The 40th Anniversary

Conference

The 2025 Conference
in Pictures

Each year, readers, writers, pastors, scholars, and friends of Touchstone gather for three days of thoughtful lectures, lively discussion, worship, and fellowship. These photographs offer a glimpse of the conversations and community that make the conference a highlight of the year.

Thursday Evening Session

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

The Eighth Day Books bookstore is a popular gathering place before the opening session.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Fr. Wilbur Ellsworth opens with prayer and song.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Touchstone executive editor J. Douglas Johnson introduces the conference theme and first speakers—Douglas Farrow and Hans Boersma.

Douglas Farrow delivers his talk, “Minority Report: Christian Freedom in the Contest with Secularism.”

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Fr. Hans Boersma continues the conversation with attendees during the evening reception.

Friday Morning Session

Paul Kingsnorth prepares for his talk, “Against the Machine.”

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Jonathan Pageau delivers his talk, “This Is the Day: Remember, Celebrate, Create.”

Richard Rholin presents “Re-Enchanting Time Through Medieval Universal History.”

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Paul Kingsnorth and Jonathan Pageau meet attendees and sign books during the morning break.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Break for lunch. Attendees stroll the grounds at Trinity International University, our conference home through 2025. Beginning in 2026, the conference moves to the DoubleTree by Hilton in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Friday Afternoon & Evening Sessions

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Panel Discussion. Panel host C. R. Wiley leads our morning speakers in a discussion on a broad range of topics.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

C. R. Wiley and Fr. Hans Boersma during the afternoon panel discussion.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Jonathan Pageau, Paul Kingsnorth, and Fr. Hans Boersma during the afternoon panel discussion.

Touchstone senior editor R. V. Young presents “Paradise Lost and the Fortunate Fall.”

Saturday Morning Session

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Touchstone contributing editor Rod Dreher and speaker Fr. Hans Boersma before the morning talks.

Morning prayer and hymn singing begin the day's session.

Attendees browse the conference bookstore before the opening session.

Rod Dreher delivers his talk, “Pilgrims, not Tourists: A (Sort of) Argument for Christendom.”

Join us in 2026

The 2026 Touchstone Conference

City on a Hill? Christians in America at 250

Presented by Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity

© 2026 The Fellowship of St. James