The Pocket Contemplative dgschmelzer@gmail.com (Dave Schmelzer)

Christian Contemplative Spirituality--alternately called Christian Mysticism--has gone in and out of favor over the millennia, but has rich roots from the Hebrew Bible forward. With help from the work of Carl McColman, Dave Schmelzer will help orient you as you look to navigate this vital, essential stream.


Mentioned on this podcast: 
Carl McColman's The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: An Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality

Is there a secret of life? Contemplatives of many stripes suggest it surround cultivating a kind of trust and openness that endures through the hardest of times. Dave Schmelzer dives into wisdom on this from the most optimistic of contemplatives, Julian of Norwich (C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton both said she was their go-to contemplative teacher). Julian lived through the bubonic plague and yet came out of it with a remarkable trust that others around her didn't have.


Mentioned on this podcast:
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic and Beyond, by Matthew Fox
Zen and the Art of Happiness, by Chris Prentiss 

Christianity's most potent and lasting advice on aging well comes from one of its most remarkable contemplatives: Hildegard of Bingen from the 12th century. She was an explosion of creativity: she wrote the first known opera (by hundreds of years). She was an architect, a physician, a poet, a painter, a composer, a theologian and a leader of women. This podcast will look at her pitch that "greening" is the road to joy, fruitfulness and vitality as we age.


Mentioned on this podcast:
Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times, by Matthew Fox

Maybe the most-influential Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, had profound thoughts about how our spiritual practice is meant to--even must!--empower our creativity. Dave Schmelzer dives into Eckhart's deep, generative waters here.


Mentioned on this podcast: 
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, by Matthew Fox

Kieran Setiya--a philosopher at MIT who wrote the terrific book Midlife: A Philosophical Guide that Dave Schmelzer talked about on the last episode--joins Dave for a lively conversation about how philosophy can help with our deepest questions and about how it interacts with the spirituality we talk about here. 

Mentioned on this podcast:


Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, by Kieran Setiya
LIfe is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, by Kieran Setiya

Philosophers and theologians offer different answers to how we should feel about the losses we confront in midlife. Kieran Setiya, a philosopher teaching at MIT, wrote a terrific recent book on midlife crisis. Dave Schmelzer highlights some of Setiya's best stuff, including Setiya's takes on missed opportunities, why we can simultaneously regret and not regret where our lives have taken us, and whether there is help for those moments when we realize we're not as far from dying as we once were.

Mentioned on this podcast: 
Kieran Setiya's book, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide