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:

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

Throughout the season of Lent, we'll be releasing weekly episodes focused on themes of reflection, prayer, and contemplation. As you listen to this episode, we invite you to take a moment to slow down, quiet your heart, and hear what God may be saying to you.

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

In the first episode of our weekly Lenten series, we invite you to take a moment to slow down, quiet your heart, and hear what God may be saying to you. Throughout the season of Lent, we'll be releasing weekly episodes focused on themes of reflection, prayer, and contemplation.

On March 19, 2021 we were delighted to host Christian author, leader, and teacher, Ruth Haley Barton. Barton is founding President/CEO of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of Christian leaders and the congregations and organizations they serve. Ruth is the author of numerous books and resources on the spiritual life, including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership and Sacred Rhythms. She reflects regularly on spirituality and leadership in her blog, Beyond Words, and on her podcast Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

We hope you enjoy this conversation around her book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence. Our attention, Barton believes, has become a commodity that we must protect if we are to avoid being swept away by our distracted age. She invites listeners to engage in these ancient biblical practices to find the rest for our souls that Jesus promises. In this Lenten season, we hope this will inspire you to pursue God’s transforming presence in new ways and contemplatively sit in solitude and silence with the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Learn more about Ruth Haley Barton.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from March 19, 2021.

Related reading:

A Shocking Lack of Solitude, Cherie Harder

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Blaise Pascal

John Milton

C.S. Lewis

Richard Rohr

Dallas Willard

Henry Nouwen

Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Julian of Norwich

Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence, by Ruth Haley Barton

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Confessions | A Trinity Forum Reading by St. Augustine, introduced by James K.A. Smith.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | A Trinity Forum Reading by Annie Dillard, introduced by Tish Harrison Warren.
Devotions | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Donne, introduced and paraphrased by Philip Yancey.
The Long Loneliness | A Trinity Forum Reading by Dorothy Day, introduced by Anne and David Brooks.
Wrestling with God | A Trinity Forum Reading by Simone Weil, introduced by Alonzo McDonald.
The Pilgrim's Progress | A Trinity Forum Reading by John Bunyan, introduced by Alonzo McDonald.

How Christianity Remade the World

In the context of the pagan classical world, the Christian faith was a shocking, even unfathomable inversion of the values systems and structures of the time. In that embattled context, its explosive growth was unimaginable. Today, however, Christianity is often considered boring or backwards.

How might we better discern and understand the radicalism of Christianity’s origins, its impact through the centuries, and its enduring formational power? 

Historian Tom Holland’s landmark book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, calls attention to these puzzles and paradoxes:

We trust this conversation will fire your imagination anew, and help you see with new eyes how the inverted values and priorities of God’s kingdom continue to disrupt the patterns of the world, and shape our cultural assumptions.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in February, 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Tom Holland.

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

Episode Outline

00:00 Introduction to Dominion and Tom Holland

03:09 Tom Holland's Journey to Writing Dominion

03:48 The Alien World of Classical Antiquity

06:32 The Impact of Christianity on Western Civilization

07:33 The Crucifixion and its Historical Significance

10:42 The Uncanny Character of Jesus

13:13 Early Christian Persecution and Martyrdom

16:59 Paul's Radical Teachings and their Legacy

21:37 The Doctrine of Original Sin and Human Dignity

27:51 Christianity's Influence on Modern Politics

32:17 Tom Holland's Personal Reflections on Christianity

36:38 Viewer Questions on American Politics and Christianity’s Influence on the Family, Modern Politics, and More

49:50 Tom’s Closing Thoughts and White Tiger, by Poet RS Thomas

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Rest is History (podcast)
The Histories by Herodotus, translation by Tom Holland
Rubicon, Millennium, Persian Fire, Pax, Dominion, by Tom Holland
The City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
 The Strangest Story in the World, by GK Chesterton
Why God Became Man, by Anselm of Canterbury
A Practical View of Real Christianity, by William Wilberforce

Related Conversations:

Suffering, Wayfaring & Hope with Curt Thompson and Warren Kinghorn

Anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges are surging among both young and old. By some estimates, more than one in five American adults struggle with some form of mental illness each year. There are few untouched – either directly or through loved ones – with the suffering that attends such struggles. What does faith offer those in the midst of such challenges?

Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson, both practicing Christian psychiatrists, join our podcast to help explore these questions.

Warren’s book, Wayfaring: A Christian Approach to Mental Health Care, draws from the theology of Thomas Aquinas as well as the science of today. Curt’s latest book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope, draws from the Apostle Paul’s experience to show us how we can flourish in the midst of suffering. Together, they help us to reframe our understanding of mental health care from fixing machines to accompanying fellow wayfarers on the way to the Lord’s feast:

“I think some of what we're missing are the stories that people bring in and the stories, not just of individuals, but of communities and cultures…Maybe they're not just internal problems where something's broken and needs to be fixed, but maybe we need to think about it in a broader and more holistic context.”

We trust this podcast will give you new language, compassion, and tools to address mental health challenges, and to wayfare alongside loved ones who may also be struggling.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in January, 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson.

Episode Outline
0:00 Introduction: The Mental Health Crisis
00:51 Meet the Experts: Curt Thompson and Warren Kinghorn
03:58 The Power of Stories in Mental Health
07:13 Reframing Mental Health: From Machines to Wayfarers
15:55 The Role of Community in Healing
35:50 Q&A: Addressing Shame, Community, and Healing
55:36 The Last Word from Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

 The Deepest Place, by Curt Thompson
Wayfaring, by Warren Kinghorn
St. Thomas Aquinas
 Anatomy of the Soul, by Curt Thompson
The Soul of Shame, by Curt Thompson
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community, by Curt Thompson
Thompson
Wendell Berry
John C. Polanyi
Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
On Happiness, St. Thomas Aquinas
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl,
Confessions, by St. Augustine
The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day
Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Related Conversations:
The Soul of Desire with Curt Thompson
Hope and Healing in Hard Times 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

The Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton & the Incarnation

C.S. Lewis famously credited G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man as a key step in his turn from atheism to Christian faith. The book audaciously surveyed the broad sweep of human history, then zeroed in on the Incarnation of Christ. How, Chesterton asked, could such a mysterious and startling event come to be known as the center point of history? And how did this intellectual mystic offer a fresh path into this story for so many? 

In this episode, we dive into one of Chesterton’s greatest works and explore the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus Christ alongside Dale Ahlquist, one of the world’s leading experts on G.K. Chesterton:

“Philosophy and religion come together for the first time when Jesus comes. Why is that so strange? Because the spiritual life and the intellectual life have finally run into each other in a big way. And how does it come? It comes in the most unexpected way possible.”

Our 100th podcast episode illustrates what we do here at the Trinity Forum: keeping the Christian intellectual tradition alive, while also nurturing new growth – for our own time, and for future generations.

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

Learn more about Dale Ahlquist.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

 The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton

C.S. Lewis

Evelyn Waugh

 G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, by Dale Ahlquist

 Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton
The Everlasting Man: A Guide to G.K. Chesterton’s Masterpiece, by Dale Ahlquist

George MacDonald

C.S. Lewis

Charles Dickens

William Shakespeare

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher

Alan Jacobs

H.G. Wells

 Roger Kipling
 George Bernard Shaw

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton
Bright Evening Star’, by Madeleine L’Engle
Babbette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen
The Gift of the Magi & Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen, by O. Henry
 Why God Became Man, by Anselm
The Spirit of the Imagination: Selections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with an introduction by Malcolm Guite
Handel's Messiah
The Oracle of the Dog, by G.K. Chesterton
The Golden Key, by George McDonald

Related Conversations:
Waiting on the Word with Malcolm Guite
Advent: The Season of Hope, with Tish Harrison Warren
Renewing the Joy of Advent, with Hannah Anderson

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.

Perfectly Human with Amy Julia Becker

We live in a time when our value is often assessed and affirmed largely in terms of our productivity. Entire industries are built around pushing us to optimize our output, maximize our results, unlock our potential, break barriers and records, and perform perpetually at peak. 

Often drowned out by the din of such appeals is the simple truth that to be human is to be limited, vulnerable, and mortal. And for many of us, such limitations are impossible to ignore. 

Today's episode features our recent conversation with award winning writer and speaker, Amy Julia Becker, who addresses questions about what it means to be perfectly human, and what understanding disability reveals to us:

We hope this conversation helps you wrestle with questions of human limitations, perfection, and our belovedness before God, as we consider anew what constitutes the good life.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in March of 2024. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Amy Julia Becker.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope, by Amy Julia Becker

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen

Bright Evening Star by Madeleine L'Engle

Wrestling with God by Simone Weil

Bulletins from Immortality poems by Emily Dickinson

Letters from Vincent Van Gogh

Related Conversations:
A Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf
What Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
Life, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip Yancey

Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman

To 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

Practicing the Way with John Mark Comer

The start of a new year prompts the reflection that if we are not intentionally modeling our life after Jesus, we are likely being formed by something or someone else. Adrift in the cultural current, we're likely to be carried to places we never consciously chose and wonder how we got there.

In Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer explores what it means in our times to be a disciple of Jesus -- to be with him, to become like him, and to do as he did:

We hope this conversation encourages you to move slowly as you abide with Jesus this year, and by his grace are transformed into a person of deeper love, joy, and peace.

This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in 2024. Learn more about John Mark Comer.

Episode outline

00:00 Introduction to Practicing the Way
01:00 Formation is Inevitable
02:26 John Mark Comer's Background and Influences
05:21 Evangelical Discipleship and the Influence of Dallas Willard
08:05 From Burnout to the Inner Journey
11:26 Being Christian and Being an Apprentice of Jesus
21:04 The Destructive Power of Hurry, and the Pace of Love
26:13 The Practice of Contemplation and Abiding
33:17 Final Thoughts and Prayer

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Live No Lies, God Has a Name, Garden City, Practicing the Way, all by John Mark Comer

Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard

Jacques Philippe

St. Therese

N.T. Wright

Gary Haugen

Robert Bellah

Mother Teresa

Dorothy Day

Francis Chan

John Stott

Three Mile an Hour God, Kosuki Koyama

Mary Oliver

 Marjorie Thompson

Kurt Thompson

Brennan Manning

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Augustine's Confessions, with an introduction by James K. A. Smith

Bright Evening Star, by Madeleine L’Engle

A Practical View of Real Christianity, by William Wilberforce

Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Why God Became Man, by St. Anselm

Related Conversations:
Making as a Spiritual Practice with Mako Fujimura

Writing as a Spiritual Practice with Jonathan Rogers, Tish Harrison Warren, and Doug McKelvey

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 help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.

On Friday, December 18, 2020, in partnership with Regent College, The Rabbit Room, and The C.S. Lewis Foundation we were delighted to host the renowned poet, singer-songwriter, and Anglican priest Malcom Guite for a conversation about his work of poetry, Waiting on the Word.

Learn more about Malcolm Guite.

Watch the full Online Conversation and read the transcript from December 2020.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Waiting on the Word, Malcolm Guite

As You Like It, Shakespeare

John Milton

Robert Louis Stevenson

C.S. Lewis

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Christmas, by John Betjeman

North, by Seamus Heaney

St. John of the Cross

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare

The Forge, by Seamus Heaney

O Sapientia, Malcolm Guite

Thomas Clarkson

George Herbert

The Apologist's Evening Prayer, C.S. Lewis

The Agonie, by George Herbert

John Donne

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Station Island XI, Seamus Heaney and St. John of the Cross

Adam Crothers

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

In the Bleak Midwinter, Christina Rossetti

In Drear Nighted December, by John Keats

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

William Wordsworth

Steve Bell

Jack Redford

T.S. Eliot

Hebrew Melodies, Lord Byron

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Geoffrey Chaucer

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Devotions, by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip Yancey

God’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot with an introduction by Makoto Fujimura

Related Conversations:

Lecture given by Malcolm for the C.S. Lewis Foundation

Laing Lectures given by Malcolm at Regent College

Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite: Live at the West End

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Heaven & Nature Sing with Hannah Anderson

Advent invites us to enter into the joy of the season through rhythms of remembrance, renewal, and waiting. But often, our very familiarity with the Advent story can leave us dulled to the miracle and joy of the season.

In her book of Advent reflections, Heaven and Nature Sing, author Hannah Anderson invites us all into a fresh reading of the Christmas story by drawing together 25 meditations on the beauty of creation:

This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in fall of 2022. Learn more about Hannah Anderson.

Episode outline

00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Advent

01:51 Introducing Hannah Anderson and Her Work

02:28 The Inspiration Behind 'Heaven and Nature Sing'

04:39 Attentiveness to Creation and Its Lessons

07:57 The Link Between Caring for Creation and Others

11:58 The Legend of the First Christmas Tree

15:27 Jesus' Birth and the Concept of Habitat

19:11 The Brutality and Honesty of Nature

22:49 Reconnecting with Nature in Modern Times

26:49 Practical Steps to Attune to Nature

29:32 Closing Thoughts and Poem

31:07 Final Farewell and Podcast Information

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment, by Hannah Anderson

The Turning of Days: Lessons from Nature, Season, and Spirit, by Hannah Anderson

Heaven and Nature Sing, by Hannah Anderson

An Immense World, by Ed Yong

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Bright Evening Star, by Madeleine L’Engle

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

The Gift of the Magi and Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen, by O. Henry

God’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Related Conversations:
Waiting on the Word, with Malcolm Guite

Joy to the World: Caroling Christmas and Christian Formation, with Keith Getty

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 help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.

Abraham Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty with Vincent Bacote

In this episode of the Trinity Forum Conversations podcast, host Brian Daskam and guest Dr. Vincent Bacote explore Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper’s contributions to Reformed theology, with particular emphasis on his concept of sphere sovereignty:

Kuyper believed that different domains of life, such as church, government, education, and family, each have their own integrity and should operate independently within their God-given roles. As Dr. Bacote argues, Kuyper's ideas can help modern Christians engage more faithfully and imaginatively in public life without succumbing to triumphalism or tribalism. They also address Kuyper's controversial views on race and how to critically appreciate his positive contributions despite his flaws.

This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in fall of 2024. Learn more about Vincent Bacote.

00:00 Introducing Dr. Vincent Bacote, professor and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow

00:57 Who is Abraham Kuyper?

01:54 Understanding Kuyper’s Concept of Sphere Sovereignty

04:33 Sphere Sovereignty in Practice

14:35 Kuyper's Views on Race

21:36 Applying Kuyper's Ideas Today

32:10 Vince’s Thoughts on Christians Shaping Culture

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Spirit in Public Theology, Appropriating the Legacy of Abraham Kuyper, by Vincent Bacote

Contours of the Kuyperian tradition, by Craig Bartholomew

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Sphere Sovereignty

Wrestling with God, Simone Weil

Children of Light and Children of Darkness, by Reinhold Niebuhr

Politics, Morality, and Civility,  by Vaclav Havel

The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt

The Federalist Papers

A Practical View of Real Christianity, by William Wilberforce,

Who Stands Fast? by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Related Conversations:
Hope Beyond Tribalism with James Mumford

Faith, Fear & Conspiracy with David French

The Fall, the Founding and the Future of American Democracy

How to Be a Patriotic Christian

Extremism and the Path Back to Peace with Elizabeth Neumann
Democracy & Solidarity with James Davison Hunter and David Brooks

To 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

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.