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Welcome back to the podcast where we are looking at the book Traces of the Trinity. I’m glad you’re here — because this time, we’re following Peter Leithart into something that hits closer to home than a window or a coffee mug. This episode is all about us — people, families, friendships — and what they reveal aboutthe deep pattern of reality.
The title for Chapter 2 says it perfectly: Like Father, Like Son.
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Loneliness — it’s everywhere today. Leithart pulls no punches: modern life, for all its perks, often leaves us alone. We move away from family. We trade roots for freedom. We stand under a big, empty sky — unanchored.
The ancient saints knew solitude — think hermits in deserts, monks in cells — but they didn’t call that loneliness. Loneliness is the ache of disconnection, the hollow echo that something’s missing.
Modern thinkers like Hobbes1Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) An English philosopher and political theorist, Hobbes is best known for Leviathan, in which he argued that in a state of nature human life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” To escape violent chaos, Hobbes maintained that individuals rationally consent to strong sovereign authority through a social contract. His thought laid foundations for modern political philosophy and debates about authority, security, and human nature. and Locke2John Locke (1632–1704). An English philosopher and political thinker, Locke is a central figure of liberal political theory and empiricism. In his Two Treatises of Government, he argued that individuals possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that governments exist to protect these rights with the consent of the governed. Locke also shaped modern epistemology through An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, influencing democratic governance, religious toleration, and Enlightenment thought. told us humans are basically solitary by default — lonely mushrooms that sprout up out of the earth, and only later make contracts and form societies. They imagined we start off alone, and society is tacked on later, like optional furniture, or something.
But Leithart says — look closer. That’s not how we come into the world at all.
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How did you get here? Not alone, that’s for sure. You started inside another human being — your mother. Your first home was literally another person’s body. And before you were there, Mom and Dad came together in a moment of intimate indwelling that gave you life.
From the very beginning, we’re social creatures. We’re in others, and they’re in us. You were shaped by your mother’s voice, her moods, her body nourishing yours. And Mom was shaped by you — the kicks, the cravings, the curve of her belly. The dance starts before we take our first breath.
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And it doesn’t stop when we’re born. We soak up our family’s habits — how they speak, what they find funny, what they fear. Even our quirks: the “Um” before we answer a question, the laugh, the gestures — all borrowed, passed down like heirlooms. We’re echoes of our parents and siblings, even when we think we’re original.
Leithart uses thinkers like David Hume3David Hume (1711–1776). A Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and historian, Hume was a leading empiricist and skeptic. He argued that human knowledge arises from sensory experience rather than innate ideas, famously critiquing causation, induction, and miracles. His major works include A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Hume’s thought profoundly influenced modern philosophy, especially epistemology and philosophy of religion., Rousseau4Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). A Genevan philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment, Rousseau emphasized the natural goodness of humanity and the corrupting influence of society. His political philosophy, articulated in The Social Contract, introduced the concept of the general will and deeply shaped modern democratic thought. His works on education (Émile) and autobiography (Confessions) also transformed views of selfhood, freedom, and authenticity., and René Girard5René Girard (1923–2015). A French historian, literary critic, and social theorist, Girard developed the influential theory of mimetic desire, arguing that human desire is shaped by imitation and leads to rivalry and violence. He proposed that societies stabilize themselves through scapegoating mechanisms, a process exposed and overturned by the biblical revelation. Girard’s major works include Deceit, Desire, and the Novel and Violence and the Sacred. His interdisciplinary thought has impacted theology, anthropology, literary studies, and social theory. to show how our desires, too, are contagious. We want what others want. We imitate loves and hatreds. We “catch” desires like a yawn or a laugh. We’re constantly mirroring.
So while modern theory loves the image of the lone, self-made individual — the reality is more like a woven fabric. Each life is a thread in a living tapestry. We exist by indwelling one another.
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This shapes how we think about groups, too. Family, church, even a sports team — these aren’t just random clusters of individuals. They’re living bodies where each part affects the rest. A leader, for example, isn’t just a person over a group — their presence, their character, filters through the whole network, like nerves running through a body.
Leithart calls this a clue: we don’t just stand next to each other — we live in each other. And if we really get that, then society isn’t just a contract we sign. It’s a web of mutual indwelling.
Sound familiar? That word again — perichoresis. Mutual indwelling is the heartbeat of the Trinity — the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, the Spirit binding all in perfect communion. And if we’re made in that image, no wonder our life together hums with the same pattern.
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So here’s where this hits us today: you can’t be you, fully you, without others. And they can’t be who they are without you. Our families shape our voice, our laugh, our loves. Even our hidden wounds often bear someone else’s fingerprints.
So when you see a family resemblance — the father’s grin in the son, the mother’s wit in the daughter — you’re seeing more than biology. You’re seeing a whisper of the deep reality that holds the world together: we were made to indwell and be indwelled. Like Father, like Son — and like the Son, like the Father.
Next time, we’ll push deeper. We’ll see how this pattern plays out when we talk about love, romance, and bodies that mingle and give life. For now — maybe notice the little echoes in your own life. The phrases you repeat, the stories you carry, the traits you inherited without trying.
We’re not islands. We’re networks. And maybe — just maybe — these connections are faint tracings of the Triune dance.
The Trinity leaves fingerprints on every inch of creation.
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3: Traces of the Trinity: I Am His, He Is Mine.
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