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…

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.

In this episode, Christopher and Riley welcome back Jana Spangler to discuss stages of faith development as touched on in Episode 20: Navigating a Faith Crisis. For decades, theologians and philosophers like James Fowler, Brian McLaren, and Ken Wilbur have attempted to classify and put a name to the stages of the human faith journey. Jana, Riley, and Christopher discuss the value of these models in helping listeners to understand where they are on the faith development continuum so that they might take solace in knowing their oftentimes isolating faith struggles are a normal aspect of growth and discovery. Christopher, Riley, and Jana take the listener step by step through…

What is sin? Is it the violation of an unchangeable God-given standard? If so, then why has what is considered sin and its attendant consequences changed so drastically from antiquity to today? What role do social institutions, traditions, and cultures play in framing what is considered sin? In this episode Christopher and Riley tackle this complex and fraught subject, in an attempt to come to a constructive, contemplative understanding of sin. First, they attempt to define sin. Next they approach participation in unjust systems and how it can lead to collective condemnation, hampering our ability to minister to those in need. Finally, they analyze Christ’s example and how he himself…

Riley and Christopher contemplate the question of Heaven and Hell. Is there a Hell? Where is it? Is it the underworld called “Sheol” in Hebrew or “Hades” in Greek in the Old Testament translated “hell” in the King James Version of the Bible? Or is it in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) in the New Testament, also translated “hell” in the King James Version of the Bible. Is it a place where the wicked go after dying or is there such a thing as a living hell on Earth? What about Heaven? Is it above? Is it on another planet called Kolob? Or is it on Earth? Is there heaven…

Christopher, Riley, and guest, Jana Spangler, a seasoned faith transitions coach, talk about healthy ways of dealing with doubt, difficult questions, and supporting those in a faith crisis. They talk about opening a space for those in doubt to express their doubts and be heard without judgment or attempts to fix them. If we are not to “rehearse [our] doubts with doubters,” where can we turn for validation? Jana explains the mindset of those in a faith crisis. They don’t choose their crisis and want to remain in the fold, but often feel they don’t belong. Jana helps us frame doubt and even faith crisis as necessary steps in the…

Riley and Christopher address doubting your doubts as a dogma as dubious as the sin of certainty. Both dogmas miss the mark. Spiritual progress isn’t possible without questions and doubts. If you have no questions or doubts, you’re closed off to revelation. It is questions and doubts that have brought about revelation, and revelation brings about questions and doubts. Questions and doubts are essential to faith as knowledge negates the need for faith.

Christopher is joined again with his guest co-host, Shiloh Logan, to talk about the fifth Beatitude. After the last episode's conversation concerning meekness, there is a better foundation for understanding and experiencing, at least in part, what it means to "hunger and thirst after righteousness." What is this hungering? How do we experience this in our daily lives, and are we--in our actual lived experiences--truly feeling "filled." We may say with confidence that we feel the "peace" of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but do we feel the inspiratation of the gospel's awe and wonder? Is our religious experience reduced to a checklist of things believed and tasks completed, or…

Christopher and guest co-host, Shiloh Logan, talk about the third Beatitude on meekness. When we read of Jesus' temptations after 40 days of fasting and when Satan showed him the whole earth, our typical interpretation is that Jesus recognized and rejected the temptation--from a rather contemporary Lockean standpoint--because the world was already His (because He had already mixed his time and labor in creating the world). Why would Jesus worship Satan to receive something that was already His? Yet Jesus would soon explain that this was not the reason the world was His. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught us that the meek inherit the earth. The earth…

Christopher and Riley have guest Travis Patten back on the podcast to discuss the soul’s descent from, and ascent to, God in light of Dante Alighieri’s journey from that “point midway on our path in life,” when we find ourselves in “a dark wood, the right way blurred and lost,” unable to commence our ascent to Paradise, to the presence of God, the “love that moves the sun and other stars.” Only through our descent into the Inferno God created to reveal to us our false selves can we reach the point of ascent of the mount of Purgatory to purify ourselves to fly to God’s presence.