Trinity Forum Conversations

On Friday, July 17, 2020 we welcomed writer, poet, and professor Marilyn McEntyre for an Online Conversation to discuss her provocative book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. The book focuses on the morality, power, and importance of caring for language. She notes that caring for one another is not entirely separable from caring for words. Words are entrusted to us as equipment for our life together, to help us survive, guide, and nourish one another. If language is to retain its power to nourish and sustain our common life, we have to care for it the way good farmers care for the earth.

• Learn more about Marilyn McEntyre

• Watch the full Online Conversation video and read the transcript

• Watch our Online Conversation with Marilyn McEntyre and David Bailey on “Speaking Peace and Seeking Reconciliation.”

• Check out her brand new book called Where the Eye Alights: Reflections for the Forty Days of Lent.

Authors mentioned in the conversation:

• Jane Austen
• Ezra Pound - “Go in fear of abstractions.”
• George Steiner - Real Presences
• Theodor Adorno
• William Faulkner
• Wendell Berry

Books mentioned in the conversation:

• The Road to Character, by David Brooks
• Blind Spot, by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
• Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne
• Little Women, by Louis May Alcott
• The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
• Middlemarch, by George Eliot
• Prayers of the Cosmos and The Hidden Gospel by Neil Douglass Klutz

BBC Radio Program - My Word

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

• Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell
• Bulletins from Immortality, by Emily Dickinson
• Letters from Van Gogh, by Vincent Van Gogh
• Hannah and Nathan, by Wendell Berry

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

On Good Friday, April 10, 2020 The Trinity Forum hosted psychiatrist Curt Thompson for an Online Conversation to discuss his insights on suffering, shame, and isolation, which are felt acutely in the COVID-19 pandemic. Curt’s word for us in this time is to be of good cheer—our King is coming!

Dr. Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, author and speaker who specializes in connecting our intrinsic desire to be known with the need to tell truer stories about ourselves — showing us how to form deep relationships, discover meaning and live integrated, creative lives. Curt Thompson’s books Anatomy of the Soul and The Soul of Shame speak to the innermost desires of our hearts and souls, bringing together a dialect of interpersonal neurobiology and a Christian anthropology to uncover the key to living life fully: being known. To do that, we need genuine relationships, which can only be found when we tell the whole truth about who we are — to ourselves and others.

• Curt Thompson is a Trinity Forum Senior Fellow
• Learn more about Curt Thompson
• Curt’s reflection mentioned in the conversation
• Watch the full Online Conversation with Curt
• Watch our Evening Conversation with Curt on his book The Soul of Shame from October 2015

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

On Friday, September 25 we had the privilege of hosting best-selling author, thought leader, and Harvard Business and Kennedy School professor Arthur Brooks for an Online Conversation on “Redeeming a Culture of Contempt.” In his book, Love Your Enemies Brooks blends cutting-edge behavioral research and ancient wisdom to offer a better way to bridge divides and mend relationships. Brooks helps us to think about practical ways we can choose to love those we disagree with—to will their good and be agents of redemption and reconciliation amidst a divisive time.

Learn more about Arthur Brooks

Watch the full video and read the transcript of our conversation with Arthur

Resources mentioned during the conversation:

• Martin Luther King Jr. Sermon on Matthew 5:44
• Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
• Letter from Birmingham Jail, a Trinity Forum Reading by Martin Luther King Jr.
• Long Walk to Freedom, a Trinity Forum Reading by Nelson Mandela
• David Brooks, The Social Animal
• Trinity Forum Evening Conversation with Robert George and Cornel West in Nashville, TN
• Trinity Forum Evening Conversation with  Arthur Brooks and Justin Giboney in Washington, D.C.

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

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