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.

Buchanan reflects on the ways in which walking can be both a spiritual practice and a means by which we can deepen our connection to the earth beneath us, our fellow travelers, and the God we worship:

We hope you’re encouraged this Lenten season as you learn to walk at godspeed, seeing this embodied act as a profoundly spiritual practice.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Mark Buchanan.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Aristotle

Søren Kierkegaard

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

God Walk, by Mark Buchanan

Simone Weil
The Three Mile an Hour God, by Kosaku Koyama

Wanderlust: A History of Walking, by Rebecca Solnit

Knowing God, J.I. Packer

Kai Miller

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

God’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela

Brave New World, by Alduous Huxley

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

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.

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

What if we viewed reading as not just a personal hobby or a pleasurable indulgence but as a spiritual practice that deepens our faith?

In her book, Reading for the Love of God, award-winning author and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Jessica Hooten Wilson explores how Christian thinkers—including Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Frederick Douglass, and Dorothy Sayers—approached the act of reading.

She argues that reading deeply and well can not only open a portal to a broader imagination, but is akin to acquiring travel supplies for the good life:

We hope you’re encouraged this Lenten season as you learn to read as a spiritual practice, finding grace and wisdom for living well along the way.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Jessica Hooten Wilson.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Learning the Good Life: Wisdom from the Great Hearts and Minds That Came Before, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Giving the Devil His Due, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice,, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Walker Percy

The Life you Save May Be Your Own, by Flannery O'Connor

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Boethius

Augustine

Mystery and Manners, by Flannery O’Connor

St. Basil

Origen

People of the Book, by David L. Jeffrey

A History of Reading, by Alberto Manguel

Jerome

Andy Crouch

Dana Gioia

Dorothy Sayers

Ross Douthat

Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Julian of Norwich

Dante Alighieri

Eugene Peterson

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Revelation, Flannery O'Connor

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Augustine's Confessions

The Grand Inquisitor, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Moses Man of the Mountain, by Zora Neale Hurston

God's Grandeur: the Poems of 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

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

Pursuing Humility, with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn

In an age when self-promotion is often celebrated as a sign of leadership and strength, humility may seem a lost virtue. Or alternatively, a form of moral condolence for the less successful.

In his recent work, Learning Humility, theologian Richard Foster argues that humility is actually strength, and that learning humility is more needed than ever. As Foster explains, humility releases us from a preoccupation with self, and allows us to live 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 an online 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

Word Beneath the Words with Malcolm Guite

We’re joined on our podcast by poet, priest and songwriter, Malcolm Guite. With grace and insight, Malcolm has written of the mystery, beauty and imaginative force of language and the ways in which our imaginations apprehend truth that our reason cannot fully comprehend:

We trust that you’ll be inspired by the beauty of Guite’s poetry, and by the ways in which the poetic imagination brings healing to the false divide between the subjective and the objective.

• 04:44 The Connection Between the Priestly and Poetic Vocations
• 12:02 The Role of Imagination in Apprehending Truth
• 17:48 The Responsibility of Language and the Power of Words
• 23:24 The Idea of Being Spoken into Being
• 32:25 The Destructive Power of Words
• 36:23 The Importance of Intellectual Hospitality

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2024. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Malcolm Guite.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

John Donne

Love, Remember, by Malcolm Guite

Parable and Paradox, by Malcolm Guite

Theology and the Poetic Imagination, by Malcolm Guite

The Singing Bowl, by Malcolm Guite

Waiting on the Word, by Malcolm Guite

Lifting the Veil, by Malcolm Guite

Sounding the Seasons, by Malcolm Guite

The Word Within the Words, by Malcolm Guite

Gerard Manley Hopkins

George Herbert

R.S. Thomas

Seamus Heaney

John Keats

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Wiliiam Wordsworth

William Shakespeare

C. S. Lewis

Sir Andrews

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

John Milton

Edmund Spenser

Thomas Clarkson

Pilgrim's Progress

Diana Glyer

David's Crown, by Malcolm Guite

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Spirit and Imagination, selections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge with an introduction by Malcolm Guite

Bulletins from Immortality: Poems by Emily Dickinson

God's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Sacred and Profane Love, featuring the poetry of John Donne

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

Music, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi Floyd

How should we think about work within, and live faithfully within a world that was called and created to be good and beautiful, and yet everywhere is marred by ugliness and injustice? 

Jazz vocalist and composer Ruth Naomi Floyd joins our podcast to discuss the intersection of music, creativity, and justice, and to help us think deeply about our role in repairing, re-envisioning, and creating new places of beauty, justice, and flourishing:

We hope you enjoy and are encouraged by Floyd’s artistic journey, how she finds beauty in the midst of suffering, and her vision for the role of love in 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

Learning in Wartime with Lewis and Tolkien and Joe Laconte

Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Joe Loconte joins our podcast to discuss the friendship and legacy of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He highlights how their wartime experiences, and their subsequent refusal to become disillusioned and disenchanted in the aftermath of World War I allowed for some of the greatest works of literature in modern history.

In the moral and cultural tumult of the inter-war years, their example of resilience and imagination is inspiring. As Joe Loconte shared, they were using their art to actively resist the totalizing and dehumanizing ideologies that were ascendent in their day:

Joe Loconte reminds us of the surprising return of hope for those who look up—as Samwise Gamgee says in the Lord of the Rings,” In the end the shadow was only a small and passing thing. There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.”

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2020. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Joe Loconte here.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

C.S. Lewis

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt, by Joe Loconte

The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm, by Joe Loconte

God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West, by Joe Loconte

A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and A Great War, by Joe Loconte

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

John Locke

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway

Erich Maria Remarque

The Wasteland, by T. S. Eliot

The Inner Ring, by C.S. Lewis

Owen Barfield

Hugo Dyson

Phantastes, by George MacDonald

The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

A Time to Stand, by Helmuth James von Moltke

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Children of Light and Children of Darkness, by Reinhold Niebuhr

The Golden Key, by George MacDonald

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
Advent: the Season of Hope with Tish Harrison Warren
Caroling Christmas and Christian Formation with Keith Getty

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

We are in an anxious age. By some estimates, a third of all Americans will struggle with anxiety in their lives, and nearly 20% currently suffer from an anxiety disorder. For those suffering the mental distortions of anxiety, life can be difficult, and hope elusive. And for many Christians who have tried and failed to stop their slide into fear and worry by simply “laying down their burdens,” they may feel an added sense of spiritual failure as well.

We’re joined on our podcast by psychiatrist Curt Thopmson and theologian Curtis Chang who help us explore a counterintuitive approach to understanding our anxiety:

It's not that we have to make anxiety go away, and then finally, then we're like qualified to somehow be with Jesus. It's that actually in our experience of anxiety, that's where we encounter Jesus most deeply and encounter the truths about ourselves most deeply.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about Curt Thopmson and Curtis Chang.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Anxiety Opportunity: How Worry is the Doorway to Your Best Self, by Curtis Chang

The Age of Anxiety, by W.H. Auden

The Anatomy of the Soul, The Soul of Shame, The Soul of Desire, by Curt Thompson

Jonathan Haidt

Richard Schwartz

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

Augustine's Confessions

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day

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

How to Know a Person with David Brooks
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 make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

During Advent and Christmastide–and at all times–how can we understand and fully experience the formative power of music? And amid distraction and anxiety, how can we keep Christ at the center of our hearts as we sing?

As Keith Getty explains, Christmas carols are not only about festivity, but also formation. For all of the delight they bring, they stand as musical masterpieces that teach deep truths, embed them within our memory and consciousness, unite a disparate people in praise, and cultivate and orient our sense of joy:

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded earlier this month. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Keith Getty here.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church, by Keith and Kristen Getty

John Lennox
Winston Churchill

Charles Wesley

Felix Mendelssohn

Jeremy Begbie

Alistair Begg

Isaac Watts

John Calvin

Keith Getty is an extraordinary hymn writer, musician, and catalyst for the modern hymn movement. He joined us for a special Trinity Forum Online Conversation to explore music, formation, and beauty which we're pleased to bring you now as a special podcast during this season of Advent.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded earlier this month. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Keith Getty here.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church, by Keith and Kristen Getty

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Bright Evening Star, by Madeleine L'Engle

Why God Became Man, by Anselm of Canterbury

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

The Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton

Handel's Messiah 

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
Advent: the Season of Hope with Tish Harrison Warren

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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

The season of Advent calls us to remember the incarnation of Christ into our world while anticipating his future return. Yet what does Advent have to tell us about our present “now and not yet” moment?

In her new book Advent: The Season of Hope, priest, author, and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Tish Harrison Warren draws our attention towards the ways the church reflects and represents the incarnation of Christ, and how our waiting can be transformed from drudgery to joy by the object of our hope:

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in December of 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about Tish Harrison Warren.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Liturgy of the Ordinary, by Tish Harrison Warren

Prayer In the Night, by Tish Harrison Warren

Advent: The Season of Hope, by Tish Harrison Warren

Receiving the Day, by Dorothy Bass

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Bright Evening Star, by Madeleine L'Engle

Why God Became Man, by Anselm of Canterbury

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

The Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton

Handel's Messiah 

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 make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

In a society where so many feel unseen and unknown, how do we become the kind of people who deeply see and know those around us? The conflict and division in our society demonstrate the need for people committed to pursuing human connection, even across lines of difference. What can we do – as individuals and in community – that will help us really understand the people in our lives?

David Brooks, author of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, joined us to explore what it means to know others and to be known by them:

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about David Brooks.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Bobos in Paradise, On Paradise Drive, The Social Animal, The Road to Character, The Second Mountain, and How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks

Frederick Buechner

Iris Murdoch

Dan McAdams

Mónica Guzmán

E. M. Foster

Jennie Jerome

William Gladstone

Benjamin Disraeli

Harry Nyquist

Andy Crouch

Michael Gerson

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl 

Thornton Wilder

Oprah Winfrey

Kate Murphey

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

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 make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.