Trinity Forum Conversations

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 that our citizenship is in heaven with his admonition in Romans 13 to respect governing authorities is often less than clear cut. What are our obligations as citizens in a fallen world?

Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Russell Moore joins us to delve into these hard questions. You may find his timely piece in Christianity Today, “Christians, Let’s Stop Abusing Romans 13,” a helpful read to accompany this conversation.
This podcast episode is drawn from an Online Conversation in 2026. You can view the transcript and other resources here. Also! Renovaré is hosting its annual Book Club — four books read in community from October to May, guided by scholars and authors, with weekly podcast conversations and discussion groups. This season's lineup and registration: https://renovare.org/bookclub
Go deeper into the issues discussed in this episode with these Trinity Forum Readings:
• Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Who Stands Fast? by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• City of God by St. Augustine
• Politics, Morality, & Civility by Václav Havel

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 defined by what we do, to having our work become an expression of who we are.

This episode is drawn from an Online Conversation in 2026. You can view the transcript and other resources here
Go deeper into the issues discussed in this episode with these Trinity Forum Readings:
Why Work Dorothy L. Sayers 
How Much Land Does a Man Need? Leo Tolstoy
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
Two Old Men Leo Tolstoy

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 bring about this change? 

Our guides in this episode, Mia Chung and Malcolm Guite, are extraordinary. Mia is a concert pianist, now based at MIT where she leads the Octet Collaborative, a Christian study center. Malcolm is an acclaimed poet and Anglican priest based at Cambridge, and has begun to publish a multi-volume epic poem on the Arthurian legends–-you can find our episode with Malcolm on the first book of this epic at the link in the show notes. 

This is the kind of conversation that our community of Trinity Forum Senior Fellows foster: cross-discipline discussion rooted in the Christian tradition.

This episode was recorded live at the 2025 gathering of the Trinity Forum Senior Fellows in Washington, DC, which was convened with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation. Our moderator is Trinity Forum President Cherie Harder.
Go deeper into the topics discussed with these Trinity Forum Readings:
Spirit and Imagination by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (introduced by Malcolm Guite)
Letters from Vincent van Gogh
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
Into the Wasteland by Malcolm Guite
Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill
Take Up the Tale: Bringing the Epic Tradition Into Our Time with Malcolm Guite

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 different disciplines, but in this episode, they provide complementary insights into the hopeful practices of thought and action we're all looking for.
This episode was recorded live at the 2025 gathering of the Trinity Forum Senior Fellows in Washington, DC, which was convened with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation. The moderator is Trinity Forum President Cherie Harder.
Go deeper into the topics discussed with these Trinity Forum Readings:
The Federalist Papers (with an introduction by David French)
The Purchase of a Soul by Victor Hugo
Politics, Morality, & Civility by Václav Havel
On Friendship by Marcus Tullius Cicero

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 global advocacy, they will consider how cultivating beauty can help us to sustain courage, foster resilience, and contribute to the pursuit of justice.
This episode is drawn from an Online Conversation in 2026. You can view the transcript and other resources here.
Go deeper into the issues discussed in yesterday's Online Conversation with these Trinity Forum Readings:
Babette's Feast; Isak Dinesen  (Introduction by Makoto Fujimura)
Four Quartets; T.S. Eliot (Also introduced by Makoto Fujimura)
Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Revelations of Divine Love; Julian of Norwich
Painting as a Pasttime; Winston Churchill