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:

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 Genesis

Article in Breaking Ground from our event.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Marcel Proust

Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Paul Harding

Walt Witman

William Faulkner

John Calvin

Jonathan Edwards

Moby Dick, by Herman Mellville

Piers Plowman, by William Langland

Related 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:

 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 Outline

00:00 Introduction to Trinity Forum Conversations

00:34 Exploring Music and Christian Community

01:36 Cherie Harder on Cultural Challenges

02:55 Welcoming David Bailey and Mia Chung

04:41 David Bailey's Musical Journey

06:56 Mia Chung's Musical Formation

10:44 The Role of Arts in Reconciliation

13:19 The Power of Music in Community Building

23:17 Reintegration and Reconciliation at MIT

28:52 Challenges and Practices for Reconciliation

30:10 Digital Discipleship and Secular Influence

30:44 The Importance of Fasting and Listening

32:33 Engaging Differently as Followers of Jesus

33:28 The Role of Technology in Information Consumption

34:18 Post-COVID Convening and Empathetic Listening

37:25 The Power of Music and Emotional Expression

40:04 Silence and Contemplative Practices

44:43 Artistic Collaboration and Reconciliation

51:19 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Arrabon: Learning Reconciliation Through Community & Worship Music, by David Bailey

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Hannah and Nathan, by Wendell Berry
Painting as a Pastime, by Winston Churchill
The Four Quartets, by TS Eliot
Letters from Vincent Van Gogh
Spirit and Imagination, selections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Why Work?, by Dorothy Sayers
The Loss of the University, featuring the works of Wendell Berry and Jacques Maritain

To 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.

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 Wiman

Marilynne Robinson

Danielle Chapman

William Bronk

William Wordsworth

Every Riven Thing, by Christian Wiman

My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer, by Christian Wiman

Prayer, by Carol Ann Duffy

The Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards 

Augustine of Hippo

Bittersweet, by George Herbert

Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis

Richard Wilbur

Jürgen Moltmann

When the Time’s Toxins, by Christian Wiman

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Augustine’s Confessions

Devotions by John Donne, paraphrased by Philip Yancey

God’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Bulletins from Immortality, by Emily Dickinson

Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

Related Conversations:
Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael Wear
The Kingdom, the Power & The Glory with Tim Alberta
A Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf
Towards a Better Christian Politics
Christian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference
What Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
Scripture and the Public Square

How to be a Patriotic Christian

Life, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip Yancey

The Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American Democracy

Fear and Conspiracy with David French

To 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:

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 Outline

00:00 Welcome and Introduction

04:47 Exploring the Power of Imagination

05:37 The Concept of Becoming by Beholding

07:46 Living in an Enchanted World

10:53 Tradition and the Logic of Eternity

13:49 Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Orthopathy

17:22 The Role of Icons and Medieval Bestiaries

23:25 Lectio Divina and Imaginative Prayer

27:20 Virtues and Vices: A Deeper Look

30:38 Understanding Virtue and Its Historical Context

31:37 The Practicality of Virtue Personifications

32:32 Teaching Virtues in Everyday Life

33:50 Exploring Courage Through Art

36:30 Incorporating Virtue in Contemporary Art

38:15 Imagination and Its Role in Understanding Reality

45:28 Scripture, Culture, and the Fruits of the Spirit

49:49 Global Christian Art and Imagination

51:34 Resources for Teaching and Engaging with Art

54:46 Travel and Exploration of Christian Art

56:33 Desire, Trust, and Identity in Modern Culture

59:39 The Last Word with Lanta Davis

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Becoming by Beholding, by Lanta Davis
Jessica Hooten Wilson
Ralph C. Wood
In the Beauty of Holiness, by David Lyle Jeffrey
Luke Ferriter
“Hurrahing in Harvest”, by ​​Gerard Manley Hopkins
Four Quartets, by T. S. Eliot
Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton
Flannery O’Connor
Grace Hammond
On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books, by Karen Swallow Prior
Alan Noble
A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor
Dorothy Sayers
The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri
James K.A. Smith
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
John Donne
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
Spirit and Imagination: Reflections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The 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: 

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 Kreeft

The Republic, by Plato

Damon of Athens

Sing: How Worship Transforms your Life, Family, and Church, by Keith and Kristyn Getty

Unwearied Praises: Exploring Christian Faith Through Classic Hymns, by Dr. Jeff Greenman

The Pedagogy of Praise, by Dr. Jeff Greenman

John Lennox

Lucy Shaw

Eugene Peters

J.I. Packer

Martin Luther

Leonard Bernstein

Amy Carmichael

Cecil Frances Alexander

Os Guinness

Charles Spurgeon

Lloyd Jones

D.L. Moody

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Handel’s Messiah

Related Conversations:

Waiting on the Word with Malcolm Guite

Poetry & 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:

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 Austen
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman
Praying with Jane, by Rachel Dodge  
Alasdair MacIntyre
William Shakespeare

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

• Pride and Prejudice, a Trinity Forum Reading by Jane Austen
• Bulletins from Immortality, a Trinity Forum Reading by Emily Dickinson
• Revelation, 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 Glyer

Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings, by Diana Glyer

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Charles Williams

C.S. Lewis

Shakespeare

Owen Barfield

Hugo Dyson

Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis

Jerry Root

The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

On Friendship, by Cicero

The Golden Key, by George MacDonald

The Oracle of the Dog, by G.K. Chesterton

The 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 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 Works
It Was Good, Making Music to the Glory of God, by Ruth Naomi Floyd
The Problem of Good, by Ruth Naomi Floyd
Dr. John Nunez
Toni Morrison
Martin Luther King Jr.
Vincent van Gogh
Hans Christian Andersen
Miles Davis
Francis Schaeffer
Joshua Stamper

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Letters from Vincent van Gogh
Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr.
Revelation, by Flannery O’Connor
Bulletins from Immortality, by Emily Dickinson

Related Conversations:
A New Year With The Word with Malcolm Guite

To 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:

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:

We 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 Dugdale

Faith, Health, and Healing, an Evening Conversation with Farr Curlin and Daniel Sulmasy

Suffering and Flourishing: Perseverance and Faith in the Midst of Pain, an Evening Conversation with Dr. Ray Barfield and Rev. Michael Walrond