Resources from the Trinity Forum

Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin

By Os Guinness
(Baker Books, 2002)

Paperback: 128 pages

About the author

Category: Books by Friends

A Calamity Breeds Courage

By Alonzo L. McDonald
(2002)

Racing on the treadmill of modern life, we long to encounter some live heroes. We search for fresh examples of noble character in the midst of the cynicism and selfishness in today’s secular world. We need heroes to help inspire us to our own heights of integrity and purpose.

One obvious example of such character was exhibited in September 2001 in the heroic actions of the New York firefighters. This fraternity is committed to duty, understands loyalty and sacrifice, and serves others daily in ways that ignore their immediate self-interest. Never was this commitment more clear than when 343 gave their lives in the dramatic rescue of so many at the World Trade Center.

In this Trinity Forum Briefing (Fall 2002), Founding Chairman Alonzo McDonald shares from his personal visits to the firehouse on East 29th Street, focusing on six remaining firefighters. Their experiences from 9/11 have forever changed their lives, giving them a new appreciation of life’s preciousness, their own need for love, and a desire to examine more deeply the meaning of life and their relationship with their Creator.

These stories of courage bred by calamity will inspire you to reflect more profoundly about your own life’s priorities. (CD Audio, 40 minutes.)

The World After 9/11

By Os Guinness and David Aikman
(2002)

Two Senior Fellows examine the deeper meaning of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and explore their implications for the future of the United States and the world. (CD Audio, 54 minutes.)

Surprised by Goodness

By Phillip Hallie
Foreword by Os Guinness
(2002)

Discussion Guide available as an insert or a PDF download.

Since the barbaric attacks on New York and Washington, the Western world has struggled to find an adequate response to such bare-faced evil. But the meaning of evil in the West has been seriously eroded, undermining our ability to respond intellectually and morally even to such stark evil. If we are to respond constructively to evil, we must first regain a realistic understanding.

In “Surprised by Goodness,” philosopher Philip Hallie shares his own struggle in responding to evil. His studies of institutional cruelty and the Holocaust had brought him to the brink of suicide. It was only the accidental discovery of the story of Le Chambon and its Huguenot villagers who rescued five thousand Jewish children during the war that pulled Hallie out of his depression. Mired in the darkness of Nazi cruelty, he was surprised into sanity by the sharp contrast of the true goodness of the villagers.

As Senior Fellow Os Guinness asserts in his foreword, “grappling with the meaning of evil requires that we appreciate not only the evilness of evil but the contrasting character of goodness that evil highlights.”

To Change the World

By James Davison Hunter
(2002)

Group Discussion Guide: PDF Download, 96K

What does it take to change the world? A renowned scholar on social change, James Davison Hunter dissects the prevailing attitudes toward culture and renewal that actually limit effective change. Dr. Hunter argues that lasting cultural transformation comes not from the majority, but from the few but powerful who have the opportunity to influence society through their relationships and institutions. Includes discussion guide. (CD Audio, 40 minutes)

A World Split Apart

By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Foreword by David Aikman
(2002)

Group Discussion Guide available here (PDF)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement Address set off a furor among American intellectuals and media professionals when it was first delivered. At the dawn of a new millennium and in the face of a major new world challenge after September 11, 2001, it is worth reexamining Solzhenitsyn’s speech--now appearing eerily prescient and equally foreboding. What does it have to say today? How accurate were his warnings about the dangers facing the United States and the West? Do his severe criticisms of the weaknesses of American life and culture still apply?

In his Foreword, Senior Fellow David Aikman unpacks Solzhenitsyn’s warnings and examines where the West stands now.

A Time to Stand

Letters of Courage, Hope, and Faith

By Helmuth James von Moltke
Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald
(2002)

Group Discussion Guide available here as a PDF download.

In an age that celebrates “fifteen minutes of fame,” true heroes of character and purpose are often unknown and unsung.

These stalwarts of faith, justice, humanness, and principle often take stands under extraordinarily difficult circumstances—sometimes paying with their lives.

“A Time to Stand” tells a stirring account of strong character and a life well lived through the letters of Count Helmuth James von Moltke, who was described by American diplomat George Kennan as “the greatest man on either side of the war.” Drafted to serve in the German intelligence service, Moltke used his position to argue openly against Nazi orders, sometimes winning temporary support and saving the lives of many Jews and POWs. He also secretly planned with others the structure of a post-Nazi Germany. Moltke understood his struggle against the Nazis as a task from God. He was executed just months before the end of the war.

As Alonzo McDonald observes in his foreword, “His noble legacy serves as an inspiration for each of us to discover and faithfully pursue God’s calling in our own lives, in our own time and place.”

Mere Christianity

(HarperOne, 2001)

This modern classic is a readable defense of the Christian faith that has helped thousands to find faith in Jesus.

The Meaning of Conservatism

By Roger Scruton
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)

Roger Scruton describes a conservatism that regards the individual not as the premise but the conclusion of politics. For him, politics is fundamentally opposed to the ethic of social justice, to equality of station, income, and achievement, or to the attempt to bring major institutions of society (such as schools and universities) under government control.

God and Mammon

Protestants, Money, and the Market, 1790-1860

By Mark A. Noll, ed.
(Oxford University Press, 2001)

This collection of essays by leading historians offers a close look at the connections between American Protestants and money in the Antebellum period.

Turning Points

Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

By Mark A. Noll
(Baker Academic, 2001)

Evangelicalism's premier historian provides a general introduction to church history.

Christianity

Opium or Truth?

By John Lennox
(Gospel Folio Press, 2001)

Many thoughtful people say they have difficulties which stand in the way of their accepting the Christian message. This book is designed to face those issues honestly and to show that these difficulties are not insurmountable. There is an intellectually acceptable way through to personal faith in Christ.

Key Bible Concepts

By John Lennox
(Gospel Folio Press, 2001)

Sin, faith, holiness, justification, reconciliation--what do these words mean, anyway? As in any other field, it is in getting to grips with the technical terms in the Bible the leads not only to a deeper understanding of them, but to an increased ability to communicate their meaning to others.

The Definition of Christianity

By John Lennox
(Gospel Folio Press, 2001)

Designed to help the reader grasp the historic facts at the heart of the Christian gospel, including topics such as: the world's fatal flaw, magic and the gospel, and Christ among the philosophers.

The Death of Character

On the Moral Education of America's Children

By James Davison Hunter
(Basic Books, 2001)

The Death of Character is a broad historical, sociological, and cultural inquiry into the moral life and moral education of young Americans based upon an extensive empirical study of the children themselves.