Claim OwnershipThe Pocket Contemplative
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© 2026 The Pocket Contemplative
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A vibrant, story-filled look at contemporary spirituality that's fun, contemplative, practical and cultural.
120 Episodes
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Cutting to the chase, getting what we want won't make us happy because of what the researchers call "hedonic adaptation." The good news is that these same researchers tell us these desires for our lives absolutely can be central in helping us create a happy life. So what gives? How can our dreams for our lives work for us and not against us? Dave Schmelzer will explore this key question by way of famed happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky's research and insights. But before getting there, h...
In another episode of Dave's "history corner," he looks at the cataclysm that happened when the emperor made Christianity the state's religion in 325. Where Christians had been poor, persecuted and few in number, it now messed with the heads of the old guard to suddenly be favored and joined by millions of far less devout "fellow Christians" who loved the perks of their connection to power. The response of a few bold people to head to the wilderness changed what Christian faith--and its conte...
Contemplative practice has a remarkable connection to our physical health, among its many benefits. Dave Schmelzer will review how it connects with lengthening our telomeres, the caps on our chromosomes which determine whether we age with vigor or disease. He'll touch on advice for stress management and exercise and diet and sleep, all in a context of a mindful world. Mentioned on this podcast The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer, by Eliza...
"I dunno, that seems kind of out there to me" is a sentiment that has shadowed Christian conversations from the start. Dave Schmelzer takes us on a journey to the second century when early attempts to define orthodoxy made consequential choices about how much our experience might inform our understanding of who God is. He introduces us to key figures like Irenaeus and to a consequential debate that perhaps we haven't heard about: whether the fourth gospel would be John's or Thomas's. Mentio...
After relaying some brief advice from Dick Van Dyke about turning 100, Dave Schmelzer chats about some wisdom from the Buddhist therapist Lewis Richmond about what he's learned by working with aging clients. Dave touches on fascinating ideas from Richmond about horizontal versus vertical time and the isolation of a sudden setback and experiencing aging as a fresh start along with much more. Mentioned on this podcast: Lewis Richmond's book Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Gui...
Mark Charbonneau and his friends at The Vine church in Austin, Texas are charting a unique way forward in our cultural and religious divisions. Dave Schmelzer talks with him about what their “third way” looks like and how it might help all of us in the middle of such unprecedented divisions. Does it only apply to a small number of people of good will? Does it offer broader hope? They close with a few words about the life of a pastor at all, much less one in the middle of these sorts of cultur...
Some great thinkers like GK Chesterton and Meister Eckhart pitch that right at the heart of God's reality is play and that the more we can tap into this bone-deep playfulness, even in the middle of realities that look quite unpromising and overwhelming, the better we'll thrive. Mentioned on this podcast The God Who Plays: A Playful Approach to Theology and Spirituality, by Brian Edgar Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, by Stuart Brown M.D. ...
One of the charms of Christian faith is that so many scriptures encourage us to ask God for things we want. But as we age we realize it must be more complicated than that--and the great contemplatives add complexities as they focus on things like union with God as the main thing or with cautions about things like "disordered attachments". But we still do in fact want things! Dave Schmelzer offers us some things to ponder in these conundrums.
One unexpected outcome of the Christian contemplative life is that, per the Benedictines, we'll discover that the stuff we need to do everyday has the possibility of moving from "that stuff we have to get done" to "co-creating a better world with God." And not just that, but it also then might make our days feel rich and purposeful when they'd been feeling less than that. Christa Connelly helped facilitate a fascinating conversation on the ins and outs of this and she and Dave Schmelzer talk ...
Dave Schmelzer used to lead a church in which looking to experience power that we're told comes from the Holy Spirit was a big deal. Does that view of the spiritual life translate to a contemplative world? It turns out the answer is not just "yes," but even "oh, you have no idea." Mentioned on this podcast: Check out the next session of Faith Part 2 in October. It's a free 8-week online look at some crucial but lesser-taught riches of Christian faith that might help us when our initial fait...
Dave Schmelzer and Curtis Gruenler (an English professor and medievalist) have been friends since college and they talk about the ins and outs of how friendships themselves can empower the kind of growth in God that we talk about on The Pocket Contemplative. Mentioned on this podcast: If you'd like to register interest in October's (free, eight-week) Faith Part 2 course, let us know here. Curtis is launching a Substack on friendship (from a medievalist's perspective) Curtis and Dave allud...
In this continuation of a look (from Notre Dame sociologist Chrisitan Smith) at the religious world that Millennials in particular are living in, Dave Schmelzer will continue to look at some large, cultural forces at play before turning to some self-inflicted wounds from religion. Mentioned on this podcast Register your interest here for this fall's Faith Part 2 course, a free, online look at how the Christian tradition (sometimes partnering with other contemplative traditions and mo...
Evangelical parents are taught that a key part of their parental responsibility is to raise their kids to be Christians. But that's becoming, in an understatement, far more challenging says notable Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith. In this revealing first of a two part podcast, Dave Schmelzer will walk you through some of the large-scale cultural forces that, Smith reports, are driving religion to a kind of cultural obsolescence. Mentioned on this podcast Register your inter...
Many earnest evangelicals and charismatics, Dave Schmelzer among them, have found comfort and connection in learning to hear God's voice in the spirit taught by the great 17th-century contemplative Brother Lawrence. But an insurmountable problem usually comes up: as delightful as the conversation itself is, lots and lots of things that are important to us don't actually work out in ways we'd felt like God was telling us they would. And, eventually, we wise up and quit this dialogue. But that ...
Many of the most prominent social activists in the last half century or so have also been contemplatives: Howard Thurman, the Dalai Lama, and Thomas Merton among others. Does the sort of spirituality we talk about here have things to offer in a world like ours where people feel daily outrages flowing through their media feeds? Might our practices actually be negative--in that moving past constant reactivity might make us too passive? But surely constant outrage mostly leads to hopelessness (a...
The end goal of spiritual development for most great Christian contemplatives is some sort of union with God. But many people find that to feel pretty distant--maybe it's something we can only hope for in heaven. But a recent, major Christian contemplative named Bernadette Roberts offers a more direct pathway not only to union with God (and maybe beyond), but also to direct lifestyle benefits along the lines of what psychologists call "flow." She talks about it using the Eastern terminology o...
Some people, feeling unsettled by the election, have wondered what the wisdom talked about on The Pocket Contemplative might offer us. Dave Schmelzer looks to Julian of Norwich, who lived during her own unsettling time (the Bubonic Plague), for some thoughts. In his introduction, he also talks about "Faith Part 2," a new 8-week online course about the how-to's of a faith that, learning from the greats, might help to move us past faith challenges into a richer life with God than perhaps we've ...
Hartmut Rosa is a German sociologist whom many Christians have been looking to as a guide to how our lives seem to be accelerating. Do we somehow need to opt out of this acceleration if we want a happy life, much less a life with God? Rosa says no, opting out isn’t possible. But he does have a contemplative answer: “resonance,” a kind of paying attention that can sit alongside much of what we talk about here. Vince Brackett, a Chicago pastor, and Rosa devotee, walks us through this fasc...
Dave Schmelzer is in touch with many people who are, to a greater or lesser degree, deconstructing their earlier faith experience, a common process for midlife people of faith. HIstoric Christian spirituality tells us there's a unique second-half-of-life flowering of faith. Dave lets us in on a series of conversations he's been having about how we might explore that in our era. Mentioned on this podcast: Short videos about The Critical Journey's stages of faith Intriguing blog posts a...
Howard Thurman was the great behind-the-scenes spiritual leader of America’s civil rights movement. Martin Luther King was said to carry a copy of Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited with him for inspiration on each march. But Thurman starts by being among the great nature mystics in the Christian tradition. Why do you (like everyone) love nature so much? For Thurman, that’s part of how we create that strong inner self that so influenced King and others. Mentioned on this podcast: What Mak...
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