Trinity Forum Conversations

By The Trinity ForumSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity

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Trinity Forum Conversations episodes

June 24, 2025 The Cost of Ambition with Miroslav Volf
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.
1 hr
June 10, 2025 Living Well and Dying Well with Lydia Dugdale
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 Dugdale

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
58 min
May 27, 2025 Reason and Belief with Ross Douthat
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 Times
Matter of Opinion Podcast
The Deep Places: A memoir of Illness and Discovery
The Decadent Society to Change the Church
To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious
Bethel McGrew, on left vs. right brain of Christianity

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Wager; Blaise Pascal
The Strangest Story in the World; G.K. Chesterton
A Practical View of Real Christianity; William Wilberforce
God’s Grandeur: Gerard Manley Hopkins selection of poems; Gerard Manley Hopkins
Related Conversations:
A World Transformed with Tom Holland
The Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton and the Incarnation with Dale Ahlquist
Truth and Trust with Francis Collins
Faith in an Empirical World with Ard Louis and Tremper Longman
59 min
May 13, 2025 Our Souls on Technology with Andy Crouch and Jonathan Haidt
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 Crouch

We 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 Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt
Culture Making, by Andy Crouch
Playing God, by Andy Crouch
Strong and Weak, by Andy Crouch
The TechWise Family, by Andy Crouch
My TechWise Life, by Amy and Andy Crouch
The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, by Andy Crouch
Ernest Hemingway
Francis Bacon
Howard Hotson
Greg Lukianoff
Wolfram Schultz
The Sacred Canopy, by Peter L. Berger
Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Brave New World, by Alduous Huxley
Bulletins from Immortality: Poems by Emily Dickinson
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell
The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
Children of Light and Children of Darkness by Reinhold Niebuhr
On Happiness, by Thomas Aquinas

Related Conversations:
Rebuilding our Common Life with Yuval Levin
The Challenge of Christian Nationalism with Mark Noll and Vincent Bacote
The Decadent Society with Ross Douthat
Science, Faith, Trust and Truth with Francis Collins
Beyond Ideology with Peter Kreeft and Eugene Rivers
Justice, Mercy, and Overcoming Racial Division with Claude Alexander and Mac Pier
Healing a Divided Culture with Arthur Brooks
After Babel with Andy Crouch and Johnathan Haidt
Trust, Truth, and The Knowledge Crisis with Bonnie Kristian
Hope in an Age of Anxiety with Curtis Chang & Curt Thompson

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help...
44 min
April 29, 2025Faith and Foreign Aid
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 Lagon
Ambassador 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 Wilberforce
This Child Will Be Great; Ellen Sirleaf Johnson
Out of My Life and Thought; Albert Schweitzer
Cry, the Beloved Country; Alan Paton
Sphere Sovereignty; Abraham Kuyper
Politics, Morality, and Civility; Václav Havel

Related Conversations:
Abraham Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty with Vincent Bacote

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.
1 hr 2 min
April 22, 2025 Finding God in the Garden with Andrew Peterson
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 Peterson
Tim Mackey, The Bible Project’s Tree of Life podcast series
Jaber Crow, by Wendell Berry
William Wordsworth
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, by James Howard Kunstler
Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith, Eric O. Jacobsen
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Rich Mullins
10 Resolutions for Mental Health, Clyde Kilby

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Bright Evening Star, Madeleine L’Engle
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen

Related Conversations:
Practicing Gratitude with Diana Butler Bass

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.
33 min
April 15, 2025 Waiting for Good News with N.T. Wright
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 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
The Habit Podcast, Episode 26: Tish Harrison Warren with Doug McKelvey
The 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.
23 min
April 08, 2025 Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
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 Fujimura
William Blake
Vincent Van Gogh
N.T. Wright
Esther Meek
Jaques Pépin
Bruce Herman
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Gift, by Lewis Hyde
Amanda Goldman
T. S. Eliot
Calvin Silve
David Brooks

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Babette's Feast, by Isak Dinesen
Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
God’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Related Conversations:
A New Year With The Word with Malcolm Guite
Music, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi Floyd
Pursuing Humility with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn
Reading as a Spiritual Practice with Jessica Hooten Wilson
Walking as a Spiritual Practice with Mark Buchanan
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.
42 min
April 01, 2025 The Blessing of Limitations with Kelly Kapic
Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.
We live in an age of speed and overwhelm, where we often feel we are expected to do more, move faster, work harder, brush past boundaries and limits, and shave margins. When we inevitably fail to meet all demands, we are left feeling not only exhausted, but often diminished.
"Part of what you start to see is ... our limits ... is actually what fosters our relationship with God, with others, even with the earth ... it's the stuff of life."

But what if, instead of seeing our limitations as an impediment, we could learn to view them as a blessing, even a gift? In You’re Only Human, theologian and scholar Kelly Kapic provides a theologically grounded approach to understanding and receiving the gift of our human finitude.
He offers us a way to find joy and relief in our incarnational limits and use them to foster greater freedom, spiritual growth, and deeper community.
This podcast is drawn from our Online Conversation from December 2022. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Kelly Kapic.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
You’re Only Human, by Kelly Kapic
Embodied Hope, by Kelly Kapic
The God Who Gives, by Kelly Kapic
The Devoted Life, by Kelly Kapic
Becoming Whole, by Kelly Kapic
Wendell Berry
The Sabbath, by Abram Joshua Heschel
Robert Emmons

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Bright Evening Star, Madeleine L’Engle
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen

Related Conversations:
Practicing Gratitude with Diana Butler Bass
Beauty and Wonder with Andrew Peterson
Time and Hope with James K.A. Smith
Beauty from Darkness with Curt Thompson

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

32 min
March 25, 2025 Pursuing Humility with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn
Pursuing Humility, with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn
Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.
In an age when self-promotion is often celebrated as a sign of leadership and strength, humility may seem a lost virtue. In his work Learning Humility, theologian Richard Foster argues that humility is actually strength, releasing us from a preoccupation with self, and allowing us to live a life of freedom:

“One of the dangers among religious folks is that they can become stuffy bores. And it is hilarity that frees us from that. We don't take ourselves so seriously. We can laugh at our own foibles. If you look carefully… it's not hard to identify humble people. You'll find the freedom that they have to just enjoy life and enjoy other people, enjoy the successes of another person rather than being envious of it. Things like that. And so that's why humility, the most basic of the virtues, opens us up to a life of freedom.”

May Foster’s call to humility, and pastor and writer Brenda Quinn’s practical insights on living it out in leadership and community, inspire you this Lenten season to contemplate the humility of Jesus and the way of the cross.

This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in 2022. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Learning Humility, by Richard Foster
Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster
Streams of Living Water, by Richard Foster
Sanctuary of the Soul, by Richard Foster
The Life With God Bible, contributed to by Richard Foster
C.S. Lewis
Timothy Keller
The Frenzy of Renown

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Who Stands Fast, featuring Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Babette's Feast, by Isak Dinesen
Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

Related Conversations:
A New Year With The Word with Malcolm Guite
Music, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi Floyd

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
37 min

About Trinity Forum Conversations

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Trinity Forum Conversations is a podcast exploring the big questions in life by looking to the best of the Christian intellectual tradition and elevating the voices, both ancient and modern, who…