Latter-day Contemplation

In this episode Christopher and Riley discuss Joseph Campbell's well-known model of mythology, The Hero's Journey, and how it can be used as a model for personal transformation.  Joseph Campbell was a renowned author and professor whose groundbreaking work in The Hero With a Thousand Faces did more than describe a pattern in cosmological storytelling, but unlocked a way of looking at our lives that gives us context for our ups and downs, helps us appreciate adversity, and, ultimately discover the elixir], or meaning, of life.  Adopting the pattern, taking on challenges, and leaning into our difficulties as part of the journey lead to a more fulfilling life.

“For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.” D&C 89:17 Americans waste nearly 40% of all food, roughly 42 billion pounds per year, and even in this glut of supply we are undernourished nutritionally speaking, because of how our food is produced for appearance and taste. The same can be said for the media and other resources we consume; as long as it's pleasing to the eye or ear or taste we neglect counting the cost as a substitute for better alternatives, which unavoidably leaves the lowest echelon of society victimized. In this episode Christopher and Riley delve into the practice of contemplative consumption. Most of us live in a society designed around efficient consumption, which carries a heavy unseen cost. Categorically, we consume resources, food, and media without much thought for how it's produced, delivered, or the intention behind the consumption (profit, social engineering), because it is so efficiently delivered and available. The immediate by-product of cheap and efficient delivery is waste and lack of fulfillment on the part of the consumer, and, at worst, exploitation of the poor. They encourage us to count the cost of our choices and be less passive as agents of consumption. It serves both ourselves and the world when we take responsibility for the consequences of our choices. Christopher and Riley make the case for more mindful use of resources and the richer life that can result from a higher awareness of our impact on the world and its impact on us.

President Nelson has encouraged Latter-day Saints to take personal responsibility for their own learning, but not many members do, relying heavily upon borrowed testimonies and lessons at church.  In 2018, as Pres. Nelson introduced the new home centered, church supported gospel instruction plan, he said, “We are each responsible for our individual spiritual growth”.  In this episode Christopher and Riley discuss the implications of this individual, spiritual responsibility.  They dig into methods, resources, and modalities for rich spiritual growth that can carry you through your mid-life crises and doldrums, while providing support for developing family members and friends on the path of discipleship.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley talk about Heavenly Mother with Kathryn Knight Sonntag, author of a collection of poems on the Divine Feminine entitled, The Tree at the Center (Common Consent, 2019) and a second book on the Goddess, The Mother Tree: Discovering the Love and Wisdom of Our Divine Mother (Faith Matters, 2022).

In this episode Chris & Riley are joined by Dr. Sahar Qumsiyeh. Dr. Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian American Christian who grew up in Bethlehem under Israeli occupation, attended BYU, joined the Church of Jesus Christ, studied in Turkey, and returned to Palestine, before taking a permanent position at BYU-Idaho as a math professor. She recounts her vivid experiences living under a brutally segregationist regime and how it shaped her upbringing. She describes her conversion and ultimate reconciliation to the Jewish people as she prayed for and received the love of Christ for her fellow children of God. Her story gives us hope for the establishment of the true Zion and the future gathering of Israel as a global reconciliation of all God's children.

For this episode Christopher and Riley were pleased to welcome artist, architect, husband, father, and scripture junkie, Bob Sonntag, to discuss the power of ritual in family and community spiritual practice, language, art, space, and song.  Bob has spent considerable time studying ritual in sacred texts and his art reflects this focus on transformation through participatory remembrance.  He has also integrated ritual into his family dynamics to connect individuals through generations.  They discuss connecting with the “heavenly and timeless” eternal through participating in and contemplating cosmic ritual.

In this episode of Latter-day Contemplation, Christopher and Riley were joined by Jana Johnson Spangler to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Franciscan friar, Richard Rohr.  Father Rohr, as an ecumenical teacher, speaker, and author is largely responsible for the modern resurgence in popularity of contemplative practices.  He has successfully brought together teachers from many Christian denominations into The Living School, teaching perennial truths about the universal nature of the Christ, our mutual, inborn dwelling with God the creator of all flesh, and the brotherhood of man.  His message of inner and relational peace has drawn a following of millions.

In Episode 74, Christopher and Riley revisit a topic they've previously spoken about on the podcast, but from a different perspective. Episode 5: On Peace deals with inner peace, while this one deals with interpersonal, relational, and world peace. They explore the LDS doctrinal case for renouncing war in Sec. 98 as a springboard to a larger discussion about practical application of peace, as exemplified by Jesus, the anti-nephi-lehis, St. Maximilian and others. They make a case for a non-violent reading of scripture, particularly the Book of Mormon and challenge the listener to take small proactive steps, in concert with others, forming a grassroots movement towards a peaceful world. The War Prayer, Mark Twain We are a Warlike People | Renounce War and Proclaim Peace First Presidency Statement on Basing of MX Missile (churchofjesuschrist.org) Record of Martyrdom of St. Maximilian, Pg. 244, Acts of The Christian Martyrs, Musurillo

For this episode, Christopher and Riley are joined by LDPS member and contributor, Jeffrey Goddard, for a wide-ranging discussion on justice, sin & righteousness, good & evil, and atonement. In the past year Jeff read or listened to 200 books, and wrote one of his own - The Physician Christ. As a medical practitioner he tends to see the world through a scientific lens which adds critical context to the discussion of individual and social development. Our hosts make it a point to avoid strict, objective definitions of these constructed ideas, but instead try to problematize prevailing understandings so as to point the listener to a more holistic, and universally restorative Christian discipleship; one less concerned with being right about doctrine and more concerned with being in right relationship, with God and each other.

In this episode of Latter-day Contemplation, Christopher and Riley are joined by a friend of the program and Carl Jung fan, Morgan Aldous, to discuss the concept of the Jungian Shadow. Morgan is a life coach who has spent considerable time in the study of psychology, philosophy, and religion as the means to personal transformation. This concept of The Shadow, which historically finds expression in scripture, mystical poetry and experience, visual & performance art, great literature, and formal psychological treatment methodology has application for those of us pursuing a spiritual path of personal development as well. In his first interaction with Father Adam and Mother Eve, Lucifer, the father of lies, inducts our primeval ancestors into the cult of binary thought; wherein, they are led to believe that the world is composed of diametrically opposing polarities, repelling each other at all times, totally incompatible with oneness and unity. This allegory could be interpreted to describe one of the challenges of mortality - overcoming the natural man instinct to misunderstand and misrepresent ourselves, compartmentalizing and ignoring our inner shadow, to the detriment of our spiritual development. Morgan can be reached at www.everyday7.com

In this episode Christopher and Riley draw upon the teachings of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, Byron Katie upack the stoic concepts of Amor Fati (love of fate, consent to destiny) and Objectivity as a means of better understanding Christ and our duties as disciples. The evidence surrounds us; life is filled with adversity, or as a Buddhist might say, “life is suffering”. Thermodynamics further affirms the inevitable death and dissolution of all matter. Recognizing and accepting this inevitability can liberate us from despair in our darkest moments of sadness, anger, and grief. Most of the circumstances that confront us conjure up impressions, judgments, and emotions (collectively: phantasia) within us, but are ultimately beyond our control. The stoics viewed these circumstances objectively as largely deterministic in nature, but recognized the space between stimulus and response where we are given the choice to freely act as our best self, ethically, and for the benefit of others. Christ is the archetypal model for this way of living and serving. As he approached his impending torture and crucifixion, he accepted, not without distress but nevertheless freely, the circumstances which would lead to his death, as the most starkly persuasive example of service and love that can be expressed. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:13

In this episode, Christopher & Riley take up a discussion on emotions and emotional intelligence. They start from the premise that humans are (contrary to popular opinion) primarily emotional, not rational, beings. Taking this as a given, they search for meaning in the emotional journey, and recognizing our emotional drivers, suggest practices to help us respond appropriately to our emotional triggers. They meander into a discussion about sincerity in emotion (as opposed to manipulation) and imagine a God who only interacts with his children sincerely, as a means of supporting our holistic development into fully integrated emotional intelligences. Relating to the God, (modeled by Christ, but too often obfuscated by scripture) who mourns with us, helps us to identify philosophies, conceptions, projections, and interpolations of men wishing to compel, rather than invite us to “come and see” or in this case, come and feel.

For this episode of Latter-day Contemplation Riley welcomes back Phil McLemore to discuss the power habits and rituals. Habits can be positive or negative and ultimately become the structural backbone of our lives. As we learn to use them in productive ways we are led to lives of inner and outer transformation. However, habits have the potential to become an unconscious, soul and agency destroying cancer that compounds the problems of the “natural man”. Bringing conscious awareness to the individual and accumulated habits which form our routines can help us replace entropic, destructive processes with what Christ called “living water”. They offer specific ideas and guidance based on the book Atomic Habits and their own life experience which can help us break these unhealthy cycles and begin the process of rebirth into a new life.

In this episode Christopher and Riley welcome artist Greg Olsen. Greg is particularly well-known in LDS circles as a painter of Jesus. Our hosts had the opportunity to mine his experiences becoming a professional painter of religious iconography and images that convey the relatable nature of the Savior. Of course, he is much more than his public works and this conversation takes them through his contemplative practices, the nature of symbols, and simplifying our faith by practicing loving-kindness.

In this episode Christopher and Riley welcome Phil McLemore and Ben Heaton, Bhagavad Gita enthusiasts and students of Vedic wisdom, to finish our discussion of the seminal Hindu scripture.  Our hosts dive into the usefulness of the book, approaches to understanding it, and a few favorite passages.

The Book of Exodus can be divided into three parts: First, we witness the power of the Lord as he extends his arm against Pharaoh, sending the ten plagues and finally parting the Sea of Reeds, which swallows up Pharoah and his army, letting Moses and the Israelites escape into the wilderness. In the second part, Moses will ascend Mount Sinai and receive the law (Torah). The final section of the book is devoted to the construction and description of the tabernacle, or the portable temple the Israelites will carry with them over the next 38 years they spend in the desert. A three-part division is also seen in the Sinai episode where the people are gathered at the bottom, the elders are partway up, and Moses is on top speaking with God. We see a similar tripartite division in the third section's description of the tabernacle with its courtyard, Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Later mystics and teachers would use these three-fold divisions to describe the soul's journey to God, labeling the stages with terms such as ‘purification,' contemplation,' and ‘union'.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley discuss one of their favorite religious texts, an excerpt from the Mahabharata, called the Bhagavad Gita. This seminal Hindu work introduces the various forms of Yoga as an allegorical discourse between the warrior prince, Arjuna, and the reincarnated God, Krishna. Contrary to the Western understanding of Yoga, this has less to do with stretching muscles and more to do with stretching the soul. Christopher and Riley share some favorite commonplaces from their reading and offer their interpretations as a starting point for those wanting to explore the beauty and great value of “the Gita.”

Christopher is joined by guest co-host Shiloh Logan to talk about the history of “Satan” from the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible through today. This is not a theological discussion but a historical discussion of how the idea of Satan has evolved. Shiloh and Christopher use scholar Ryan Stokes to show how the idea of “the Satan” was understood before the Jewish captivity in Babylon, how that changed and was possibly influenced by Zoroastrianism, and how the Dead Sea Scrolls solidified the idea of “Satan” that made it into the New Testament. Christopher and Shiloh also use scholar Elaine Pagels, to expand on how our idea of “Satan” affects and influences our view of the other and justifies us in our view. They conclude with a discussion of “Satan” through a Jungian lens, and conclude that the first step in improving our views of the other and our society lies in integrating our own “shadow.”

In a church with global proselytizing reach, which must outgrow its geographic origins theologically and practically, the Great Apostasy, as historically understood in LDS theology, has become problematic. For this episode we welcome back our friend, Sufi al-hajj Daud, a.k.a. Dr. David Peck (www.ofsaintsandsufis.org) to discuss his contribution to the book, Standing Apart, a scholarly collaboration on the historiography of the Great Apostasy. He describes how to deconstruct and reframe the Great Apostasy through the lens of the universal ur-covenant or First Estate. Recognition of this common entry point on the covenant path helps us commune with brothers and sisters of divergent but related faith traditions. We highlight other overlapping ideas between faiths such as the light of Christ in a wide-ranging episode that we hope will open up to you a path of greater and increasing appreciation of other faiths.

Among the world's many religions are shadow traditions that express the esoteric or mystical experience of divine union.  In Christianity this is manifest in ecstatic, revelatory examples, such as within restorationist movements, in monastic cloisters, and through spontaneous re-emergence among individuals and small groups accessing truth through mystical experience.  Parallel to the ascendance of the Islamic faith was a movement that drew from a deep and ancient well of mystical practices and understandings, called sufism.  In this episode we welcome Sufi master, al-hajj Daud, also known as Dr. David Peck to discuss his fascinating discovery of sufism as an active and participating latter-day saint, how it has enhanced his faith, and what we can learn from his journey and discovery.  His upcoming book and podcast, Of Saints and Sufis, will both challenge and intrigue those with the courage to continue the path of the seeker.

In the opening of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven belongs now to the "poor in spirit", which translates as "the very empty ones". What does that kind of poverty or emptiness imply? Surely Jesus wants us to have an abundance of His Spirit, but is our vessel empty? In this episode, Christopher and Riley break down identity recognition, formation, and cleansing. They hit on what might be considered positive and negative aspects of the identity formation process, with a view towards the beatitudinal ideal of non-attachment to the identities of what many have referred to as "the false self".

In this episode, Christopher sits down face to face with Riley on a visit to Heber, Utah from Bakersfield California to talk about arriving at certainty through methodological doubt. The conversation begins with the uncannily similar methodological doubt of medieval Muslim philosophical theologian and Sufi mystic al-Ghazali (1056 or 1057-1111) and the first modern philosopher, René Descartes (1596-1650), by which each arrives at certainty through direct experience of what Descartes calls “clear and distinct ideas” and Riley and Christopher share their own experience.

In this episode, guest-host Lindsey Ohlin is joined by educator Tom Bogle as they discuss their similar experiences with an unhealthy relationship surrounding the idea of knowing. What stumbling blocks might we encounter in our pursuit of perfect knowledge and how might that influence how we see our place in the world? What is the relationship between knowledge and faith, and where does wisdom fit into that equation? The pursuit of knowledge can often lead us toward better answers, but can the pursuit of wisdom lead us down a path toward asking better questions?

In this episode Riley and Christopher discuss the contemplative value of stillness.  While we've referenced meditation multiple times, this means of approaching God in stillness offers us the opportunity to connect with the divine by quieting the sensory processes and becoming aware of autonomic processes such as breathing and heartbeat.  So what are we to learn from this?  Could it be that chasing answers all the time has become a distraction to communion and revelatory knowing, which is not always the same as propositional knowing?

In this episode Christopher and Riley are joined by Latter-day Peace Studies co-founder and former Latter-day Contemplation co-host Shiloh Logan to discuss his journey of faith. Shiloh's family's recent decision to resign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created an opportunity to explore faith transition and its relationship to religious identity from a personal perspective. Shiloh, Riley, and Christopher approach the subject both from the perspective of those who remain and of those who leave or resign from the Church. They discuss how we can continue to interact with one another with respect for individual spiritual autonomy and build bridges of healing and reconciliation when someone we love leaves the Church.Show notes: “LDS Personal Faith Crisis: ‘Don’t find fault. Find remedy‘,” scholars report to President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

In this episode, after Christopher read a couple of dozen books on the Bible in a couple of weeks and recorded a three-hour introduction to the Old Testament on our sister podcast, LDPS Presents: Come, Follow Me with his co-host Ben Petersen, Christopher and Riley sat down to record this briefer conversation on the Old Testament. After touching on the complexities of authorship, canonization, translation, hermeneutics, exegesis, etcetera, Riley and Christopher set all of those complexities aside, take a deep breath, and go into contemplative reading of the Old Testament (or any other sacred text) through the Christian contemplative practice of Lectio Divina (Lat. “Divine Reading”) a traditional Christian monastic practice of scripture reading, meditation, and prayer, bringing peace—even just talking about it the practice of Lectio Divina after talking about the complexities of other approaches to reading scripture brought a palpable peace to Christopher and Riley you can sense in listening to the episode—a peace found in communion with the Divine through the Divine Reading (Lectio Divina) of divinely inspired writings.

In this episode Riley and Christopher welcome Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, “a licensed therapist who specializes in working with LDS couples on sexuality and relationship issues,” for a wide-ranging discussion of the Divine Feminine from an archetypal spiritual perspective. The discussion covers, among other things, the attributes of the Divine Feminine, their symbolic implications, the integration of the Divine Feminine, and its manifestation and significance in relationships.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley discuss perennial wisdom and why we should study and incorporate the foreign, yet familiar, truths of all traditions into our own understanding and practice. Within the Church, we have a common misconception that the “fullness of the gospel” found in the “only true and living church” (D&C 1:30) gives us a claim to comprehensive, exclusive truth from God. As Riley and Christopher demonstrate, prophets ancient, modern, and contemporary have not seen things that way but instead have always actively encouraged Latter-day Saints to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118) and have consistently recognized that God “bring[s] forth [His] word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth” (2 Ne. 29:7). It is up to each of us individually to bring forth in our own lives the words which the Lord has spoken to men and commanded them to write “both in the east and in the west” (2 Ne. 29:11) and “unto all nations of the earth” (2 Ne. 29:12). By encountering and wrestling with these perennial truths, we can come to a fuller understanding of our own beliefs and grow into a more excellent experience of God’s truth for all his children.

In this episode Christopher and Riley introduce Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and the most accessible abridged translation of one of his most beloved works, The Alchemy of Happiness, itself an abridgment by al-Ghazali of his magnum opus, The Revival of the Religious Sciences. Known as “The Proof of Islam,” Al-Ghazali is the second most important figure in the Islamic tradition after the Prophet Muhammad, and the most important theologian and mystic of Islam. He is also an acknowledged intellectual influence of perhaps the most important theologian in the Christian tradition, St. Thomas Aquinas. In The Alchemy of Happiness, al-Ghazali gives us a typology of the soul of man as possessing a set of divine attributes that both connect us to the base instincts of animals and yet set us apart as God's crowning act of creation. Al-Ghazali commends spiritual discipline to his disciples, while cautioning that the checklist of command-keeping alone only brings us to the threshold of mystical communion with God. For Latter-day Saints, interested in “truth, wherever we may find it”, one could not do much better than Al-Ghazali.

In this episode Riley and Christopher are joined by Ben Peterson, co-host of Latter-day Peace Studies Presents: Come, Follow Me, for a conversation on how we read the scriptures and how that determines the meaning we get out of them. In the course of the conversation, they examine a few of the hermeneutics (i.e., ways of reading the scriptures) they have been using in their respective podcasts, and the exegesis (i.e., meaning) each hermeneutic produces. At the end of this episode, Christopher makes an announcement about the future of Ben's podcast.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley trace the roots of the Logos of God, translated “Word” in John 1:1 in the New Testament, through the early Church fathers Clement of Alexandria and Justin Martyr to its roots in Ancient Greek Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus. In so doing, Christopher and Riley explore the meaning of the Logos of God in-depth, including in comparative religious perspective with the Hindu concept of Maya through the yogi Yogananda. Ultimately, Riley and Chris conclude with Paul Tillich, “He who sacrifices the Logos principle sacrifices the idea of a living God, and he who rejects the application of this principle to Jesus as the Christ rejects his character as Christ.”

In this episode, Christopher and Riley are joined by Latter-day Peace Studies and Latter-day Contemplation podcast co-founder, Shiloh Logan, to commemorate the podcast's 50th installment. They look back on the genesis of the podcast, what it has taught them about the contemplative mindset, and express gratitude for those who have contributed to the emerging community of peace-loving disciples of Christ that Latter-day Peace Studies and Latter-day Contemplation has created. In the process, they touch on some of the podcast's highlights and share their vision for the future of the podcast.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley talk about the need for a church. First, they refer to the Greek word in the Bible translated “church” and bring out its two simultaneously operative meanings. Next, they explore in-depth the need for a church based on those two meanings. Finally, they explore a threefold path one tends to take as a member of the body of Christ we call the church leading from dependence through participation to either disillusionment or leadership. But the leadership they discuss is not the top-down leadership one thinks of when thinking of the church as an institution, but the bottom-up, or grassroots, leadership in which one can participate if one sees oneself correctly as a member of the body of Christ called the church, with each member serving its particular function separate and distinct from all others, and at the same time in concert with them.

What if you knew you were loved unconditionally? In this episode, Riley and guest host Shiloh Logan explore loving kindness. They discuss how it interfaces with Latter-day Saint theological constructs like Zion and degrees of glory, as well as the longstanding Christian call to disciples to nonviolence and detachment from outcomes. The calculus of transactional ROI in religious observance has become a distraction leading to burnout when expected outcomes don't materialize. Conversely, the “mighty change of heart” resulting from transformational experiences with God helps us escape the perfection trap of the checklist Gospel. Contemplative, communion-centered activities such as loving-kindness meditation can create peaceful expansive experiences of loving-kindness toward ourselves others.

In this episode, Riley and Christopher discuss the critical importance of mentors in our lives. In the process, they wander back and forth through the various benefits and risks inherent in the establishment of mentor/protégé relationships. At its core, mentoring is about teaching, but on a deeper, more personal level. Mentorships include expectations of both parties, involve bi-directional growth. Mentors can help us grow in all areas of our life, secular and spiritual. In particular, spiritual mentors or gurus can help us grow spiritually. A traditional guru/disciple relationship is a long-term devotional practice. Christopher and Riley discuss the necessary discernment and grace that should attend mentor/protégé and guru/disciple relationships, as participants seek to learn and grow together. Realization of our full potential is difficult to impossible without the patient guidance of mentors. Fortunately, mentorship opportunities lie in wait if we prepare ourselves. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Christopher and guest co-host Shiloh Logan talk about the power of the stories that we tell ourselves and the impact that they have on our lives. It has been said that “we don’t live in reality, but, rather, we live in our stories about reality.” What does this mean? Human beings are story and meaning-making entities. We are what makes meaning out of reality, and we do this through the stories that we create around and about events and ourselves. Stories are how we make sense of our world, and they are helpful and beneficial to us until they’re not. A primary problem for human beings is when we can’t differentiate between reality and the stories that they have made about reality. This is problematic because once a story is no longer helpful for us, we often can’t shed it from our lives, repent, and move on, because we confuse the story-of-out-own-making for reality itself. One way of first being able to help us differentiate our stories from reality is to see that our stories can never be purely objective, as anything that we create is going to be inherently and necessarily limited. The entirety of our worldview is constructed from the things we-know-we-know and from the things that we-know-we-don’t-know. However, beyond these two things is the entirety of reality of things that we-don’t-know-that-we-don’t-know. Our stories are made by what we-know-we-know and what we-know-we-don’t-know, and because of this, they will never be entirely objective in accounting for the infinite reality of things we-don’t-know-that-we-don’t-know.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley discuss being present to our values and how we spend our time. They reminisce about the 60-second TV spots “Family. Isn't It About . . . Time?” (Remember those?) Using these TV spots as a springboard, they talk about the process of formulating values, the difference between the quantity of time and quality of time, and the importance of being present to our values and how we spend our time. Whatever our subjective judgments about which activities might help us attain or keep what we value, hearing God in the process is a function of being present to the “still small voice” that speaks guidance to us in the moments along the way.

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou have shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). “He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matthew 13:11). These scriptures all point to a mystical understanding of Jesus Christ and his mission. At his core, Jesus is the mediator of our atonement with God, our guide and spiritual mentor to the transformed inner life of discipleship, and revealer of our divine nature. In this episode, Riley and Christopher welcome former chaplain and Institute director Philip G. McLemore to discuss the wisdom of Jesus, his mediation, message, and atonement. We discuss the difference between doing and being in the context of discipleship and the transformative power of “inner work.” For those interested in mystical union with God, Jesus doesn't just point the way, he is The Way.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley are joined by guest Daniel Meehan for a discussion contemplating symbols and their meanings. After a brief discussion defining symbols and meanings, they delve into a discussion of some symbols and meanings beginning at convention and culminating with invention. Dan demonstrates his devotional practice of definition, deconstruction, and reconstruction of symbols and meanings, following the wisdom pattern, as Richard Rohr, OFM calls it, of order, disorder, reorder, to discover differing and deeper meanings of the symbols discussed. Riley and Chris follow Dan's lead and prove the power of his practice by passing from convention in the interpretation of symbols to invention, discovering differing and deeper meanings of symbols discussed with him.

Mysticism, properly understood, is a process or pursuit of divine oneness or communion with God. While that seems like a worthy aspiration, many can feel uncomfortable with mystical practices such as transcendental meditation. Mystics over the centuries have largely been misunderstood, characterized as heretical, or marginalized to protect orthodox authority. Indeed, Joseph Smith was treated similarly by religious leaders of his time; and yet today within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there exists a strong, literal, materialist tradition which becomes the filter through which we view God, leaving many with unmet spiritual needs. In this episode, Riley and Christopher suggest that our image of God and the ways in which we represent the divine, are inherently incomplete, and were never meant to be the truth of all things. While structure, dogma, practice, and liturgy are all important in pointing us to the truth of God, the first-hand, spirit-filled experience of divine communion itself, untranslated and ineffable, is far more profitable. Fortunately, this pursuit is not only possible but a present reality.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley contemplate good and evil from the loss of paradise in the duality of the fall to the regaining of paradise in a return to unity in the mystery of the conjunction of opposites and the sacred marriage of heaven and earth. In the course of the conversation, Riley and Christopher ponder the problem of evil postulated by Epicurus and the theodicies, or solutions to this problem, offered by philosophers and theologians from antiquity to modernity, and thus the purpose of good and evil from the fall of humanity into duality to its redemption in unity.

In this episode, Riley and Christopher take on the topic of resurrection. Is resurrection something that happens after we do, or do we need to be resurrected before we die? What would it look like to be resurrected before we die and what does a resurrected life in Christ look like? Christopher and Riley answer these questions and related questions about spiritual death and life with New Testament and extracanonical scriptures from the Gnostics, touching on the ordinances of baptism and the Sacrament and offer suggestions for living a resurrected life in Christ in the present.

The language of the sacred is often poetic, rather than propositional. It speaks of feelings, not facts. The fact is, any experience of the sacred is inexpressible in propositional terms. It should come as no surprise then that many of the sacred texts of the world's religions are in poetry, not prose: the Hindu Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, and Ramayana; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezequiel, the twelve minor prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon and the Book of Revelation in the Jewish and Christian Bibles; the sacred text of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching; and the Muslim Qur'an. Even philosophers and theologians have tried to express their propositional ideas about the sacred in poetry (e.g. Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe). Finally, Muslim mystics and Christian contemplatives have both expressed their experiences of the sacred in poetry, including in love poetry as evocative as the Song of Solomon in the Jewish Bible. In this episode, Christopher and Riley read and comment on passages from examples of the above-mentioned sacred texts in poetic translations evoking the same images and feelings as the originals.

In this episode, Riley welcomes guest co-host Shiloh Logan to talk about the modality and usefulness of the Word of Wisdom as a contemplative tool. They go into the history of the revelation and its subsequent modified orthodox adoption as a commandment under Heber J. Grant in order to deconstruct the popular understanding that what we read in Section 89 is God’s law of health. While the Word of Wisdom may be the result of a culturally infused, early 19th-century zeitgeist, it nevertheless represents an example of Joseph Smith’s ability to bring awareness to every aspect of our temporal lives in a way that makes all things new and spiritual. Understanding how the Word of Wisdom is used in the Church today, where it has become essentially an “effective boundary maintenance device,” can help us separate the policy from how a revelatory event became a model for incorporating an awareness of what we consume as part of our spiritual growth. Is there a difference between the spirit and the letter of the Word of Wisdom? Will becoming intentional about our consumption help us better connect to God? Is the Word of Wisdom Still relevant as a model of the spiritual/temporal connection?

In this episode, Christopher and Riley explore revelation. What is revelation? Who can receive it? Is it something only prophets can receive? Can we? Is revelation infallible if prophets receive it? How about if we do? Has it ceased or is it continuing? If it has ceased, how do we know we're interpreting it correctly? Wouldn't that take revelation too, or does reason suffice? If revelation is continuing, can earlier revelation be abrogated by later revelation? Has this ever happened? If so, does that mean God has changed his mind, or could it mean he has changed our minds? What can we do to prepare our minds to receive revelation? What might prevent us from receiving it? Riley and Christopher do their best to problematize revelation by raising questions about it, to solve the problems by answering them, and to describe contemplative practices to prepare us to be open to receiving continuing revelation despite conservatism.

Latter-day prophet David O. McKay described meditation as the “most secret, most sacred door through which we pass into the presence of the Lord” yet few Latter-day Saints have a regular meditation practice. In General Conference addresses, meditation usually receives, at best, passing mention as a synonym of prayer or pondering. We'd like to see that change. In this episode Christopher and Riley describe their respective meditation practices, give some advice on establishing a practice of your own, and detail some of the benefits they have each derived from regular meditation in hopes that more Latter-day Saints might incorporate this sacred practice into their worship.

In this episode, Riley interviews Christopher on his journaling practice. Christopher keeps seven different journals, including a Morning Pages journal inspired by Julia Cameron, a templated journal inspired by Michael Hyatt, a Five Minute Journal, a feelings journal, a food journal, a reading journal, and even a garbage journal. Each one of these serves a unique contemplative purpose for Christopher. Riley asks Christopher probing questions about journaling, some of which were submitted in advance by listeners like you. While the usual context for journaling in LDS circles is for the purpose of family history, Christopher and Riley explore journaling for the purpose of getting to know oneself.

On February 16, 1832, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon were studying John 5, and while they “meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about” (D&C 76:19). This vision and the way of understanding Heaven it revealed, and which we now refer to as “the three degrees of glory,” was the result of Joseph and Sidney's experience of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) of John 5. In this episode Riley and Christopher approach John 5 and Doctrine and Covenants 76 from a present-moment perspective and use them as guides for ascent out of the spiritual malaise referred to as “death” or “hell” into an awareness and embracing of the “everlasting life” that comes from hearing and believing in Christ.

Following US Independence Day with all of its pomp and circumstance, Christopher and Riley raise the question of whether America is a Christian nation. They recount America's history of subjugation, displacement, and slavery; episodes in US history that do not embody the Christian ideals expressed in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution vis-à-vis the stories of Americans that have struggled against power for those Christian ideals. They then walk listeners through a contemplative exercise of juxtaposing Cristian and American ideals in a Venn diagram to discover any overlapping ideals, as a way of answering the question of whether American is a Christian nation.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley discuss the contemplative practice of fasting. Beginning with the usual notion of fasting as abstaining from food and drink, they expand it to include abstaining from any appetite with the potential to be taken to excess or to become an unhealthy coping mechanism or even an addiction for lack of communion with God. Riley and Christopher describe indulgence in excess as a way we try to fill the emptiness in us resulting from a lack of communion with God, with food, sex, or the compulsive consumption of products or media, and draw upon examples and teachings from the Buddha, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, Jesus, and al-Ghazali, to expand the scope of fasting as a way of becoming more aware of ourselves, our family, our neighbors, and our wider world.

In this episode, Riley and Christopher tackle the question of the actionability of Christian contemplation, given the fact that it is often misunderstood as mere navel gazing. In the spirit of the saying of the great Sufi, Algazel, who wrote that, “Knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity,” Christopher and Riley make a case for the conjunction of contemplation and action as each side of this seeming pair of opposites is incomplete without the other.