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 case for Christianity and rejecting atheism, all through the lens of reason:
We hope this conversation provides a look at faith from a fresh angle, and encourages you in practicing traditional faith as an answer to the search for truth in our time.
This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in February 2025. Watch the recording here.
Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
Ross Douthat for The New York Times
The Deep Places: A memoir of Illness and Discovery
The Decadent Society to Change the Church
To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious
Bethel McGrew, on left vs. right brain of Christianity
Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Wager; Blaise Pascal
The Strangest Story in the World; G.K. Chesterton
A Practical View of Real Christianity; William Wilberforce
God’s Grandeur: Gerard Manley Hopkins selection of poems; Gerard Manley Hopkins
Related Conversations:
A World Transformed with Tom Holland
The Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton and the Incarnation with Dale Ahlquist
Truth and Trust with Francis Collins
Faith in an Empirical World with Ard Louis and Tremper Longman