Episodios

  • Beth Moore: Untangling Our Knotted-Up Lives

    Beth Moore: Untangling Our Knotted-Up Lives
    Sep 9 2025

    Our theme for this episode is “Untangling Our Knotted-Up Lives,” and our guest is the author and speaker Beth Moore.

    Drawing from her bestselling memoir, Beth helps us work through a challenge we all may face at various times: maintaining resilience — and faithfulness to our vocations — in the face of hardship:

    “I’d come to a point where I thought, oh my goodness, I see this. I get what Jesus is doing here, whatever it might be. I had this compelling to share it, and I have throughout my whole adult life.”


    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 renewing our culture by applying wisdom from the Christian tradition, and nurturing new growth in it, in our time.


    If that resonates with you, please join the Trinity Forum as a member, at ttf.org.

    Go deeper into the topics discussed in this conversation with these Trinity Forum Readings:

    • Pilgrim's Progress; John Bunyan
    • The Long Loneliness; Dorothy Day
    • A Spiritual Pilgrimage; Malcolm Muggeridge
    • Confessions; St. Augustine
    • The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness; Reinhold Niebuhr
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    59 m
  • Story, Culture, & the Common Good with Marilynne Robinson

    Story, Culture, & the Common Good with Marilynne Robinson
    Aug 26 2025
    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’re focusing on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Today’s episode concludes our summer series. Our guide today is the acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson, author of the Gilead series, and much else. In this episode, originally an Online Conversation recorded in 2020, Marilynne reflects on the art of writing as a means of exploring truth and engaging questions around learning to live well, to love others, and to create a home and community, in our fractious world:“The unique brilliance of a human being … is something that we tend utterly to disparage, demean, utterly fail to notice … every person lives out a [life] beautiful, complicated, inaccessible to other consciousnesses. And it is sacred.”And if this conversation resonates with you, consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. Marilynne Robinson's Novels | Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, Lila, Jack, Reading GenesisArticle in Breaking Ground from our event.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Marcel ProustRalph Waldo EmmersonPaul HardingWalt WitmanWilliam FaulknerJohn CalvinJonathan EdwardsMoby Dick, by Herman MellvillePiers Plowman, by William LanglandRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Sacred and Profane Love | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Donne Bulletins from Immortality | A Trinity Forum Reading by Emily Dickinson Confessions | A Trinity Forum Reading by Saint Augustine Brave New World | A Trinity Forum Reading by Aldous Huxley Marilynne Robinson is a novelist, essayist, and teacher, one of the most renowned and revered of living writers. Her novels Housekeeping, Gilead, Lila, and Home have been variously honored with the Pulitzer Prize, National Books Critics Circle Award (twice), a Hemingway Foundation Award, an Orange Prize, The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and the Ambassador Book Award. She's also the author of many essays and non-fiction works, including her work, “Mother Country”, and her essay collections, “Death of Adam,” “Absence of Mind,” “When I was a Child I Read Books,” “The Givenness of Things,” and “What Are We Doing Here?”. She's the recipient of the National Humanities Medal and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her writing has spent over 20 years teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop, as well as several universities.
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    38 m
  • Creativity, Reconciliation, and Flourishing

    Creativity, Reconciliation, and Flourishing
    Aug 19 2025

    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.


    Guided by theologian and musician David Bailey and concert pianist and chamber musician Mia Chung, this episode explores the concept that music involves mutual support, balance, and give and take among musicians to create a cohesive experience.


    And we reflect on how Christian communities can apply these principles of collaboration and harmony to create faith communities that are transformative:

    To the extent that the arts can actually cultivate that practice of incorporating the right hemisphere and in communication with the left, it's always together, you know, they're, complimentary. I think we can benefit each other in terms of community formation, but even benefit our own intellectual lives and the amount of joy we experience living in this world. - Mia Chung

    If this work resonates with you, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a society member.


    This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in June, 2024. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

    Learn more about Mia Chung and David Bailey.

    Episode Outline

    00:00 Introduction to Trinity Forum Conversations

    00:34 Exploring Music and Christian Community

    01:36 Cherie Harder on Cultural Challenges

    02:55 Welcoming David Bailey and Mia Chung

    04:41 David Bailey's Musical Journey

    06:56 Mia Chung's Musical Formation

    10:44 The Role of Arts in Reconciliation

    13:19 The Power of Music in Community Building

    23:17 Reintegration and Reconciliation at MIT

    28:52 Challenges and Practices for Reconciliation

    30:10 Digital Discipleship and Secular Influence

    30:44 The Importance of Fasting and Listening

    32:33 Engaging Differently as Followers of Jesus

    33:28 The Role of Technology in Information Consumption

    34:18 Post-COVID Convening and Empathetic Listening

    37:25 The Power of Music and Emotional Expression

    40:04 Silence and Contemplative Practices

    44:43 Artistic Collaboration and Reconciliation

    51:19 Final Thoughts and Encouragement


    Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

    Arrabon: Learning Reconciliation Through Community & Worship Music, by David Bailey


    Related Trinity Forum Readings:
    Hannah and Nathan, by Wendell Berry
    Painting as a Pastime, by Winston Churchill
    The Four Quartets, by TS Eliot
    Letters from Vincent Van Gogh
    Spirit and Imagination, selections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Why Work?, by Dorothy Sayers
    The Loss of the University, featuring the works of Wendell Berry and Jacques Maritain

    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.
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    53 m
  • Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman

    Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman
    Aug 12 2025
    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.Our guest this episode is the poet Christian Wiman, a master of the written – and spoken – word. After long wandering, he returned to the Christian faith in which he’d been raised, in part because of a terminal cancer diagnosis – one he has now long outlived. Both before and after his diagnosis, and his return to faith, his experience of despair has fueled his powerful poetry. In grappling with it, Christian uses words in ways that are a tonic against despair.“I deal with despair because…I don’t know how not to, and it would be an evasion not to. And I think if you don’t feel it, then you’re not paying attention.”This podcast is drawn from an online conversation from 2024. We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation. If it does, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast on your chosen platform. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, by Christian WimanMarilynne RobinsonDanielle ChapmanWilliam BronkWilliam WordsworthEvery Riven Thing, by Christian WimanMy Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer, by Christian WimanPrayer, by Carol Ann DuffyThe Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards Augustine of HippoBittersweet, by George HerbertSurprised by Joy, by C.S. LewisRichard WilburJürgen MoltmannWhen the Time’s Toxins, by Christian WimanRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Augustine’s ConfessionsDevotions by John Donne, paraphrased by Philip YanceyGod’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsBulletins from Immortality, by Emily DickinsonWrestling with God, by Simone WeilRelated Conversations:Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael WearThe Kingdom, the Power & The Glory with Tim AlbertaA Life Worth Living with Miroslav VolfTowards a Better Christian PoliticsChristian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of DifferenceWhat Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi AshworthScripture and the Public SquareHow to be a Patriotic ChristianLife, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip YanceyThe Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American DemocracyFear and Conspiracy with David FrenchTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.
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    33 m
  • Spiritual Formation Through our Imaginations

    Spiritual Formation Through our Imaginations
    Aug 5 2025
    In this Trinity Forum Conversation, author Lanta Davis, along with special guest host and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Jessica Hooten Wilson, delve into the power of imagination and its role in our spiritual formation. The discussion centers on Davis's book Becoming by Beholding, which explores Christian imagination through art, literature, and historical practices.These friends and scholars discuss the transformative potential of engaging with sacred art, the virtues, and traditional practices like Lectio Divina:"In Jesus's parables ... He's constantly showing us that there's more hidden behind the surface than we think. The mustard seed is not just a mustard seed. Yeast is not just yeast ... Jesus shows us heavenly meanings ... This is what the incarnation helps us understand, that the divine is not just up above. It's all around us. It's here and now. That when God became matter, all the material world changed because of it."We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation. This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in March 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.Learn more about Lanta Davis and Jessica Hooten Wilson.Episode Outline00:00 Welcome and Introduction04:47 Exploring the Power of Imagination05:37 The Concept of Becoming by Beholding07:46 Living in an Enchanted World10:53 Tradition and the Logic of Eternity13:49 Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Orthopathy17:22 The Role of Icons and Medieval Bestiaries23:25 Lectio Divina and Imaginative Prayer27:20 Virtues and Vices: A Deeper Look30:38 Understanding Virtue and Its Historical Context31:37 The Practicality of Virtue Personifications32:32 Teaching Virtues in Everyday Life33:50 Exploring Courage Through Art36:30 Incorporating Virtue in Contemporary Art38:15 Imagination and Its Role in Understanding Reality45:28 Scripture, Culture, and the Fruits of the Spirit49:49 Global Christian Art and Imagination51:34 Resources for Teaching and Engaging with Art54:46 Travel and Exploration of Christian Art56:33 Desire, Trust, and Identity in Modern Culture59:39 The Last Word with Lanta DavisAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:Becoming by Beholding, by Lanta DavisJessica Hooten WilsonRalph C. WoodIn the Beauty of Holiness, by David Lyle JeffreyLuke Ferriter“Hurrahing in Harvest”, by ​​Gerard Manley HopkinsFour Quartets, by T. S. EliotOrthodoxy, by G. K. ChestertonFlannery O’ConnorGrace HammondOn Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books, by Karen Swallow PriorAlan NobleA Secular Age, by Charles TaylorDorothy SayersThe Divine Comedy, by Dante AlighieriJames K.A. SmithKristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid UndsetJohn DonneSamuel Taylor ColeridgeJohann Wolfgang von GoetheRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid UndsetSpirit and Imagination: Reflections from Samuel Taylor ColeridgeThe Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton
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    53 m
  • Beauty, Music, and Spiritual Formation with Keith and Kristyn Getty

    Beauty, Music, and Spiritual Formation with Keith and Kristyn Getty
    Jul 29 2025

    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

    In this episode, our guides are modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty. Back in 2019, we hosted a live Evening Conversation in which they explored the ways in which music can speak to our spiritual hunger and shape our sense of beauty, truth, and purpose:


    "Our singing doesn't just affect each one of us. We are a witness to the world around us. When we sing, we are always a witness."


    We hope this conversation will resonate with you as you explore the good, the true, and the beautiful in your own corner of creation.


    If it does, please consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. You can find the full video of this conversation there too. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast on your chosen platform.


    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
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    45 m
  • Reading Jane Austen: A Novel Approach to Virtue

    Reading Jane Austen: A Novel Approach to Virtue
    Jul 22 2025

    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.


    In this episode, our focus is Jane Austen, and our guide is Karen Swallow Prior, one of our Trinity Forum Senior Fellows.


    Karen explores the faith-informed perspective on virtue that Austen’s novels reflect:


    "Underneath the surface [Austen] is inviting us to look at our own interactions with one another, our own misperceptions, and misreadings, and I think that’s really why her work has remained so endearing to us today; because she reveals the truths of our human condition that never change, and that we’re always wrestling with."


    Jane Austen’s world and concerns seem distant from ours. Yet across the centuries, she illuminates the importance of the seemingly mundane, and the path towards repaired and rightly ordered relationships.


    If this work resonates with you, consider joining the Trinity Forum community as a member, at ttf.org. This episode is drawn from an online conversation held in 2021. You can find the full video of this conversation here. And while you’re here, please subscribe to this podcast.

    Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

    Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
    Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman
    Praying with Jane, by Rachel Dodge
    Alasdair MacIntyre
    William Shakespeare

    Related Trinity Forum Readings:

    • Pride and Prejudice, a Trinity Forum Reading by Jane Austen
    • Bulletins from Immortality, a Trinity Forum Reading by Emily Dickinson
    • Revelation, a Trinity Forum Reading by Flannery O’Connor
    • God's Grandeur , a Trinity Forum Reading by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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    41 m
  • The Inklings, Creativity, and Community with Diana Glyer

    The Inklings, Creativity, and Community with Diana Glyer
    Jul 15 2025

    Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and the beautiful.


    Today’s guide is the author and professor Diana Glyer. She’ll be talking about the lives and work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their beloved community known as the Inklings.


    In this episode drawn from an online conversation held in February of 2021, Diana focuses on how creativity thrives within small clusters of like-hearted people. We hope you enjoy reflecting on the potential of your own friendships and communities to be culture-shaping.

    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
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    49 m