Trinity Forum Conversations18 Mar 2025

Reading as a Spiritual Practice with Jessica Hooten Wilson

Throughout the season of Lent, we'll be releasing weekly episodes focused on themes of reflection, prayer, and contemplation. As you listen to this episode, we invite you to take a moment to slow down, quiet your heart, and hear what God may be saying to you.

What if we viewed reading as not just a personal hobby or a pleasurable indulgence but as a spiritual practice that deepens our faith?

In her book, Reading for the Love of God, award-winning author and Trinity Forum Senior Fellow Jessica Hooten Wilson explores how Christian thinkers—including Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Frederick Douglass, and Dorothy Sayers—approached the act of reading.

She argues that reading deeply and well can not only open a portal to a broader imagination, but is akin to acquiring travel supplies for the good life:

“What I'm hoping to see more of is that the church becomes again those people of the book that really try to make others belong and strive for a deeper connection, versus the party atmosphere that our world always is tempting us to do.”

We hope you’re encouraged this Lenten season as you learn to read as a spiritual practice, finding grace and wisdom for living well along the way.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Jessica Hooten Wilson.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Learning the Good Life: Wisdom from the Great Hearts and Minds That Came Before, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Giving the Devil His Due, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice,, by Jessica Hooten Wilson

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