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Episode 54: D&C 63
Ben and Shiloh open up a discussion on Section 63. The early Saints "in these infant days of the Church" sought for the word and direction of God for every particular thing. They sought for temporal answers for how to build Zion and the Lord responds with spiritual direction.
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Episode 28: Contemplating the Unseen
In this episode, Riley and Christopher explore the unseen world—the realm of all that which we cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, but which is real—including unseen metaphysical realities and epistemological or socially constructed ones. Some of the most significant realities that form part of a fully human experience, from love—an unseen but metaphysical reality—to marriage—an epistemological but every-much-as-real one, are part of the unseen world. While science only deals with what can be quantified, the unseen world gives life its greatest quality. As Hamlet said to Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth, . . . , than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
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Episode 53: D&C 60 – 62
Shiloh joins with guest co-host Christopher Hurtado to discuss and question the nature of God. Is God as wrathful, vengeful, and angry as the scriptures say that God is? Why is God angry with and ready to destroy people in one area for one type of sin but seemingly more lax or merciful with others committing far more grievous errors? We know that we are only responsible for the truth and commandments that we know, but does this really explain the complexities of a God that is still so seemingly inconsistent? Is there room in these scriptures for us to learn to see God differently? Is there enough space for…
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Episode 27: Memento Mori (Remember You Must Die)
In this episode Christopher and Riley discuss the Stoic and Christian spiritual exercise of memento mori (remember you must die). Contrary to the macabre idea of an anxious dwelling upon death, memento mori can be a useful tool to help us live fuller lives of integrity, gratitude, and joy. We hope this message brings you a sense of peace and equanimity, and helps you appreciate the beauty of a purposeful life.
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Episode 52: D&C 58 – 59
Guest co-host Christopher Hurtado fills in for Ben and talks with Shiloh about meaning and identity. It is prior to and through suffering and sacrifice narratives—"For after much tribulation"—that we create meaning of traumatic experiences that form the strongest aspects of our identities. In August of 1831, the early Saints were still learning what their new identity was and what it means to belong to "Church of Christ" (the formal name of the church that we know today—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—wasn't revealed until 1838). God reveals the first foundational principles of the Saints' relationship with secular government, and it varies from known axioms of political philosophy.…
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Episode 26: Blessed Are the Peacemakers
In this episode, Riley and Christopher explore the promise to peacemakers in the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9), with guest, Lindsey Ohlin, co-founder of Latter-day Peace Studies. Lindsey shares her transition from politics to peace, how she was able to find her “true self” as a daughter of God, and what that realization has meant to her. Lindsey, Christopher, and Riley discuss what it means to “see God” in themselves and in their fellow human beings. They revisit the importance of righteousness, understood as “right relationship,” whereby “great things [are] brought to pass" by “small and simple things” we…
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Episode 51: D&C 51 – 57
Christopher Hurtado joins Ben again this time in a discussion of D&C sections 51-57. The Saints of New York were commanded to move to Ohio and settle on the land of Leman Copley. Leman promised to consecrate the land to the church but later returned to the Shakers and revoked his promise. The Saints were commanded to leave rather than contend for the land. What identities of ours are tied to membership in the church? How do those identities affect our relationships with others? How does this relate to the principle of consecration as the early saints experienced it versus how we may experience it now? What role do ordinances…
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Episode 50: D&C 49-50
Guest co-host Christopher Hurtado joins Ben in a discussion of D&C Sections 49 and 50. Ben and Christopher discuss how our view of the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture can be informed by historical context and why it is helpful to do so. Leman Copley left the "United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing", otherwise known as the Shakers, to join with the Saints. What was it about the beliefs of the Shakers that warranted a special revelation? What is the role of marriage in our faith and how does our conception of Adam and Eve inform our overall view of our relationship with God? Christopher comments on the…
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Episode 25: Blessed are the Pure in Heart
Christopher and Riley return to the topic of the Beatitudes, this time discussing the fifth of the eight Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). They explore what it means to be pure in heart and even how to purify one’s heart, in a wide-ranging discussion including insights from Plato’s tripartite theory of the soul in the Phaedo and the Republic to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, to medieval Muslim mystic al-Ghazali’s Alchemy of Happiness. to ancient and modern scripture. The discussion ranges from the personal to the political, including the City of Enoch, the New Jerusalem, and Zion as the “pure in heart” (D&C…
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Episode 24: Blessed Are the Merciful
Riley and Christopher return to the topic of the Beatitudes, this time discussing the fifth out of eight Beatitudes, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). They explore mercy in light of it’s apparent opposite, justice, and seek a conjunction of opposites in the justice and mercy of God incarnate as Jesus Christ.
Finding Lasting Peace in a Modern World
