary benefits of religion and even certain brain functions that happen during spiritual experiences it has little to tell us about the nature of the experience itself. Consciousness remains a huge mystery, and spiritual experience is part of that mystery. So if spiritual experience among humans is largely beyond the capacity of science to explain, why do we assume that chimpanzee spirituality is strictly a science question?

None of [the points raised in discussion] proves that chimpanzees have spiritual experiences or a sense of the sacred. But given all that we've learned about chimpanzees over the last 50 years and how they keep surprising us why should we assume that they don't also have transcendent experiences? That would seem to be a tantalizing possibility that's worth considering."

Can chimpanzee spirituality be productively explored outside the realm of science? As I told Paulson on the air, an insistence on delving into chimpanzees and the sacred, in my view, says a lot more about us than it does about chimpanzees.

Barbara J. King is an anthropology professor emerita at the College of William and Mary. She often writes about the cognition, emotion and welfare of animals, and about biological anthropology, human evolution and gender issues. Barbara's new book is Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat. You can keep up with what she is thinking on Twitter: @bjkingape

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A Twist In Discussions Of Chimpanzee Spirituality : 13.7: Cosmos ... - NPR

PORTLAND, Oregon Beside the makeshift memorial that has sprung up outside the light-railstation where three men were stabbedon a train, Bernal Cruz knelt, holding a bunch of flowers and his toddler son.As I get older and as my kids get older, I feel a different impact as these things happen, Cruz said, as he added his bouquetto the de facto secular altars that have sprung up in the form of candles, images of deities of Eastern religions and handwritten notes.Portland may be theleast religious city in the U.S.Butits residents are drawing on a deep sense of personal spirituality and shared values to unite in the face of hate, for comfort in the wake of tragedy.Cruz grew up Catholic but, like 42 percent of Portland residents, he no longer identifies with organized religion. Thats more nones than any other city in the United States, according to a2015 PRRI survey of American cities.

Theres a certain pride in how weird Portland can be, and I think that encompasses the feeling of inclusiveness its like to each their own, try to live your life, dont hurt anybody else and well probably just love you the same, Cruz said.

Bernal Cruz of Portland brought his 1-year-old son, Joaquin, to lay flowers on May 31, 2017, at a makeshift memorial that has sprung up outside the Hollywood Transit Station in Portland, Oregon, where three men were stabbed on a train. (Credit: RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller.)

The suspect, Jeremy Christian, has been charged withmurder and other offenses.

Many people who paused to pay their respects this week outside the Hollywood/NE 42nd Avenue Station, where the attack occurred, talked about the spiritual, but not religious, values and practices helping them process the horrific event. They emphasized responding with love, echoing stabbing victim Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Mecheslast words, according to The Oregonian: Tell everyone on this train I love them.

Stephanie Kye, a certified nurse assistantwho lives near the train station, said she came to the memorial to unite with everybody.

I think that theres evil, but theres also goodness, and there are people who will put themselves on the line to help someone else. I dont think those men expected that, but I feel like as a person of color, I go out into the world and I think that I am alone, she said. It was a reminder that people care enough to intervene and that hates not going to win.

Kye said she said a prayer after the attack not to any particular deity, but because it helped her overcome her fear and get her feelings out.

People pause to take photos or leave messages, flowers or other items on May 31, 2017, at a makeshift memorial that has sprung up outside the Hollywood Transit Station in Portland, Oregon, where three men were stabbed on a train. (Credit: RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller.)

At the train station where the attack occurred, secular altars have sprung upreflecting a collection of spiritual traditions that Portlanders appear to draw on: a Virgin of Guadalupe candle alongside a candle depicting a feline-faced figure labeled Pietro, faerie saint of passage; bottles of water, considered sacred by many Native American tribes; pictures of Hindu deities; a letter written in purple crayon and a childs handwriting illustrated with hearts, stars and smiley faces: I am Muslim and I thank you.

Some hinted at simmering tensions.

On the pillars of a neighboring sushi restaurant, Respect Islam was written in chalk. In a different color chalk, the word Islam had been crossed out and replaced with including everyone.

Betsy Toll returned to the memorial a few days after attending a large vigil for the victims outside the train station last weekend. Wearing a strand of mala prayer beads around her wrist, she described a deep spirituality of my own that she had come to after 40 years, after growing up Presbyterian, marrying a Jewish man, sitting with Quakers and studying Buddhism and Hinduism.

Betsy Toll of Portland pays her respects on May 31, 2017, at a makeshift memorial that has sprung up outside the Hollywood Transit Station in Portland, Oregon, where three men were stabbed on a train. (Credit: RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller.)

Its beautiful to see that these altars are still here and growing and changing, Toll said.

My hope is that, everyone whose heart was broken by this terrible event, if we reflect on the goodness and the decency and the kind and courageous impulse that motivated these guys they were just everyday guys that we let more of that shine in ourselves. We cannot keep hating each other.

While fewer Portlanders are affiliated with organized religion, many who are have turned to those traditions in the aftermath of the attack.

An online fundraiserlaunched by the Muslim Educational Trust and CelebrateMercy, another Muslim group, collected nearly$600,000 to help the families of the victims.

Muslims usually give overly and generously during the month of Ramadan, so now that I think about it, Im not surprised that this fundraiser went really quickly, really fast,said Rania Ayoub of the Muslim Educational Trust.

On a weekday evening, about two dozen people gathered inside the wood-paneled walls and geometric stained-glass windows of First Covenant Church, about a mile from the Hollywood station, where lead pastor Kent Place said the church hoped to give people space and language for prayer.

That included lighting candles, singing the old hymn It Is Well With My Soul and reading Scriptures such asJesus words, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down ones life for ones friends. It also included spoken prayers for the victims and their families, for the two girls the assailanthad targeted even for the assailant himself.

Lizabeth Norton of Portland, a nurse educator for a drug company and a member of the Madeleine Catholic Parish, said the church felt like a safe environment to come and be hurt and angry and try to understand.

For me, the real takeaway is: Where can we have compassion and understanding? And its really through a faith-based understanding of forgiveness and mercy and understanding and love.

Read more:

Portlanders respond to killings with prayer and eclectic spirituality - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

The Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls invite you to attend a week-long retreat entitled, The Spirituality of Presence: The Franciscan Way of Being Present to Life and Death, on Friday, July 21 (7 p.m.) Thursday, July 27 (12:30 p.m.), at St. Francis Convent, Little Falls. Darleen Pryds, retreat presenter, will use teachings from the Franciscan traditionespecially from lay Franciscansand experiential meditations to explore the rich teachings about finding joy in life by looking closely at dying and death. By facing the transition from this life to the next, participants will discover the tender joy that is inherent in the Franciscan way of life. Pryds is Associate Professor of Spirituality and History at the Franciscan School of Theology, Oceanside, Calif. Her research focuses on lay Franciscans who led her to explore Franciscan spirituality of preaching, caregiving, suffering and presence. She has been a volunteer caregiver in hospice, training originally at Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, and presently serving at Elizabeth Hospice in San Diego County. Retreat cost of $490 includes room and board, three meals a day, snacks and the presenters fee. The commuter rate is $130. For more information, or to register by July 13 with a $50 non-refundable deposit, contact (320)632-0668 or email: [emailprotected]; http://www.fslf.org.

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Week-long retreat The Spirituality of Presence - Morrison County Record

The Hindu

'Spirituality, humour to playgreater role in journalism' - The Hindu The Hindu The global trends in journalism indicate a greater role for spirituality and humour in journalism in the future. Some countries such as the U.S. already have ... and more »

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'Spirituality, humour to playgreater role in journalism' - The Hindu - The Hindu

Logan arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray this week after its cinema run. As Hugh Jackman faces up to a life without his most famous alter ego Wolverine Jackman talks conclusions, inspirations, faith and contemplating his future

Though many actors have turned in a career-defining performance of sorts, few thespians can look to a character that not only has given them their break but has continued to shape their entire cinematic legacy for nearly 20 years. For Hugh Jackman, that story has just come to an end in the shape of Logan, his ninth and final outing as the animalistic mutant Wolverine.

Having seen his rise to Hollywood super-stardom kick-started by his original appearance in Bryan Singers 2000 mutant bonanza X-Men, Jackmans subsequent career has seen him tackle everything from epic sweeping westerns (Australia) to iconic 19th Century-set Parisian musicals (Les Miserables). But the one role that has defined that career is Wolverine.

Logan is a love letter to Wolverine fans, the 48-year-old says. This character has been within me for 17 years, but it wasnt until this film that I felt I really got to the core of the character. When Im 80 and my grandkids ask me, Which one of these films should I watch? I want to say that this is the movie that defines the character.There was a lot at stake for me and my love for the character.

Jackmans commitment has been repaid in the form of rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, and while the decision to hang up his claws after all this time was by no means an easy one, the Sydney-born star knew it was the right time to let go.

What I liken it to is asking my wife to marry me, he explains. Youre terrified of doing it, terrified of the response, but as soon as you do it you know in your heart its the right thing and nothing has ever felt more right.

I had the same feeling shooting the last scene with Logan. Im happy Im done, and I mean that in the best possible way. Im happy that Im done because Ive arrived at a place where mine and Logans paths are meant to veer in different directions and its time. In my gut, I know its the right move for both of us. I know because this movie, to me, is perfect. It was a calming feeling, because there was every possibility that I would have very opposing, conflicting emotions of poignancy and bittersweet pining. None of that was there.

This sense of calm hints at Jacksons mentality off-camera. Known as the nicest man in Hollywood a moniker he dismisses with the words its amazing how common politeness is deemed to be extraordinary Jackman, whose parents were Christian, has long since followed the School of Practical Philosophy and applied its teachings to his everyday life.

I meditate, he reveals. I keep it spiritual because I think it connects you better to life. There are things driving me that arent all healthy[needing] approval and respect to fill some hole who-knows-where in me, he said. Am I worthy? All those fears. Through acting, Im able to find a level of bliss and peace and calm and joy. And it feels natural.

When he performs he says he can feel what everyones searching for, the feeling that unites us all. Call it God. Before I go onstage every night, I pause and dedicate the performance to God, in the sense of Allow me to surrender.

When you allow yourself to surrender to the story, to the character, to the night, to the audience, transcendence happens, says Jackman. And when that happens, there is nothing like it on the planet. Its the moment people experience when they fall in love, which is equally frightening and exciting. Thats what it feels like.

One way in which Jackman is using his status to give back to those less fortunate than him is through the Laughing Man Foundation. Launched in 2011 with former criminal prosecutor David Steingard, the Foundation was born out of a 1999 trip to Ethiopia where Jackman met Dukale, a young coffee farmer who was working to lift his family out of poverty a struggle captured in the 2014 documentary Dukales Dream.

After being inspired by Dukales story, Jackman returned to New York and set up Laughing Man Coffee, through which farmers in developing countries could use his status in order to ply their caffeinated wares. All the profits of this venture are in turn used by the Foundation to support educational programmes and burgeoning entrepreneurs in the developing world.

I am religious and I was brought up with a sense of giving back, Jackman reveals. I am given opportunities, more money than I could ever need. If you see money or fame as energy, then use it to help others. Paul Newman did that. Thats what inspired me to start Laughing Man.

People recognise me more for the coffee shop than they do for my movies! Jackman laughs. But when I saw Dukale working so hard to supply for his family, having to use the trees that other farmers were using to shelter their plants from the sun as firewood to keep his family warm, I knew that I could use my fortunate position to give these farmers a way of reaching a wider consumer base.

Jackman continues: What I have always considered with faith is that its the most personal thing, but the element of our lives we maybe share the most. And if it leads us to go good things for others then why not.

But with Logans release leaving a Wolverine-sized hole in his life, and having had to deal with a persistent if not immediately life-threatening form of skin cancer for which he has undergone five small surgeries, the level-headed star is looking to a future where his wife, Deborra-Lee, and their two adopted children Oscar and Ava always come first.

I think the older that you get you think, One day, Im not going to be here, he admits. It cant help but creep into your mind, and its a terrifying thought. I want to be there for my kids, I want to be there for my wife, and probably in the last few years Ive educated myself to not always be so hung up on scheduling and goals and whats coming next. I like to walk, appreciate my surroundings and take a moment to give thanks for what I have in my life because I know Ive been very lucky in so many ways. You just hope that continues for as long as possible.

Jackman is currently in pre-production for his role in a surprising new project about the Apostle Paul, a film he notes is about Pauls conversion, ministry and imprisonment which he will produce with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Life after Wolverine will be interesting indeed.

Jake Taylor

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Spirituality connects me better to life Hugh Jackman | Insights ... - Insights News