Trinity Forum Conversations

What happens when the things we thought we knew no longer seem to hold? When the maps we’ve relied upon fail us, and even our best efforts to understand the world leave us feeling disoriented? For philosopher, author, and Trinity Forum friend James K. A. Smith, these questions became deeply personal during a season of suffering that challenged his confidence in the power of reason. In his recent b...

The American Revolution took place against a backdrop of long religious conflict in both Europe and the colonies. Yet despite their personal flaws and their varied faith views, the Founders embraced the radical principle of freedom of conscience and religious expression, instilling it not only in our Constitution, but in the fabric of our society. What is the story behind this extraordinary develo...

What does it mean to truly see? In a world that rewards speed, certainty, and quick judgment, the patient work of attention can feel almost countercultural. Yet learning to see clearly—to notice beauty, to attend to the people before us, and to look beyond our assumptions—may be essential to learning how to love well. The Victorian artist and missionary Lilias Trotter devoted her life to just this...

How do we live a life of meaning, in a time when so many competing voices tell us who to be, what to want, and how to live? Told to construct meaning for ourselves, we find anxiety instead of wisdom, and exhaustion instead of clarity. For the decisions we face each day, we need insight. In this episode we’re joined by Alan Noble. “Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times” is the subtitle...

The relationship of Christian believers to government has long been fraught, from Jesus’ time to today. The command to love God, our neighbor, even our enemies can flatly contradict the world’s exaltation of power and domination, and the obligations that attend citizenship in the kingdom of God are often in tension with those of the kingdom of man. Reconciling Paul’s reminder to the Philippians th...

We want the thousands of hours we work over our lifetime to matter. But how do we make them truly significant? What can infuse our lives, our offices, and our world with meaning? Today’s guest is the business leader and author Barry Rowan. He contends, “We don’t derive meaning from our work; we bring meaning to our work.” With stories from his life in high-ranking roles, he helps us go from being...

The term “baptized imagination” has come to the fore of Christian discussion in recent years, and this recent episode considers what a baptized imagination can actually look like. In the Christian tradition, baptism represents a journey of death and resurrection. In order for there to be a rebirth of truth, goodness, and beauty in us, what other imaginations must we leave behind? And what can brin...

We are subjected to the temptations of confusion, cynicism, and nihilism like never before. So many pressures, including new ones, seemingly by the day, push us in these directions. What formative things can we do to help ourselves and our society be a part of a hopeful story instead? Two of our Trinity Forum Senior Fellows, psychiatrist Curt Thompson and columnist David French, come from differen...

Beauty is often dismissed as a luxury—something secondary to the urgent work of repair. But what if beauty is not peripheral, but essential to healing what is broken? Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Makoto Fujimura and Haejin Shim Fujimura will be our guides on this question, discussing their new book, Beauty and Justice: Creating a Life of Abundance and Courage . Drawing on their work in the arts and...

How can we cultivate a faith that endures and flourishes? Author, Anglican priest, and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Tish Harrison Warren shows us how lasting and beautiful things can take root and grow in our lives. By drawing on themes from her new book, What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience , we will explore how habits rooted in the historic church—prayer, liturgy, Sabbath, and commu...

In a culture shaped by distraction, anxiety, and constant noise, how do we focus on what matters most? In this special episode, we're sharing a conversation from a recent Trinity Forum event featuring Ben Sasse—former U.S. Senator, university president, husband, and father. Following a terminal cancer diagnosis, Ben has embraced a new vocation: helping us think more clearly about the questions tha...

In March, we welcomed Malcolm Guite for an in-person event to celebrate his new book, Galahad and the Grail , which is the first in his Merlin’s Isle trilogy published through Rabbit Room Press.  While he was with us, Malcolm sat for this podcast interview in which he described his vision in creating this epic ballad, along with offering a deep exploration of what brought him to poetry in the firs...

We live in an unforgiving age. Even as we know that Jesus commanded forgiveness, extending it can seem impossible, impractical, self-harming, even unjust.  In these times of outrage and fear, what can help us become forgiving people? Author Amy Orr-Ewing joined us for a recent online conversation, where we explored these questions for a live audience: "The church needs to recapture the vision of f...

We are a culture well acquainted with anxiety. Recent years have shown it rising dramatically, particularly among Generation Z and Millennials, but affecting all of us. In the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus urges us not to be anxious. We wonder: is that actually possible today? Author Alan Fadling joined us for a recent online conversation, where we explored these questions for a live audienc...

In a culture shaped by speed, outrage, and constant distraction, many find it difficult to cultivate a resilient Christian faith. Is slowing down a key to renewing our love of God and neighbor, and sustaining a more durable, authentic faith in a restless age? And how, in practical terms, can we tune out the noise and hear the “still, small voice”? Drawing on the themes of his book Slow Theology ,...

What makes a good life? In the fragmented and harried age we inhabit, what habits of attention, reflection, and action orient us toward what is good, true, and beautiful?  The season of Lent is a good time for us to tackle such “big questions.” Drawing on his popular course at Yale, theologian and author Miroslav Volf joined us for an online conversation in 2024, where we explored these questions...

As we continue our journey through the season of Lent, we’re offering a series to help each of us prepare the way of the Lord. As we go deeper in our spiritual practices during these days, our guide today is the author and psychiatrist Dr. Curt Thompson.  In this conversation, Curt talks about the virtue, and discipline, of pursuing hope, even amid the darkness of a broken world: "While I am worki...

Welcome to the Trinity Forum Conversations podcast.  As we move through the season of Lent, we’re offering a series to help each of us prepare the way of the Lord. It’s a good time to take stock of our spiritual practices, and our guide today is the author and professor Alan Noble.  In his book , On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden & Gift of Living, Alan contends that simply deciding to engage w...

As we move into the season of Lent, we’re offering a series to help each of us prepare the way of the Lord. It’s a good time to take stock of our spiritual practices, and today’s guide is the author John Mark Comer.  In his book Practicing the Way, John Mark explores the practical realities of what it means to be an apprentice of Jesus: “It seems to me that the telos of the spiritual journey in th...

Many of us have been grieved by the polarization we see rending so many churches. What role has this played in America’s growing secularization and what our guest has called “the great dechurching”? And is that dechurching now actually in reverse? Fundamentally, what can we do to pursue the flourishing of both the church and the nation? In this episode, our guide is Ryan Burge , an ordained minist...

Charisma in leaders is a mysterious phenomenon. Maybe even baffling, if you’re the one left cold by a leader others see as charismatic.  How has this mysterious word charisma, coined by the Apostle Paul but now applied widely, shaped us? How can this concept help us to understand our world? Our guide in understanding it is the University of North Carolina historian Molly Worthen, who’s also one of...

As we celebrate the new year, there’s no better guide than the poet, Anglican priest, and scholar, Malcolm Guite. Through the years, Malcolm has written beautifully on how poetic language can help our imaginations apprehend truth that our reason cannot fully comprehend. In this episode he describes Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad , his forthcoming four-volume epic poem on the legends of King Arthur an...

Singing during Christmastime—and at all times—has deep formative power, shaping our minds and our spirits. In times of distraction and anxiety, how can we access this formation? And how can caroling at Christmas aid us in keeping Christ at the center of our hearts? Our guide is Keith Getty, an extraordinary hymn writer, musician, and catalyst for the modern hymn movement. In a special Christmastim...

This special episode is taken from the launch of the inaugural Michael J. Gerson Prize for Excellence in Writing on Faith and Public Life. Through this conversation, held at Washington National Cathedral in November 2025, you’ll learn a lot about Michael, and what his legacy means for us now.  What you’ll hear in this episode is a conversation moderated by Trinity Forum President Cherie Harder on...

Thanksgiving is much more than a holiday. The practice of gratitude is a biblical command, it’s a Christian virtue, and it’s even one of the best predictors of personal well-being.  But what does the practice of thanks-giving require? How can we cultivate a spirit and habit of thankfulness with the burdens we bear as individuals, and amidst the sorrows and injustices of a fallen world? Join us in...