Trinity Forum Conversations

By The Trinity ForumSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity

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Trinity Forum Conversations episodes

June 25, 2024 Scripture and the Public Square
The language of the Bible has often been invoked in American political discourse through the centuries. Quoted by suffragists and secessionists, invoked in arguments for (and against) American independence, the Civil War, and cited by virtually every President across parties.
So how should we discern a faithful application of scripture in public life from instrumentalizing the Bible for political purposes? What can we learn from America’s history of using the Bible in politics?
Theologian, speaker and author Kaitlyn Schiess helps us think more carefully and clearly about our history and these challenging questions on our latest podcast:
"When I look throughout history and when I look at other communities of Christians throughout even our own history in our own country, I see instances, especially of people that are not the main focus of most of the church history textbooks that I read in seminary, who were faithful, who interpreted scripture well, who acted well in history. And that's been really surprisingly hopeful to me, I know now to go to other Christians in other times and places around the world too, and see instances of faithfulness." - Kaitlyn Schiess
As our election cycle continues to twist and turn toward the ballot box in November, we hope this conversation will provoke new ways of thinking about scripture and its faithful application for the common good.

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 Kaitlyn Schiess here.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
The Ballot and the Bible, Kaitlyn Schiess
Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor, by Kaitlyn Schiess
John Winthrop

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
City of God, by Augustine
The Federalist Papers
Who Stands Fast, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness, by Reinhold Niebuhr
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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
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

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.
36 min
June 11, 2024 What Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
What Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
Ours is an age that values and valorizes productivity, speed, and scale, and emphasizes precise and perpetual measurement and management of those markers. A whole range of organizations, including nonprofits, and even churches, as well as individuals believe that what is valuable is empirical and measurable, and that those measurements show us what's real and what really matters.

Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth today offer a radically different way of seeing the world. They assert that it is not the empirical but love that is, in their words, the highest way of knowing and the trustworthy basis of the imaginative and creative good. They argue that the small aspects of life, whether it's cooking or gardening, music making, hospitality, or family matters–those things that often seem not to matter so much are actually what matters most. It's an invitation toward fruitfulness, and a new way of understanding and living:
“Fruitfulness is what God talks so much about what Jesus talks so much about and it is really something that he is doing in us and with us as we turn towards him. We can't really measure it. We can't really see it. We don't tally it up for ourselves. It's more of a trust that if we walk in the faithful path that God has for us, we can trust that there is a fruitfulness and that it's God's to measure. And I think there's a real freedom in that.” - Andi Ashworth
We hope this conversation sparks your creativity and encourages you to look differently at the small matters of life that matter a lot.

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 Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth here.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Martin Luther King Jr.
Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring, by Andi Ashworth
Wild Things in Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for Children, by Andi Ashworth
Why Everything That Doesn't Matter Matters So Much, by Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
The Call, by Os Guinness
Steven Garber
Francis Schaeffer
Frederick Buechner
Eugene Peterson

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Babette's Feast, by Isak Denison
Hannah and Nathan, by Wendell Berry
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
Bright Evening Star, by Madeline L'engle
Letters from Vincent Van Gogh

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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
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
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.
40 min
May 28, 2024 Christian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference
Christian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference

The term ‘pluralism’ has been subject to misunderstanding – even misuse – over the past several years. Some read or hear the word and think simply of a multiplicity of opinions. Others think of a sort of moral relativism that affirms your truth and my truth, no matter how contradictory they may be. Others still may think of this as some sort of squishy interfaith unity that denies matters of ultimate importance.

In a conversation with John Inazu, Trillia Newbell, and Michael Wear we dive into the meaning of pluralism and how it is that Christians in particular can live faithfully amidst a world of difference. These careful writers and thinkers help us begin to grasp a more robust vision for Christian pluralism:

“We are all actually called to be reconcilers. Any one of us who have professed faith in Jesus Christ, we are called to a ministry of reconciliation. That means a proclamation of the gospel. So sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to the world around me, to my neighbors, to my friends...I believe that the greatest love that we can extend to others is Jesus.” - Trillia Newbell

We hope you’re inspired by this conversation about hope, justice, faithfulness, and love, even in the midst of change, challenge, and conflict.

This podcast is an edited version of an evening conversation recorded in 2020. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about John Inazu, Trillia Newbell, and Michael Wear.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly, by John Inazu
Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference, by John Inazu
Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference, by John Inazu
Sacred Endurance, by Trilia Newbell
If God Is For Us, by Trilia Newbell
Fear and Faith, by Trilia Newbell
God’s Very Good Idea, by Trilia Newbell
Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America, by Michael Wear
Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life in the United States: Insights from Christian Leaders, by Michael Wear and Amy Black
Tim Keller
Russell Moore
Toni Morrison

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Federalist Papers
City of God, by Augustine of Hippo
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, by Reinhold Niebuhr
Politics, Morality, and Civility, by Václav Havel
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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
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

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.

39 min
May 14, 2024 Towards a Better Christian Politics
The relentless pull and pressure of partisan antagonisms and tribalism have fractured friendships, families, communities — and churches. In a time of conflict over what is good and confusion over what is true, what can church leaders do to cultivate a more faithful form of civic engagement? How can we learn to discern the call to love and justice amidst the clamor of political wars?

On our latest podcast, three wise men, as Cherie affectionately calls them, address these pressing questions. Curtis Chang, David French, and Russell Moore are each writers, scholars, and thinkers who have made courageous and insightful contributions towards a better Christian politics and we’re delighted to share their comments from an evening conversation in 2023 with you:

“Be of great hope. Because the after party is coming…It's the wedding feast of the lamb when Jesus returns to cleanse his church, made spotless. And in that moment, the restoration not of the church, but of the world at war where the swords are beaten into plowshares, the spears into pruning hooks. That's the after party that's coming. So if you know how the story ends, how can we not have great hope? - Curtis Chang

This podcast is an edited version of an evening conversation recorded in early 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Curtis Chang, David French, and Russell Moore.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Divided We Fall, by David French
The Courage to Stand, Facing Your Fear Without Losing Your Soul, by Russell Moore
Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel, by Russell Moore
The Storm Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home, by Russell Moore
Losing our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical Christians, by Russell Moore
The Anxiety Opportunity, by Curtis Chang
Ernest Hemmingway
The Big Sort, by Bill Bishop
Cass Sunstein
Constitution of Knowledge, by Jonathan Rauch
The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy
The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt
High Conflict, by Amanda Ripley

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Federalist Papers
City of God, by Augustine of Hippo
1 hr 4 min
April 30, 2024 A Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf
A Life Worth Living
What makes a good life? What habits of attention, reflection, and action orient us towards knowing, desiring, and doing what is good, true, and beautiful? Such “big questions” may seem unanswerable and intimidating — but their exploration is at the heart of the human quest for meaning.
Drawing on his popular Yale course, theologian Miroslav Volf joined us to reflect on what makes for a flourishing life in our times:
“You realize that there are things that are much more important. I mean this is the life of fullness. This is his life of weight. [It is the] arduous life that is, in fact, the truly happy life.
Despite the real challenge of human suffering and pain, Volf argues that happiness is possible and that an examined life that grapples with the good in our emotions, circumstances, and actions is a life worth living.
This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in early 2024. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Miroslav Volf.
Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Exclusion and Embrace, by Miroslav Volf
Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz
Friedrich Nietzsche
Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
On Happiness, by Thomas Aquinas
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
How Much Land Does a Man Need, by Leo Tolstoy
Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil
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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael Wear
The Kingdom, the Power & The Glory with Tim Alberta
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.
34 min
April 16, 2024 The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory with Tim Alberta
The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory with Tim Alberta

American Christians are certainly not immune to the anger, division, and fear that characterize our political moment. For many, the prospect of another election year is a source of dread or of numb exhaustion; others have responded with aggression or defensiveness.
On our podcast, author and journalist Tim Alberta encourages us toward a better media diet, and to remember where our true allegiance lies:
“I would pray alongside of you that in our political and civic engagement, no matter who it is that we ultimately vote for, no matter what policies we support, that our allegiance is never to the Donkeys or to the Republicans. Our allegiance is never to a political figure.
“We have a king, we have a kingdom, and the best way for us to retain our saltiness is to prioritize that allegiance and that allegiance alone.”
We hope this conversation, coming in a heated election year and at a time of great political import for our nation, is, in fact, a kind of spiritual balm to you. May Tim’s guidance help us to retain our distinctiveness as we engage in the public square for the common good.

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

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
American Carnage, by Tim Alberta
The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta
Rush Limbaugh
Robert Jeffress

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Children of Light and The Children of Darkness, by Reinhold Niebuhr
City of God, by Augustine
Politics, Morality and Civility, by Václav Havel

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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael Wear

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.
43 min
April 02, 2024 Connecting Spiritual Formation and Public Life with Michael Wear
Connecting Spiritual Formation and Public Life with Michael Wear

In the midst of what is proving to be a frustrating, fractious, and even frightening election year, how can Christians best respond to the situation in front of us, and how can we offer a positive contribution to our common life?

Drawing on the life and work of the late philosopher Dallas Willard, Michael Wear helps us explore what true spiritual formation could mean for the reformation of our polarized political life:
“We need to retrieve a sense that we live in a moral universe in which moral decisions are not optional. We make moral decisions all of the time, and our politics is actually not absent of moral assertion.
“You could say our politics today is actually more robustly full of moral assertions than it has been at any other time this century.”
We trust that you’ll be encouraged by Michael’s call to gentleness in our politics and his practical suggestions of Christian practices that help orient our hearts in the midst of cultural confusion and political fractiousness.

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

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard
Reclaiming Hope, by Michael Wear
The Spirit of our Politics, by Michael Wear
Christian Smith
American Grace, by David Campbell and Robert Putnam
The Allure of Gentleness, by Dallas Willard
Eitan Hersh
The Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Abraham Lincoln: The Spiritual Growth of a Public Man
Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr.
City of God, by Augustine
Politics, Morality and Civility, by Václav Havel

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
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura

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.
34 min
March 26, 2024 Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura
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 Mako 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 VanGogh
N. T. Wright
Esther Meek
Jaques Pépin
Bruce Herman
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Gift, byLewis 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.
41 min
March 19, 2024 Walking as a Spiritual Practice with Mark Buchanan
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:
“Hurry is the enemy of attentiveness. And so love as attentiveness is listening and caring and noticing, cherishing, savoring, being awestruck, these things that we feel in a relationship. I am deeply loved by this person because they notice me. I think that that’s how God’s built it. And we can’t get that if we’re moving too fast, if we’re in a hurry.”
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.
37 min
March 05, 2024 Reading as a Spiritual Practice Jessica Hooten Wilson
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:
“What I'm hoping to see more of is that the church becomes again those people of the book that really try to make others belong and strive for a deeper connection, versus the party atmosphere that our world always is tempting us to do.”

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.
29 min

About Trinity Forum Conversations

From the publisher's feed

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…