Trinity Forum Conversations

Cherie Harder speaks with author and literature professor Karen Swallow Prior about her own history of reading as well as the challenges and possibilities for virtue formation that reading literature presents.Visit ttf.org/bookclub to get everything you need to start your own bookclub.

Reading for RegenerationIn this episode, Jessica Hooten Wilson and Claude Atcho join Cherie Harder to discuss the countercultural practice of reading carefully and communally. This podcast is an edited version of an Online Conversation, which you can find with video and transcript, here.If you're interested in reading old books in community, we encourage you to check out our newly announced Bookclub Box. The Bookclub Box is designed to make it easy for you to host your own reading group. Each quarter will release a new box with a trio of curated, thematically linked Trinity Forum Readings. You'll also get a discussion guide to spur conversation on each of the Readings, as well as some other great Trinity Forum items, including a tote bag, notepad, pen and bookmark.

Alan Jacobs joins Cherie Harder to discuss his book, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Readers Guide to a More Tranquil Mind. This podcast is an edited version of the Online Conversation, which you can find with video and transcript, here.We encourage you to put the ideas discussed in this episode into practice by starting your own reading group. The Trinity Forum Bookclub Box has everything you need to get started.

Reading & The Common Good is our new podcast series with Jessica Hooten Wilson, Karen Swallow Prior, Alan Jacobs, Dana Gioia, Anika Prather, and Matthew Lee Anderson. Few things in life are as enriching and humanizing as reading deeply and well. Yet the pace and technology of modern life make it hard for many of us to give books the time and attention they demand. Join us this season as we hear from guests who explain the value of reading in community, reading alone, reading old books, reading new books, and, above all, how reading serves as an antidote to the many problems of our time. If you're interested in leading your own reading group, we encourage you to visit our website. There you'll find information about our newly announced Bookclub Box. The Bookclub Box is designed to make it easy for you to host your own reading group. Each quarter will release a new box with a trio of curated, thematically linked Trinity Forum Readings. You'll also get a discussion guide to spur conversation on each of the Readings, as well as some other great Trinity Forum items, including a tote bag, notepad, pen and bookmark.

Neurobiology and the SoulWhat is the connection between our mind and our soul? New discoveries in neuroscience reveal that love can literally change our minds — that our relationships and interactions with others help shape our brains – which in turn, shape our relationships and behaviors. The link between our habits and spiritual practices and the renewing of our mind may be far more direct than once supposed.Friendship Shapes our SoulOn Friday, June 24th we hosted an Online Conversation with psychiatrist Curt Thompson and The King’s University philosophy professor Jeffrey Dudiak to discuss the convergence of what brain research and spiritual practices reveal about the formation and development of our mind, heart, and soul. These longtime friends shared how their relationship has been used by God to repair and shape their lives in fascinating and unexpected ways.This Conversation is part of our Discovery and Doxology series in partnership with BioLogos and Church of the Advent bringing together leading scientists, theologians, and scholars to discuss the relationship between science and faith.Learn more about Curt Thompson and Jeff Dudiak. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis John WoodMakoto FujimuraJohann Wolfgang von Goethe Related Trinity Forum Readings:Brave New World, Aldous HuxleyGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsBabbet’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen Related Conversations:Faith in an Empirical World: an Online Conversation with Ard Louis and Tremper LongmanSuffering, Healing, and Meaning, with Philip Yancey and Julia WattacherilUnderstanding Transhumanism with Rosalind Picard and Richard Mouw 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, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Science, Faith, and the Pursuit of TruthWhat does it mean to pursue truth — and how do we know what we know? Science and religion have often been assumed to offer either contradictory or unrelated forms of knowledge, with any intersection between them presumed to be a conflict.Such assumptions have grown more contentious in recent years in a world awash in misinformation and epistemic battles. How do science and faith relate in pursuing truth? What might each have to say to the other? And how might such a conversation enhance our understanding of knowledge itself? On Friday, March 25 2022, The Trinity Forum hosted a conversation with Elaine Howard Ecklund and Ted Davis to show how science and Christianity intersect in constructive, even beautiful ways. This conversation is a part of our Discovery and Doxology series, and hosted in partnership with Biologos and Church of the Advent and made possible through the support of Templeton Religion Trust. This series brings together leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians to discuss the relationship between science and faith. Learn more about Elaine Howard Ecklund and Ted Davis. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Christian View of Science and Scripture, Bernard RammRichard DawkinsPhilo JudaeusJohn PhiloponusAugustine of HippoGalileo GalileiPtolemyGalenEuclidSam HarrisA Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century, Samuel MillerKen HamFrancis CollinsAlbert EinsteinPeter MedewarThomas Henry Huxley Related Trinity Forum Readings:Brave New World, Aldous HuxleyGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Related Conversations:Faith in an Empirical World: an Online Conversation with Ard Louis and Tremper LongmanNeurobiology and the Soul with Curt Thompson and Jeffrey DudiakSuffering, Healing, and Meaning, with Philip Yancey and Julia WattacherilUnderstanding Transhumanism with Rosalind Picard and Richard Mouw 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, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Understanding TranshumanismRapid developments in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies can add confusion to the existential questions of who we are and why we are here. Through this conversation, Mouw and Picard explore the potential benefits and cautions of these technologies and thoughtfully examine the philosophical foundation of transhumanism. This conversation is a part of our Discovery and Doxology series, and hosted in partnership with Biologos and Church of the Advent and made possible through the support of Templeton Religion Trust. This series brings together leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians to discuss the relationship between science and faith. Learn more about Rosalind Picard and Richard Mouw. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Raymond KurzweilBrave New World, by Alduous HuxleyUncommon Decency: Christian Civility and Uncivil World, Pluralisms and Horizons, He Shines in All That’s Fair, Praying at Burger King, Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport: Making Connections in Today's World, all by Richard MouwBF SkinnerThe Concept of Mind, by Gilbert RyleHubert DreyfusFriedrich NietzscheHe JiankuiNeil PostmanJohn McCarthy Related Trinity Forum Readings:Brave New World, Aldous HuxleyGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Related Conversations:Faith in an Empirical World: an Online Conversation with Ard Louis and Tremper LongmanScience, Faith, & the Pursuit of Truth with Elaine Howard Ecklund and Ted DavisNeurobiology and the Soul with Curt Thompson and Jeffrey Dudiak 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, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Science and Faith in Conflict?We live in an era where science and faith are widely believed to be in conflict. A spreading materialism asserts, even assumes, that only empirical knowledge is reliable, and denigrates ways of understanding reality beyond the quantitative. Others believe that the realms of science and religion are entirely separate — each with interesting things to say, but nothing to say to each other.Wonder Can Lead to WorshipIn this conversation, we offer a different hypothesis: that science and faith actually have things to say to each other and can enable us to better understand ourselves, our minds, our world, and its originator and designer.  In contemplating the complexity of our Cosmos, and the mystery of our self and soul, we may cultivate a new sense of wonder, awe, and even worship – a doxology amidst discovery.This conversation is a part of our Discovery and Doxology series, and hosted in partnership with Biologos and Church of the Advent and made possible through the support of Templeton Religion Trust. This series brings together leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians to discuss the relationship between science and faith.Learn more about Tremper Longman and Ard Louis. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Elaine Howard EcklundIsaac NewtonSir Robert BoyleJames Clerk MaxwellSimon Conway MorrisDavid AlcaldeDietrich BonhoefferCharles ColsonThe Language of God, by Francis CollinsDeborah HaarsmaJohn Paul II Related Trinity Forum Readings:Brave New World, Aldous HuxleyGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsRelated Conversations:Understanding TranshumanismScience, Faith, & the Pursuit of Truth with Elaine Howard Ecklund and Ted DavisTo 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, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.

Discovery and DoxologyThis special podcast series is called Discovery and Doxology conversations on science and faith and is created in partnership with Templeton, Religion Trust, Biologos, and Church of the Advent.  The four conversations in this series features conversations between scientists, philosophers, and theologians helping us explore the relationship between science and faith.Science and Faith in Conflict?We live in a time when science and faith are often thought to be in conflict. The discipline of science is sometimes conflated, even within the scientific community, with a reductionistic materialism or scientism that asserts or even assumes that only empirical knowledge is reliable and dismisses ways of knowing what is real beyond the merely quantitative.On the other hand, some people of faith fear that scientific findings are undermining of spiritual authority or Christian orthodoxy, and may even see discoveries and fields like vaccine creation, gene therapy, and artificial intelligence as a threat to the claims of Christianity. But as our conversations make clear, the mistrust between Christians and scientists hasn't always existed.Scientific Discovery Leading to Worship of the CreatorMany of the greatest lights in the history of science understood their calling as one of making known the beauty and grandeur of God through a better understanding of the created order. They believed science and worship were connected by a shared love of truth and its author, and that discovery led to doxology.The conversations that make up our discovery and doxology series explores these tensions and possibilities. It's our aim to introduce you to some of the brightest scientific and theological lights of our own generation and to help you think wisely and well about these questions. You can listen to any of these conversations in full at ttf.org.Our sincere thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork and to Andrew Peterson for providing our music.

In our final podcast episode of our special Lenten series, we're considering the meaning of the good news view through the lens of scripture, with an emphasis on Christ, passion and triumph.  Reading Scripture with New EyesTo help us explore the spiritual discipline of reading scripture, we’re returning to an evening conversation we hosted back in 2016 with Anglican Bishop, and New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright.Since the very earliest days of the Christian Church, the reading of scripture has been foundational for Christian formation. Rather than prescribe a particular methodology of Bible reading this week, our invitation is simply to join us in reading each of the four gospel accounts of Jesus' last days, but to do so with a refreshed understanding of what Jesus meant when he spoke of the “good news.”On Earth as it is in HeavenAs N.T. Wright makes clear, Jesus’ good news wasn't about giving advice, or founding a new religion, or even where a soul goes when the body dies. Jesus was inviting his hearers into a new way of understanding Israel's ancient story and the cosmic significance of its sudden fulfillment. It's our hope that this conversation will help you read slowly, thoughtfully, and to consider and savor aspects of this good news that you may have missed before. Thank you for journeying with us through Lent, and we wish you a very happy Easter. Learn more about N.T. Wright. Watch The Good News and the Good Life, with N.T. Wright and Richard Hayes. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Who is this Man? by John Ortberg Related Trinity Forum Readings:Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip YanceyThe Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. SmithPilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie DillardPilgrim’s Progress by John BunyanGod’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsA Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge Related Conversations:Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison WarrenCaring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyreInvitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley BartonOn the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth BruenigThe Habit Podcast, Episode 26: Tish Harrison Warren with Doug McKelveyThe Spiritual Practice of Remembering with Margaret Bendroth To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit ttf.org/join. Special thanks to Ned Bustard for the artwork and Andrew Peterson for the music.