In this episode, we explore the life and mind of whom historian Tom Holland calls “17th century Europe’s supreme polymath": Blaise Pascal. Our guide is Graham Tomlin, a former bishop in the Church of England. Drawing from his book, Blaise Pascal, the Man Who Made the Modern World, Graham brings us on a journey through Pascal’s life, his conversion to Christianity, and his famous argument for belief in God known as “the Wager.”Together, we’ll explore the ways in which Pascal himself can still be a guide for us today. "What else does [man's] craving and helplessness proclaim—but that there was once in man a true happiness of which all that remains is the empty print and trace. This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help that he cannot find in those that are. Though none can help. Because this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object. In other words, by God himself."This conversation was recorded in August 2025. You can find the original video and transcript here.Thank you for joining us in exploring timeless wisdom together, to help you gain clarity and courage for your own life, and to help nurture a culture of renewed hope.
What does redemptive leadership mean? As Christians, we have a unique calling: not just to lead, but to serve. What does this look like in today’s culture, and how can we serve as leaders and foster an environment of abundant grace and joy wherever we are?Christianity Today’s Dr. Nicole Massie Martin helps us to understand how we can nail outdated models of leadership to the cross, and what it will take to replace them with Biblical ones:“We need to nail to the cross what is a very secular understanding … of [power, ego, and performance], so that what is resurrected through Christ might be redemptive and bring glory to God and good to the people that we lead.”This conversation is from an Online Conversation recorded in May 2025. We hope this conversation will inspire you to identify the ways you lead, and how you can step further into leading with grace, humility, and joy.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Peter ScazzeroKilling Comparison: Reject the Lie You Aren’t Good Enough and Live Confident in Who God Made You To Be, Nona JonesGo deeper into the issues discussed in this episode with these Trinity Forum Readings:How Much Land Does a Man Need?; Leo TolstoyA Man Who Changed His Times; William WilberforceLetter from Birmingham Jail; Martin Luther King, Jr.Who Stands Fast?; Dietrich BonhoefferNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Frederick Douglass
What does it mean to walk with God? The spiritual life is so often described as a walk, journey, or pilgrimage that it can be easy to dismiss the practice of walking as a mere metaphor.But in God Walk, author, pastor, and professor Mark Buchanan explores the way that the act of walking has profound implications for followers of the Way:“Hurry is the enemy of attentiveness. And so love as attentiveness is listening and caring and noticing, cherishing, savoring, being awestruck, these things that we feel in a relationship. I am deeply loved by this person because they notice me. I think that that’s how God’s built it. And we can’t get that if we’re moving too fast, if we’re in a hurry.”This episode is drawn from an online conversation held in 2023. It’ll give you a sense of what the Trinity Forum is about: a community of people renewing our culture by applying wisdom from the Christian tradition, and nurturing new growth in it, in our time. If that resonates with you, please join the Trinity Forum as a member, at ttf.org.As we ponder the spirituality of walking, our fall Trinity Forum Reading features naturalist Henry David Thoreau’s ruminations on the art of walking, with an introduction by Trinity Forum President Cherie Harder. Stay tuned for pre-ordering later this week, and join our membership to receive a copy mailed directly to you.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:AristotleSøren KierkegaardJean-Jacques RousseauGod Walk, by Mark BuchananSimone WeilThe Three Mile an Hour God, by Kosaku KoyamaWanderlust: A History of Walking, by Rebecca SolnitKnowing God, J.I. PackerKai MillerRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Pilgrim’s Progress, by John BunyanPilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie DillardGod’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley HopkinsLong Walk to Freedom, by Nelson MandelaBrave New World, by Alduous HuxleyRelated Conversations:A New Year With The Word with Malcolm GuiteMusic, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi FloydPursuing Humility with Richard Foster and Brenda QuinnReading as a Spiritual Practice with Jessica Hooten WilsonGet tickets for The Rabbit Room's Housemoot.To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcasts/ and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
Our theme for this episode is “Untangling Our Knotted-Up Lives,” and our guest is the author and speaker Beth Moore. Drawing from her bestselling memoir, Beth helps us work through a challenge we all may face at various times: maintaining resilience — and faithfulness to our vocations — in the face of hardship:“I’d come to a point where I thought, oh my goodness, I see this. I get what Jesus is doing here, whatever it might be. I had this compelling to share it, and I have throughout my whole adult life.”This episode is drawn from an online conversation held in 2025. It’ll give you a sense of what the Trinity Forum is about: a community of people renewing our culture by applying wisdom from the Christian tradition, and nurturing new growth in it, in our time. If that resonates with you, please join the Trinity Forum as a member, at ttf.org.Go deeper into the topics discussed in this conversation with these Trinity Forum Readings:Pilgrim's Progress; John BunyanThe Long Loneliness; Dorothy DayA Spiritual Pilgrimage; Malcolm MuggeridgeConfessions; St. AugustineThe Children of Light and the Children of Darkness; Reinhold Niebuhr
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’re focusing on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Today’s episode concludes our summer series. Our guide today is the acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson, author of the Gilead series, and much else. In this episode, originally an Online Conversation recorded in 2020, Marilynne reflects on the art of writing as a means of exploring truth and engaging questions around learning to live well, to love others, and to create a home and community, in our fractious world:“The unique brilliance of a human being … is something that we tend utterly to disparage, demean, utterly fail to notice … every person lives out a [life] beautiful, complicated, inaccessible to other consciousnesses. And it is sacred.”And if this conversation resonates with you, consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. Marilynne Robinson's Novels | Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, Lila, Jack, Reading GenesisArticle in Breaking Ground from our event.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Marcel ProustRalph Waldo EmmersonPaul HardingWalt WitmanWilliam FaulknerJohn CalvinJonathan EdwardsMoby Dick, by Herman MellvillePiers Plowman, by William LanglandRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Sacred and Profane Love | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Donne Bulletins from Immortality | A Trinity Forum Reading by Emily Dickinson Confessions | A Trinity Forum Reading by Saint Augustine Brave New World | A Trinity Forum Reading by Aldous Huxley Marilynne Robinson is a novelist, essayist, and teacher, one of the most renowned and revered of living writers. Her novels Housekeeping, Gilead, Lila, and Home have been variously honored with the Pulitzer Prize, National Books Critics Circle Award (twice), a Hemingway Foundation Award, an Orange Prize, The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and the Ambassador Book Award. She's also the author of many essays and non-fiction works, including her work, “Mother Country”, and her essay collections, “Death of Adam,” “Absence of Mind,” “When I was a Child I Read Books,” “The Givenness of Things,” and “What Are We Doing Here?”. She's the recipient of the National Humanities Medal and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her writing has spent over 20 years teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop, as well as several universities.
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Guided by theologian and musician David Bailey and concert pianist and chamber musician Mia Chung, this episode explores the concept that music involves mutual support, balance, and give and take among musicians to create a cohesive experience.And we reflect on how Christian communities can apply these principles of collaboration and harmony to create faith communities that are transformative:To the extent that the arts can actually cultivate that practice of incorporating the right hemisphere and in communication with the left, it's always together, you know, they're, complimentary. I think we can benefit each other in terms of community formation, but even benefit our own intellectual lives and the amount of joy we experience living in this world. - Mia Chung If this work resonates with you, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a society member.This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in June, 2024. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.Learn more about Mia Chung and David Bailey.Episode Outline00:00 Introduction to Trinity Forum Conversations00:34 Exploring Music and Christian Community01:36 Cherie Harder on Cultural Challenges02:55 Welcoming David Bailey and Mia Chung04:41 David Bailey's Musical Journey06:56 Mia Chung's Musical Formation10:44 The Role of Arts in Reconciliation13:19 The Power of Music in Community Building23:17 Reintegration and Reconciliation at MIT28:52 Challenges and Practices for Reconciliation30:10 Digital Discipleship and Secular Influence30:44 The Importance of Fasting and Listening32:33 Engaging Differently as Followers of Jesus33:28 The Role of Technology in Information Consumption34:18 Post-COVID Convening and Empathetic Listening37:25 The Power of Music and Emotional Expression40:04 Silence and Contemplative Practices44:43 Artistic Collaboration and Reconciliation51:19 Final Thoughts and EncouragementAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:Arrabon: Learning Reconciliation Through Community & Worship Music, by David BaileyRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Hannah and Nathan, by Wendell BerryPainting as a Pastime, by Winston ChurchillThe Four Quartets, by TS EliotLetters from Vincent Van GoghSpirit and Imagination, selections from Samuel Taylor ColeridgeWhy Work?, by Dorothy SayersThe Loss of the University, featuring the works of Wendell Berry and Jacques MaritainTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Our guest this episode is the poet Christian Wiman, a master of the written – and spoken – word. After long wandering, he returned to the Christian faith in which he’d been raised, in part because of a terminal cancer diagnosis – one he has now long outlived. Both before and after his diagnosis, and his return to faith, his experience of despair has fueled his powerful poetry. In grappling with it, Christian uses words in ways that are a tonic against despair.“I deal with despair because…I don’t know how not to, and it would be an evasion not to. And I think if you don’t feel it, then you’re not paying attention.”This podcast is drawn from an online conversation from 2024. We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation. If it does, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast on your chosen platform. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, by Christian WimanMarilynne RobinsonDanielle ChapmanWilliam BronkWilliam WordsworthEvery Riven Thing, by Christian WimanMy Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer, by Christian WimanPrayer, by Carol Ann DuffyThe Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards Augustine of HippoBittersweet, by George HerbertSurprised by Joy, by C.S. LewisRichard WilburJürgen MoltmannWhen the Time’s Toxins, by Christian WimanRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Augustine’s ConfessionsDevotions by John Donne, paraphrased by Philip YanceyGod’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsBulletins from Immortality, by Emily DickinsonWrestling with God, by Simone WeilRelated Conversations:Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael WearThe Kingdom, the Power & The Glory with Tim AlbertaA Life Worth Living with Miroslav VolfTowards a Better Christian PoliticsChristian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of DifferenceWhat Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi AshworthScripture and the Public SquareHow to be a Patriotic ChristianLife, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip YanceyThe Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American DemocracyFear and Conspiracy with David FrenchTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
In this Trinity Forum Conversation, author Lanta Davis, along with special guest host and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Jessica Hooten Wilson, delve into the power of imagination and its role in our spiritual formation. The discussion centers on Davis's book Becoming by Beholding, which explores Christian imagination through art, literature, and historical practices.These friends and scholars discuss the transformative potential of engaging with sacred art, the virtues, and traditional practices like Lectio Divina:"In Jesus's parables ... He's constantly showing us that there's more hidden behind the surface than we think. The mustard seed is not just a mustard seed. Yeast is not just yeast ... Jesus shows us heavenly meanings ... This is what the incarnation helps us understand, that the divine is not just up above. It's all around us. It's here and now. That when God became matter, all the material world changed because of it."We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation. This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in March 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.Learn more about Lanta Davis and Jessica Hooten Wilson.Episode Outline00:00 Welcome and Introduction04:47 Exploring the Power of Imagination05:37 The Concept of Becoming by Beholding07:46 Living in an Enchanted World10:53 Tradition and the Logic of Eternity13:49 Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Orthopathy17:22 The Role of Icons and Medieval Bestiaries23:25 Lectio Divina and Imaginative Prayer27:20 Virtues and Vices: A Deeper Look30:38 Understanding Virtue and Its Historical Context31:37 The Practicality of Virtue Personifications32:32 Teaching Virtues in Everyday Life33:50 Exploring Courage Through Art36:30 Incorporating Virtue in Contemporary Art38:15 Imagination and Its Role in Understanding Reality45:28 Scripture, Culture, and the Fruits of the Spirit49:49 Global Christian Art and Imagination51:34 Resources for Teaching and Engaging with Art54:46 Travel and Exploration of Christian Art56:33 Desire, Trust, and Identity in Modern Culture59:39 The Last Word with Lanta DavisAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:Becoming by Beholding, by Lanta DavisJessica Hooten WilsonRalph C. WoodIn the Beauty of Holiness, by David Lyle JeffreyLuke Ferriter“Hurrahing in Harvest”, by Gerard Manley HopkinsFour Quartets, by T. S. EliotOrthodoxy, by G. K. ChestertonFlannery O’ConnorGrace HammondOn Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books, by Karen Swallow PriorAlan NobleA Secular Age, by Charles TaylorDorothy SayersThe Divine Comedy, by Dante AlighieriJames K.A. SmithKristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid UndsetJohn DonneSamuel Taylor ColeridgeJohann Wolfgang von GoetheRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid UndsetSpirit and Imagination: Reflections from Samuel Taylor ColeridgeThe Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.In this episode, our guides are modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty. Back in 2019, we hosted a live Evening Conversation in which they explored the ways in which music can speak to our spiritual hunger and shape our sense of beauty, truth, and purpose: "Our singing doesn't just affect each one of us. We are a witness to the world around us. When we sing, we are always a witness."We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation. If it does, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast on your chosen platform. Learn more about the Gettys. Watch our Evening Conversation. Authors, artists, and books mentioned in the conversation:Peter KreeftThe Republic, by PlatoDamon of AthensSing: How Worship Transforms your Life, Family, and Church, by Keith and Kristyn GettyUnwearied Praises: Exploring Christian Faith Through Classic Hymns, by Dr. Jeff GreenmanThe Pedagogy of Praise, by Dr. Jeff GreenmanJohn LennoxLucy ShawEugene PetersJ.I. PackerMartin LutherLeonard BernsteinAmy CarmichaelCecil Frances AlexanderOs GuinnessCharles SpurgeonLloyd JonesD.L. Moody Related Trinity Forum Readings:Handel’s Messiah Related Conversations:Waiting on the Word with Malcolm GuitePoetry & Beauty in Solitude with Dana Gioia
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.In this episode, our focus is Jane Austen, and our guide is Karen Swallow Prior, one of our Trinity Forum Senior Fellows.Karen explores the faith-informed perspective on virtue that Austen’s novels reflect:"Underneath the surface [Austen] is inviting us to look at our own interactions with one another, our own misperceptions, and misreadings, and I think that’s really why her work has remained so endearing to us today; because she reveals the truths of our human condition that never change, and that we’re always wrestling with."Jane Austen’s world and concerns seem distant from ours. Yet across the centuries, she illuminates the importance of the seemingly mundane, and the path towards repaired and rightly ordered relationships. If this work resonates with you, consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. This episode is drawn from an online conversation held in 2021. You can find the full video of this conversation here. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, by Jane AustenAmusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil PostmanPraying with Jane, by Rachel Dodge Alasdair MacIntyreWilliam ShakespeareRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Pride and Prejudice, a Trinity Forum Reading by Jane AustenBulletins from Immortality, a Trinity Forum Reading by Emily DickinsonRevelation, a Trinity Forum Reading by Flannery O’Connor God's Grandeur , a Trinity Forum Reading by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Today’s guide is the author and professor Diana Glyer. She’ll be talking about the lives and work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their beloved community known as the Inklings.In this episode drawn from an online conversation held in February of 2021, Diana focuses on how creativity thrives within small clusters of like-hearted people. We hope you enjoy reflecting on the potential of your own friendships and communities to be culture-shaping. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, by Diana GlyerBandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings, by Diana GlyerThe Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. TolkienCharles WilliamsC.S. LewisShakespeareOwen BarfieldHugo DysonOut of the Silent Planet, by C.S. LewisJerry RootThe Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis Related Trinity Forum Readings:On Friendship, by CiceroThe Golden Key, by George MacDonaldThe Oracle of the Dog, by G.K. ChestertonThe Lost Tools of Learning, by Dorothy Sayers Related Conversations:Suffering, Friendship, and Courage: What Lewis & Tolkien Teach Us About Resilience & Imagination, an Online Conversation with Joe Loconte
Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.How should we live faithfully within a world created to be good and beautiful, and yet everywhere marred by ugliness and injustice? Jazz vocalist and composer Ruth Naomi Floyd will guide us in bringing together music, creativity, and justice, and help us think about our roles in repairing, re-envisioning, and creating new places of beauty and flourishing:We know that art shapes and reshapes us and that it’s there in the cross of Jesus, I believe, where beauty and violence collided and beauty won. And so that act of loving someone…purposely trying to love someone, especially those that seem or are viewed or deemed unlovable, is…directly connected and intrinsically connected to our art making.We hope you are encouraged by Ruth’s artistic journey, as she helps us to find beauty in the midst of suffering, and to express love through creativity.This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2021. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Ruth Naomi Floyd.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:The Frederick Douglass Jazz WorksIt Was Good, Making Music to the Glory of God, by Ruth Naomi FloydThe Problem of Good, by Ruth Naomi FloydDr. John NunezToni MorrisonMartin Luther King Jr.Vincent van GoghHans Christian AndersenMiles DavisFrancis SchaefferJoshua StamperRelated Trinity Forum Readings:A Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassLetters from Vincent van GoghLetter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr.Revelation, by Flannery O’ConnorBulletins from Immortality, by Emily DickinsonRelated Conversations:A New Year With The Word with Malcolm GuiteTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society
In this episode we’re joined by theologian and bestselling author Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School. His latest book is The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others is Making Us Worse. The question he explores is one that relates to all of us: how can we find a way to strive for excellence, rather than for superiority over those around us? Finding new insights in familiar Biblical passages and the Christian tradition, he’ll help us to defy our culture of merciless ambition:Let’s dare trust in the God who comes down to serve those who are a refuse of society. And let’s trust in that unconditional love of God that takes those of us who are nothing and places us to become sharers of the community of those who are God’s beloved children.This episode is drawn from an online conversation held in 2025. It’ll give you a sense of what the Trinity Forum is about: a community of people working to keep the Christian intellectual tradition alive, and to nurture new growth in it in our time, for the renewal of our culture. If that resonates with you, please join the Trinity Forum as a member at ttf.org. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
This conversation is on the practical wisdom the Christian tradition offers for something that affects all of us: matters of life and death. Dr. Lydia Dugdale will be our guide. Lydia has applied practices from this faith tradition in her daily work with patients and families as a physician, professor and medical ethicist in New York City. She draws deeply from it in her book The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom – which she wrote for her patients, and those who love them:“[Death] exists as a paradox … death has been conquered in the Resurrection of Christ, and then death is still the last enemy to be destroyed in the final resurrection of the dead.” — Lydia DugdaleWe hope this conversation helps paint a picture of what it means to live as a Christian on the road of life, where death is not the end, but a stop along the way to eternity.This podcast was recorded with a live audience at a Trinity Forum evening conversation in Nashville in 2025. It’ll give you a good sense of what the Trinity Forum is about: a community of people working to keep the Christian intellectual tradition alive, to nurture new growth in it for society’s renewal, and to make it available to all. Related Conversations:Being, Living, and Dying Well, an Online Conversation with Lydia DugdaleFaith, Health, and Healing, an Evening Conversation with Farr Curlin and Daniel SulmasySuffering and Flourishing: Perseverance and Faith in the Midst of Pain, an Evening Conversation with Dr. Ray Barfield and Rev. Michael Walrond
In this conversation, author Ross Douthat draws from the tradition to tackle a foundational question: Why believe?Amid evidence that America’s long trend of secularization has leveled off, a perception of the limits of a strictly materialist worldview, and growing dissatisfaction with “do it yourself” approaches to spirituality, what does traditional faith uniquely offer those seeking truth in our time?New York Times columnist and author Ross Douthat joins us for this conversation, making the case for Christianity and rejecting atheism, all through the lens of reason: “I think secularization as a deep and profound phenomenon is not real, as you can tell. I think the world remains shot through with miracle and mystery and enchantment.” – Ross Douthat We hope this conversation provides a look at faith from a fresh angle, and encourages you in practicing traditional faith as an answer to the search for truth in our time.This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in February 2025. Watch the recording here.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Ross Douthat for The New York TimesMatter of Opinion PodcastThe Deep Places: A memoir of Illness and DiscoveryThe Decadent Society to Change the ChurchTo Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of CatholicismBad Religion: How We Became a Nation of HereticsBelieve: Why Everyone Should Be ReligiousBethel McGrew, on left vs. right brain of ChristianityRelated Trinity Forum Readings:The Wager; Blaise PascalThe Strangest Story in the World; G.K. ChestertonA Practical View of Real Christianity; William WilberforceGod’s Grandeur: Gerard Manley Hopkins selection of poems; Gerard Manley HopkinsRelated Conversations:A World Transformed with Tom HollandThe Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton and the Incarnation with Dale AhlquistTruth and Trust with Francis CollinsFaith in an Empirical World with Ard Louis and Tremper Longman
We were made for relationship — to be seen, loved, known, and committed to others. And yet we increasingly find ourselves, in the words of sociologist Jonathan Haidt, “disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.”On our podcast Haidt and bestselling author Andy Crouch pair up to explore how the technology era has seduced us with a false vision of human flourishing—and how each of us can fight back, and restore true community:“A person is a heart, soul, mind, strength, complex designed for love. And one of the really damaging things about our technology is very little of our technology develops all four of those qualities.” - Andy CrouchWe hope you enjoy this conversation about the seismic effects technology has had on our personal relationships, civic institutions, and even democratic foundations — and how we might approach rethinking our technologies and reclaiming human connection.This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2022. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about Jonathan Haidt and Andy Crouch.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan HaidtThe Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan HaidtThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan HaidtCulture Making, by Andy CrouchPlaying God, by Andy CrouchStrong and Weak, by Andy CrouchThe TechWise Family, by Andy CrouchMy TechWise Life, by Amy and Andy CrouchThe Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, by Andy CrouchErnest HemingwayFrancis BaconHoward HotsonGreg LukianoffWolfram SchultzThe Sacred Canopy, by Peter L. BergerEpictetusMarcus AureliusRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Brave New World, by Alduous HuxleyBulletins from Immortality: Poems by Emily DickinsonPilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie DillardPolitics and the English Language, by George OrwellThe Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah ArendtCity of God, by St. Augustine of HippoChildren of Light and Children of Darkness by Reinhold NiebuhrOn Happiness, by Thomas AquinasRelated Conversations:Rebuilding our Common Life with Yuval LevinThe Challenge of Christian Nationalism with Mark Noll and Vincent BacoteThe Decadent Society with Ross DouthatScience, Faith, Trust and Truth with Francis CollinsBeyond Ideology with Peter Kreeft and Eugene RiversJustice, Mercy, and Overcoming Racial Division with Claude Alexander and Mac PierHealing a Divided Culture with Arthur BrooksAfter Babel with Andy Crouch and Johnathan HaidtTrust, Truth, and The Knowledge Crisis with Bonnie KristianHope in an Age of Anxiety with Curtis Chang & Curt ThompsonTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help...
US foreign aid is unexpectedly in the news in 2025 as never before. What do Christians need to know, to help us be part of the dialogue?America's history of foreign aid dates back at least to the Marshall Plan that followed World War II. Many Christians have been involved. How have these believers thought about the appropriate roles of government and of faith-based institutions? What has the US been doing, with what impact? And what is the situation on the ground now?Three believers knowledgeable about this work join us for this episode to illustrate the scope of how faith-based foreign aid has impacted regions worldwide, share their perspectives on what a Christ-like spirit looks like in this field, and discuss where they see aid is most needed—now more than ever."Jesus calls on us to help the poor, your neighbor, the stranger, the sick, the shunned, the scorned, the stigmatized. Think of Jesus embracing those in poverty, prostitution, leprosy ... the US ... is not a savior. That’s Jesus’s job. But it can be an enabler of human flourishing so that people can survive and thrive." — Mark LagonAmbassador Mark Lagon has served as the US Ambassador to combat human trafficking, and is now focused on the fight against malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.Nicole Bibbins Sedaca has held leadership roles in the government, academic and NGO sectors working and teaching on democracy, human rights and religious freedom.Myal Greene leads World Relief, the development arm of the National Association of Evangelicals; while serving in Rwanda, he developed its church-based programming model.This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from April 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.Related Trinity Forum Readings:A Man Who Changed His Times; William WilberforceThis Child Will Be Great; Ellen Sirleaf JohnsonOut of My Life and Thought; Albert Schweitzer Cry, the Beloved Country; Alan PatonSphere Sovereignty; Abraham KuyperPolitics, Morality, and Civility; Václav HavelRelated Conversations:Abraham Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty with Vincent BacoteTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
As we emerge from the Lenten season, freshly renewed by the triumph of the Resurrection, beauty and wonder are particularly present for Christians. In this episode, author and songwriter Andrew Peterson shares his insights about the importance of location and living responsibly and attentively in whatever specific place you inhabit. He discusses how deeper attentiveness to the beauty around us can awaken us to wisdom and wonder.This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from December 2021. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.Learn more about Andrew Peterson.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:The God of the Garden, by Andrew PetersonTim Mackey, The Bible Project’s Tree of Life podcast seriesJaber Crow, by Wendell BerryWilliam WordsworthThe Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane JacobsThe Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, by James Howard KunstlerSidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith, Eric O. JacobsenGilead, by Marilynne RobinsonRich Mullins10 Resolutions for Mental Health, Clyde KilbyRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Bright Evening Star, Madeleine L’EngleA Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens Babette’s Feast, by Isak DinesenRelated Conversations:Practicing Gratitude with Diana Butler BassTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
Throughout Lent, we've been releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.In the final episode of the series, this Holy Week we're considering the discipline of waiting: how we can prepare ourselves to receive good news. Our guide today is N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop and New Testament scholar. He describes how Jesus invited his hearers into a new way of understanding Israel’s ancient story of waiting, the cosmic significance of its sudden fulfillment, and its meaning for us in this in-between time of preparation to receive good news: "The ultimate life after death is not a platonic disembodied immortality, but resurrection life in God‘s new creation. And that new world began when Jesus came out of the tomb on Easter morning. That’s the good news. Something happened then as a result of which the world is a different place. And we are summoned, not just to enjoy its benefits, but to take up our own vocations as new creation people, as spirit-filled and spirit-led Jesus followers, bringing his kingdom into reality in our world."We hope that this conversation will help you as you wait and prepare to receive this good news.The podcast is drawn from an evening conversation we hosted back in 2016. You can find our shownotes and much more at ttf.org. Thank you for journeying with us through Lent. Learn more about N.T. Wright. Watch The Good News and the Good Life, with N.T. Wright and Richard Hayes. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Who is this Man? by John Ortberg Related Trinity Forum Readings:Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip YanceyThe Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. SmithPilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie DillardPilgrim’s Progress by John BunyanGod’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsA Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge Related Conversations:Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison WarrenCaring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyreInvitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley BartonOn the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth BruenigThe Habit Podcast, Episode 26: Tish Harrison Warren with Doug McKelveyThe Spiritual Practice of Remembering with Margaret Bendroth To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit ttf.org/join.
Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.If at the center of reality is a God whose love is a generative, creative force, how do humans made in God’s image begin to reflect this beauty and love in a world rent by brokenness and ugliness?As Makoto Fujimura argues on our latest podcast, it’s in the act of making that we are able to experience the depth of God’s being and grace, and to realize an integral part of our humanity:“Love, by definition, is something that goes way outside of utilitarian values and efficiencies and industrial bottom lines. It has to…and when we love, I think we make. That's just the way we are made, and we respond to that making. So we make, and then when we receive that making, we make again.”Artistry and creativity are not just formative, but even liturgical in that they shape our understanding of, orientation towards, and love for, both the great creator and his creation.We hope you’re encouraged in your making this Lenten season that the God who created you in his image delights in your delight.If this podcast inspires you, and you’re so inclined, we’d love to see what you create, be that a painting, a meal, a poem, or some other loving, artistic expression. Feel free to share it with us by tagging us on your favorite social platform.This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2021. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Makoto Fujimura.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, by Makoto FujimuraWilliam BlakeVincent Van GoghN.T. WrightEsther MeekJaques PépinBruce HermanMartin Luther King Jr.The Gift, by Lewis HydeAmanda GoldmanT. S. EliotCalvin SilveDavid BrooksRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Babette's Feast, by Isak DinesenFour Quartets, by T.S. EliotPilgrim’s Progress, by John BunyanPilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie DillardGod’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley HopkinsRelated Conversations:A New Year With The Word with Malcolm GuiteMusic, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi FloydPursuing Humility with Richard Foster and Brenda QuinnReading as a Spiritual Practice with Jessica Hooten WilsonWalking as a Spiritual Practice with Mark BuchananTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.