{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Trinity Forum Conversations","title":"Hope in an Age of Anxiety","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2265,"description":"We are in an anxious age. By some estimates, a third of all Americans will struggle with anxiety in their lives, and nearly 20% currently suffer from an anxiety disorder. For those suffering the mental distortions of anxiety, life can be difficult, and hope elusive. And for many Christians who have tried and failed to stop their slide into fear and worry by simply “laying down their burdens,” they may feel an added sense of spiritual failure as well.\n\nWe’re joined on our podcast by psychiatrist Curt Thopmson and theologian Curtis Chang who help us explore a counterintuitive approach to understanding our anxiety:\nI believe the Bible and Jesus's own life invites us to treat [anxiety] not as a problem to make go away, but precisely as a signal. A signal, an invitation, what I call an opportunity, an invitation to walk through anxiety, to actually experience it in the way that actually we were designed to by God for spiritual growth in Jesus, where we actually meet Jesus more deeply, precisely in our anxiety.\nIt's not that we have to make anxiety go away, and then finally, then we're like qualified to somehow be with Jesus. It's that actually in our experience of anxiety, that's where we encounter Jesus most deeply and encounter the truths about ourselves most deeply.\nThis podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2023. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about Curt Thopmson and Curtis Chang.\n\nAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:\nThe Anxiety Opportunity: How Worry is the Doorway to Your Best Self, by Curtis Chang\nThe Age of Anxiety, by W.H. Auden\nThe Anatomy of the Soul, The Soul of Shame, The Soul of Desire, by Curt Thompson\nJonathan Haidt\nRichard Schwartz\n\nRelated Trinity Forum Readings:\nMan’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl\nWrestling with God, by Simone Weil\nAugustine's Confessions\nBrave New World, by Aldous Huxley\nThe Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day\n\nRelated Conversations:\nRebuilding our Common Life...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/LC6b2lFM_r_3xEJCzvD8r7UblHhgtgss5nBJ4X1mqD4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE3OTk3LzE2MTM1/MzUwNjEtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}