Trinity Forum Conversations

Silence and Solitude

We continue our special Lenten podcast series with author and spiritual director, Ruth Haley Barton, and this brief introduction to the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude. Ruth considers the unique gift these practices offer us, why they can be so challenging, and the way that these practices look different depending on your season of life. 

Where We Encounter God

"Solitude and silence in particular is where we encounter God, but it is also the place that's most challenging for us on so many different levels." - Ruth Haley Barton

We hope you're encouraged to start right where you are, even if that's just a minute or two of silence in the morning before the day begins, or at night to allow the sediment of the day to settle and to see more clearly what's most important.

Learn more about Ruth Haley Barton.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Richard Rohr

Dallas Willard

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip Yancey

The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. Smith

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

God’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

A Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge

Related Conversations:

Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison Warren

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyre

Invitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley Barton

On the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth Bruenig

Listen to this or any of our conversations in full at ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit https://ttf.org/join.

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Formation and Habit with Tish Harrison Warren

In our first Lenten podcast, we're turning to author and Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren to help us frame our thinking about how we're formed spiritually and what the goal of formation is. Tish helps make us conscious of the habits, practices, and liturgies that are present and forming us in our everyday lives.

Practices are a Response to Love

She does a beautiful job of recasting spiritual disciplines not as an effort to make ourselves worthy of God's love, but as a response to God's declaration that we are already his beloved. We hope this conversation inspires you to consider anew the formative power of your habits, and to join us weekly in exploring spiritual disciplines, not out of obligation, but out of a deep and growing sense of your own belovedness before God.

To listen to this or any of our conversations in full, visit https://ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society to help make more content like this possible, visit https://ttf.org/join.

Learn more about Tish Harrison Warren.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
John Mark Comer

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip Yancey

The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. Smith

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

God’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

A Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge

Related Conversations:

Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison Warren

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyre

Invitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley Barton

On the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth Bruenig

For 2000 years, Lent has been a season of spiritual preparation in which you reflect on Christ's temptation suffering and death. Beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending with Easter, the 40 days of lent have historically been a time for Christians to draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, repentance, and self-denial.

Of course, that's a hard sell in our time. Embracing spiritual disciplines has never been easy, but in a cultural context where denying ourselves our desires is seen not just as odd, but repressive, or even harmful, humbling ourselves through spiritual disciplines and walking in these ancient paths can seem more daunting than ever.

But far from being the exclusive province of medieval monks or cloistered mystics of some far away place and time, these disciplines are for everyone, and offer through embodied practices, a path to more deeply and joyfully following in the ways of Jesus. So this Lenten season, we ask you to join us as we explore seven different spiritual disciplines through this special podcast series.

Each week we'll release a new conversation that considers a practice to help you draw closer to God in mind, body and spirit. The point is not to master any particular spiritual discipline, but to simply start where you are. It's our hope that these conversations will inspire you to take a step into a new practice of learning to better know, love, and enjoy the Lord who died for us as we remember his passion, and anticipate the joy of his resurrection.

Listen to or watch any of our conversations in full at TTF.org, or to help support this podcast and our ongoing work, visit: TTF.org/join.

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On Friday, May 1 The Trinity Forum hosted from Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Poet Laureate of California, Dana Gioia. Dana shared his unique insights about beauty, poetry, and solitude. Dana encourages us to use this time of quarantine to begin afresh.

Learn more about Dana Gioia.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from May 2020.

Authors, artists, and books mentioned in the conversation:

T.S. Eliot

Wallace Stevens

Jacques Maritain

Thomas Acquinas

A Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce

Georgia O'Keeffe

Étienne Mallarmé

Edgar Allen Poe

Friedrich Nietzsche
Horace

Catullus

Virgil

W.H. Auden

Philip Larkin

Robert Frost

Emily Dickinson

A.E. Stallings

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

John Greenleaf Whittier

King Lear, by William Shakespeare

The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

C.S. Lewis

Immanuel Kant

Frederick Turner

Makoto Fujimura

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

God’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins with introduction by Dana Gioia

Bulletins From Immortality: Poems by Emily Dickinson

Devotions by John Donne (paraphrased by Philip Yancey)

Sacred & Profane Love, John Donne with an introduction by Dana Gioia

Four Quartets! By T.S. Eliot with an introduction by Mako Fujimura

Related Conversations:

Waiting on the Word with Malcolm Guite

Dana Gioia - Beauty

“Poetry, Imagination, and Spiritual Formation” an Evening Conversation in with Dana Gioia, September 11, 2019

“Why Poetry Matters” an Evening Conversation with Dana Gioia, April 20, 2016 

“Why Beauty Matters: The Significance of Beauty in Art, Faith, and Politics” an Evening Conversation with Dana Gioia, April 1, 2014 

“Poetry, Prayer, and Passion” an Evening Conversation with Dana Gioia, October 18, 2012

“Art + Faith: A Theology of Making” an Online Conversation with Makoto Fujimura, January 29, 2021

“Culture Care: Mending to Make New” an Online Conversation with Makoto Fujimura, August 7, 2020

“Culture Care” an Evening Conversation in with Makoto Fujimura, September 19, 2017

“Culture Care in a Fragmented Modern World” an Evening Conversation with Makoto Fujimura, November 4, 2016

“Beauty in a Broken World” an Evening Conversation with Makoto Fujimura, March 31, 2016

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On November 19th, 2019 the Trinity Forum, Regent College, and Reformed Theological Seminary hosted an Evening Conversation with modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty. They discussed “Beauty, Music, and Spiritual Formation” as the second in our series on Art, Faith, and Formation in which we aim to discuss the ways in which the literary, musical, and visual arts speak to spiritual hunger and shape our sense of beauty, truth, and purpose.

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On February 19th, 2021, we were delighted to welcome social psychologist and bestselling author, Jonathan Haidt, along with widely published speechwriter and author, Peter Wehner. Wehner is a New York Times columnist, a contributing editor for The Atlantic, and a Trinity Forum Senior Fellow with a deep interest in healing our divided nation. Haidt has done extensive research examining the intuitive foundations of morality and how morality varies across cultures. His books address these topics and provide insights into how to cultivate meaningful, moral conversations across cultural divides.

We hope you enjoy this conversation on the impact of hyper-politicization and polarization, the temptations of illiberalism, the natural tendency towards bias and blind spots in our thinking, and the role of faith in bringing healing and hope to a hurting culture. Especially in our ongoing season of isolation and social restrictions, we hope this will inspire you to reach out and connect with those around you and think about how you can grow culture-shaping friendships and communities.

Learn more about Jonathan Haidt and Pete Wehner.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from February 19, 2021.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukainoff

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt

City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era, by Peter Wehner and Michael Gerson

The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump, by Peter Wehner

A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream, by Yuval Levin

Why We’re Polarized, by Ezra Klein

Blaise Pascal

John McWhorter

Francis Collins

C.S. Lewis

Owen Barfield

David Brooks

On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill

Ibram X. Kendi

Richard Reeves, Brookings Institution

How To Think: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Alan Jacobs

The Enigma of Reason, by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber

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

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Politics in the English Language, by George Orwell

Politics, Morality, and Civility, by Václav Havel

Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Related Conversations:

Rebuilding our Common Life, with Yuval Levin

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

In this podcast, edited from an Evening Conversation in 2018 titled "The Lonely American: Rootedness and Reconciliation in a Riven Land" with Senator Ben Sasse and Russell Moore in Washington, DC, we discuss the growing problem of loneliness in the country — the ways in which our alienation from each other is destroying individual lives and the fabric of society — and what can be done about it.

Learn more about Senator Ben Sasse and Dr. Russell Moore.

Watch the full Evening Conversation from November 2018.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis--and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance, by Ben Sasse

Them: Why We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal, by Ben Sasse

James K.A. Smith

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Robert Putnam

Charles Murray

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, by Jason Lanier

Marilynne Robinson

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis

The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, by Alan Jacobs

Elie Wiesel

Related Conversations:

Strong and Weak, with Andy Crouch

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On February 12th, 2021, we were delighted to welcome award-winning author and professor Diana Glyer. Glyer is intrigued by the creative process, particularly how creativity thrives within small groups and creative clusters. She has written extensively on the lives and work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their beloved community known as the Inklings.

We hope you enjoy this conversation on the importance of collaboration and the necessity of friendship to the creative process, and we hope you’ll be inspired to think imaginatively about how you can cultivate generative and culture-shaping friendships and communities.

Learn more about Diana Glyer.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from February 12, 2021. 

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On Friday, November 6th, 2021, we were delighted to partner again with our friends at Coracle to present Speaking Peace and Seeking Reconciliation in a Fractured Culture, an Online Conversation with David Bailey and Marilyn McEntyre. Recorded at the end of the election week, we spoke with David and Marilyn, exemplars of peace and reconciliation both in word and action, and discussed what we can do, as individuals and as the Church, to walk in the way of true shalom, love of neighbor, and truth telling.

Learn more about David Bailey and Dr. Marilyn McEntyre.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from November 6, 2020. 

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Arrabon: Learning Reconciliation Through Community & Worship Music, by David Bailey
Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, by Marilyn McEntyre

Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict, by Marilyn McEntyre

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, by Andy Crouch

Ezra Pound

The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict, by Ken Sande

G.K. Chesterton

A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary, by Brian Doyle

Oscar Romero

T.S. Eliot

Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell

Abraham Lincoln: The Spiritual Growth of a Public Man

Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela

Related Conversations:

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, with Marilyn McEntyre

Creating Cultural Artifacts that Build New Legacies | David Bailey | TEDxRVA

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

On March 19, 2021 we were delighted to host Christian author, leader, and teacher, Ruth Haley Barton. Barton is founding President/CEO of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of Christian leaders and the congregations and organizations they serve. Ruth is the author of numerous books and resources on the spiritual life, including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership and Sacred Rhythms. She reflects regularly on spirituality and leadership in her blog, Beyond Words, and on her podcast Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

We hope you enjoy this conversation around her book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. Our attention, Barton believes, has become a commodity that we must protect if we are to avoid being swept away by our distracted age. She invites listeners to engage in these ancient biblical practices to find the rest for our souls that Jesus promises. In this Lenten season, we hope this will inspire you to pursue God’s transforming presence in new ways and contemplatively sit in solitude and silence with the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Learn more about Ruth Haley Barton.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from March 19, 2021.

Related reading:

A Shocking Lack of Solitude, Cherie Harder

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Blaise Pascal

John Milton

C.S. Lewis

Richard Rohr

Dallas Willard

Henry Nouwen

Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Julian of Norwich

Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence, by Ruth Haley Barton

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Confessions | A Trinity Forum Reading by St. Augustine, introduced by James K.A. Smith.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | A Trinity Forum Reading by Annie Dillard, introduced by Tish Harrison Warren.
Devotions | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Donne, introduced and paraphrased by Philip Yancey.
The Long Loneliness | A Trinity Forum Reading by Dorothy Day, introduced by Anne and David Brooks.
Wrestling with God | A Trinity Forum Reading by Simone Weil, introduced by Alonzo McDonald.
The Pilgrim's Progress | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Bunyan, introduced by Alonzo McDonald.

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.