The Pocket Contemplative

Note: This is not a Blue Ocean World podcast--that will come out as usual this week. Instead, it's a podcast about a fascinating way of looking at the world that Blue Ocean Faith people often talk about. That said, in this third and final episode, we consider what concrete upshot these deep thoughts about this mythic approach to spiritual development. And we try to distill how this might offer a needed fresh take on Christian faith. Make sure you've listened to parts 1 and 2 before diving in here.

For those of us who are praying people, what do we think happens when we do? Does God, because we pray, change other peoples's behavior? Or physical realities of the world? Or is that the wrong way to look at it? Tom, Val and Dave have a rip-roaring discussion.

Note: This is not a Blue Ocean World podcast, but a special, brief podcast about a take on life and faith that's been meaningful to many people in Blue Ocean Faith. Blue Ocean World will, as always, also come out this week. That said, in this second episode, we look more closely at this journey that was so compelling to great thinkers like Joseph Campbell and C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and Rene Girard. How does it actually help us experience transformation? And what are the implications for a fresh take on Christian faith? Make sure you've listened to part 1 before diving in here

The universal myth called The Hero's Journey was most recently described by Joseph Campbell and has become central to Hollywood storytelling. But, before and alongside Campbell, other great thinkers about myth like C.S. Lewis and Rene Girard were equally interested in it as a way into spiritual growth. This short podcast, the first in a series of three, looks into what they had in mind and how it might help us reboot a Christianity that might need what the Bible calls a "new wineskin." Note: This is not a Blue Ocean World podcast--we'll have another for you next Tuesday!--but is a special Blue Ocean Faith podcast.

Francine Kiefer covers congress for the Christian Science Monitor. On this Election Day, she helps talk Val, Tom and Dave off the ledge of how gloomy they feel about how the election has gone and about where things will go from here. Along the way, she has a few inspiring words for people of faith.

Angie Thurston--an "innovation fellow" at Harvard Divinity School--co-wrote 2 groundbreaking studies of how millennials are gathering together to find purpose and meaning and what that looks like in spiritual settings. She fills Val, Tom and Dave in on what the spiritual landscape looks like today.

In the early 2000s, the hot way to think about faith was this thing called The Emerging Church. Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren and Tony Jones were among the thinkers we met in that era. And at the center was Doug Pagitt. Doug joins Dave, Tom and guest host Leah Martens to update us on what he's learned on this unique journey.

Will Inboden was a leader in the National Security Council under George W. Bush and now teaches on foreign policy at the University of Texas in Austin. He was among the first Republican leaders to disavow Donald Trump and, with Val, Dave and Tom, he weighs in on the divide between Democrats and Republicans, what needed concerns Trump's voters are bringing to the table, how faith and politics interact, and what might come next after this current craziness settles.

In the 90s, conservative churches promoted a purity movement for teens that included things like abstinence ceremonies and pledges. The apex was the mega-selling "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." Author Joshua Harris has recently apologized for the negative consequences of the book. Tim Abrahamsen has written a personal response on our sister site HelloHoratio.com. Tim joins Tom, Dave and guest host Leah Martens for a freewheeling conversation about the fallout of the purity movement and what might replace it.

Blue Ocean World is a podcast about finding meaning from the conversations that are all around us. This week, all our friends are talking about the state of the election after the first debate. But it's hard to know how to helpfully weigh in as people who are now or have been religious leaders. So Val, Tom and Dave throw caution to the wind (or at least Val and Tom do) and dive in with a freewheeling conversation. A warning: It's not pro-Trump, so if that's unhappy, consider this your trigger warning.