In this episode we’re joined by theologian and bestselling author Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School. His latest book is The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others is Making Us Worse . The question he explores is one that relates to all of us: how can we find a way to strive for excellence, rather than for superiority over those around us? Finding new insights in familiar Biblical passages and the Christian tradition, he’ll help us to defy our culture of merciless ambition: L...
Jun 24, 2025•59 min•Season 10Ep. 114
This conversation is on the practical wisdom the Christian tradition offers for something that affects all of us: matters of life and death. Dr. Lydia Dugdale will be our guide. Lydia has applied practices from this faith tradition in her daily work with patients and families as a physician, professor and medical ethicist in New York City. She draws deeply from it in her book The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom – which she wrote for her patients, and those who love them: “[Death] ex...
Jun 10, 2025•58 min•Season 10Ep. 113
In this conversation, author Ross Douthat draws from the tradition to tackle a foundational question: Why believe? Amid evidence that America’s long trend of secularization has leveled off, a perception of the limits of a strictly materialist worldview, and growing dissatisfaction with “do it yourself” approaches to spirituality, what does traditional faith uniquely offer those seeking truth in our time? New York Times columnist and author Ross Douthat joins us for this conversation, making the ...
May 27, 2025•59 min•Season 10Ep. 112
We were made for relationship — to be seen, loved, known, and committed to others. And yet we increasingly find ourselves, in the words of sociologist Jonathan Haidt, “disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.” On our podcast Haidt and bestselling author Andy Crouch pair up to explore how the technology era has seduced us with a false vision of human flourishing—and how each of us can fight back, and restore tru...
May 13, 2025•43 min•Season 10Ep. 111
US foreign aid is unexpectedly in the news in 2025 as never before. What do Christians need to know, to help us be part of the dialogue ? America's history of foreign aid dates back at least to the Marshall Plan that followed World War II. Many Christians have been involved. How have these believers thought about the appropriate roles of government and of faith-based institutions? What has the US been doing, with what impact? And what is the situation on the ground now? Three believers knowledge...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 10Ep. 110
As we emerge from the Lenten season, freshly renewed by the triumph of the Resurrection, beauty and wonder are particularly present for Christians. In this episode, author and songwriter Andrew Peterson shares his insights about the importance of location and living responsibly and attentively in whatever specific place you inhabit. He discusses how deeper attentiveness to the beauty around us can awaken us to wisdom and wonder. This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from D...
Apr 22, 2025•33 min•Season 10Ep. 109
Throughout Lent, we've been releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. In the final episode of the series, this Holy Week we're considering the discipline of waiting : how we can prepare ourselves to receive good news. Our guide today is N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop and New Testament scholar. He describes how Jesus invited his hearers into a new way of understanding Israel’s ancient story of waiting, the cosmic significance of its sudden fulfillment, and its meaning for us in ...
Apr 15, 2025•22 min•Season 9Ep. 108
Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. 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 Makoto Fujimura 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 definit...
Apr 08, 2025•42 min•Season 9Ep. 107
Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. We live in an age of speed and overwhelm, where we often feel we are expected to do more, move faster, work harder, brush past boundaries and limits, and shave margins. When we inevitably fail to meet all demands, we are left feeling not only exhausted, but often diminished. "Part of what you start to see is ... our limits ... is actually what fosters our relationship with God, with others, even with t...
Apr 01, 2025•31 min•Season 9Ep. 106
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: “One of the dangers among religious fol...
Mar 25, 2025•37 min•Season 9Ep. 105
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 H...
Mar 18, 2025•29 min•Season 9Ep. 104
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 Christ...
Mar 11, 2025•50 min•Season 9Ep. 103
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 Ho...
Mar 04, 2025•52 min•Season 9Ep. 102
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...
Feb 18, 2025•53 min•Season 9Ep. 101
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 s...
Feb 04, 2025•32 min•Season 9Ep. 100
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...
Jan 21, 2025•32 min•Season 9Ep. 99
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: “ It ...
Jan 07, 2025•36 min•Season 9Ep. 98
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 , Shakesp...
Dec 24, 2024•49 min•Season 9Ep. 97
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: “What I believe creation invit...
Dec 10, 2024•32 min•Season 9Ep. 96
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 helps us to see that we can be Christian in public spaces without having to turn those public spaces into churches and that we don't have to have a triumphalistic aspiration in order to be...
Nov 26, 2024•31 min•Season 9Ep. 95
Democracy & Solidarity with James Davison Hunter and David Brooks One of the biggest questions in the Christian life is what it means to love one's neighbor, both in the personal and the public spheres. While these questions have always been challenging and contested, they seem to have grown increasingly divisive and demoralizing. So how do we begin to restore and reweave solidarity and a love for neighbor into our civic fabric? Today's episode features our recent evening conversation with s...
Nov 12, 2024•53 min•Season 9Ep. 94
Extremism and the Path Back to Peace with Elizabeth Neumann The appropriation of Christian images and language by extremists who advocate violence has become a shocking feature of our time. Surveys show alarming numbers of people who self-identify as religious expressing openness to political violence. Against such a distortion of Christian witness, how can we faithfully live out our calling to be people of peace? Today's episode features our recent conversation with national security expert Eli...
Oct 29, 2024•35 min•Season 9Ep. 93
The Challenge of Christian Nationalism with Mark Noll and Vincent Bacote As the lines between faith, politics, and patriotism have become, in some quarters, increasingly blurred, it is increasingly important to understand the origin, ideas, and consequences of Christian Nationalism — what it means, why it matters, and how best to respond. “Responsible Christian patriots try to show how Christianity can be a service to the nation; extreme nationalists make Christianity a servant of the nation.” -...
Oct 15, 2024•42 min•Season 9Ep. 92
What does wisdom mean for Christians in an age of polarization, cynicism, and distrust? In confronting the unique concerns of our time, what can help us become wise? On our podcast, Dr. Francis S. Collins joins us to discuss his new book, The Road to Wisdom , illuminating how truth, science, faith, and trust work together to help us discern the best path forward in life: “I think the time has come for many of us to say, I think I need to be part of a solution here. I need to say, it's not enough...
Oct 01, 2024•39 min•Season 9Ep. 91
Hope Beyond Tribalism with James Mumford Amidst a culture of political tribalism and personal loneliness, how can we more clearly, creatively, charitably, and faithfully think and engage with our neighbors? What kinds of practices of mind, body, and spirit, might help us to see and act with greater empathy and understanding? In his book, Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes , author James Mumford considers these questions and how often our ethical convictions get politically bundled up with oth...
Sep 17, 2024•28 min•Season 9Ep. 90
Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman As poet Christian Wiman explains on our podcast, despair is part of the human condition: “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.” In his new book, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair , the acclaimed poet chases meaning through words, including memoir and poetry. And in this conversation he explains how he has found relief from...
Sep 03, 2024•32 min•Season 9Ep. 89
In his book, Divided We Fall , author David French explores not only the rise of conspiracy thinking, but also the tribalism and alienation that has divided the country. On our podcast, French considers why our unsettling times have proven fertile ground for the growth of conspiracy thinking, especially within the Christian community, and he offers his thoughts on what a Christian response to conspiracy theories might entail: “Media consumption that is not thoughtfully curated can actually be qu...
Aug 20, 2024•35 min•Season 9Ep. 88
The Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American Democracy What did America’s founders believe about human nature? How might a deeper understanding of their perspective shape the way we think about current and future challenges to our democracy? On this podcast episode, historian and author Dr. Tracy McKenzie helps us take a closer look at the founder’s view of human nature, what the abandonment of this view implies, and the tension of fallen human beings entrusted with self-governance: We are...
Aug 06, 2024•27 min•Season 8Ep. 87
Life, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip Yancey Life has changed dramatically in the 400 years since John Donne wrote his Devotions. Yet despite the advances of the intervening centuries, we find that, like Donne, we are still subject to sickness and death. We still long for comfort. We still want to know what God is saying to us. Author Philip Yancey has found surprisingly relevant answers to these perennial questions in the works of John Donne. Updating the great poet’s work for modern read...
Jul 23, 2024•30 min•Season 8Ep. 86
How to be a Patriotic Christian The topic of Christian nationalism takes us into deep questions of how we understand and live out our allegiances to both our country and the kingdom of God, how we ought to relate to our neighbors, and how we should pursue justice and flourishing within our nation. It's also a topic rife with confusion and uncertainty. But what is Christian nationalism, and how is it different from a robust patriotism? On our podcast we explore these questions with scholars and a...
Jul 09, 2024•31 min•Season 8Ep. 85
