Trinity Talks

Throughout the year, Trinity Church hosts events at the intersection of sacred and civic life. Trinity Talks educate, inform, and inspire – providing in-person opportunities to engage with writers, artists, and thinkers who deepen our understanding on issues of faith, social justice, and community. 

Coming Up

A Conversation with Pico Iyer | Finding Peace in Troubled Times 

September 22, 2024, 1:30-3:30pm, Trinity Commons 

Acclaimed author, journalist, and travel writer Pico Iyer opens a new season of Trinity Talks with a discussion of his recent bestseller, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise. Drawing on a lifetime of global explorations, Iyer examines competing ideas of paradise to see how we might find peace in an ever more divided and distracted world.

Pico Iyer is the author of 15 books and a regular essayist for Time, The New York Times, Harper’s, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler , and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide. 

Doors open at 12:30 pm with light refreshments available. There will be a book signing before the talk and an opportunity for small group discussions afterward. Register here.

Edwidge Danticat | Reflections on Migration and Asylum   

October 22, 6:30-8pm, Trinity Commons  

Novelist and short story writer Edwidge Danticat will share stories from her award-winning memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, about her Haitian family’s decision to seek asylum in America. 

Amanda Ripley | Breaking the Spell of High Conflict   

October 27, 1-3pm, Trinity Commons  

Author and investigative journalist Amanda Ripley will examine how we can help one another break out of destructive feuds, drawing from her bestseller, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out.  

Christian Wiman | The Practice of Christian Hope 

February 9, Trinity Commons  

Poet and Yale Divinity School professor Christian Wiman will discuss faith as a practice of Christian hope, touching on themes in his recent book, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair. For Wiman, the antidote to despair is awe.  

James McBride | Race, Religion and the Ties That Bind 

March 30, Trinity Commons  

Award-winning author James McBride will share reflections on themes explored in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, his bestselling novel about how love and community sustain us.  

Past Events 

A Conversation with Author Frank Bruni 

In his powerful book, The Age of Grievance, best-selling author and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni examines how grievance has defined and shaped America — from the fierce debates of our Founding Fathers to today’s perilous climate of metastasizing anger. But while our politics and culture may seem irretrievably broken, Bruni says there are cures for what ails us.   

Hear a compelling discussion between Bruni and the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson about how the U.S. became a divided land, and what it will take to break the hold of our grudges.  

Watch.  

A Conversation with Author Marilynne Robinson 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson discussed her book, Reading Genesis, “a powerful consideration of the profound meanings [of scripture] and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity.” 

Robinson’s novels are noted for their thematic depiction of both rural life and faith. Her essays have spanned numerous topics, including the relationship between religion and science, US history, nuclear pollution, John Calvin, and contemporary American politics.  

Watch. 

A Conversation with Author Richard Powers 

Bestselling author Richard Powers discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, and explores our relationship with nature, our understanding of time, and the defiant act of hope in the face of the climate crisis.  

Powers is the author of thirteen novels, including The Overstory and Orfeo, and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award.  

Watch.