This Trinity Forum Reading Collection includes:
Abraham Lincoln: The Spiritual Growth of a Public Man | Examines Lincoln’s spiritual journey in the midst of extraordinary hardship, opposition, and loss.
Long Walk to Freedom | These excerpts from Mandela’s autobiography provide insight into his experience as a rebel against South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime, his long years in prison, and his eventual victory in South Africa’s first nonracial democratic election.
On Being Human | Written for the Atlantic Monthly in 1897 before Wilson became president and presents his vision of the good life, which is both hopeful and historical, drawing upon both Aristotle’s notion of “the golden mean” and Augustine’s view of the ordo amorum (the order of the loves).
Painting as a Pastime | Churchill’s essay demonstrates the necessity of silence and solitude for the renewal of the soul.
Politics, Morality, and Civility | Former Czech President (and playwright) Václav Havel took office after the dramatic fall of Communism and in this essay calls for our cultures and our leaders to rediscover or cultivate “higher responsibility,” a morally grounded vision for the common good.
To Bigotry No Sanction | In this excerpt, George Washington writes on the subject of religious freedom and persecution, desiring “a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”