Dana Trent

She is the author of four books: Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk (2013),^[6] For Sabbath's Sake: Embracing Your Need for Rest, Worship, and Community (2017),^[7] One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic's Guide to Christian Meditation (2019),^[8] and Dessert First: Preparing for Death While Savoring Life (2019).^[9]

Trent's father, Richard Lewman, was a recreational therapist diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.^[10][11][12] Her mother had mental illness too. The couple met in a locked inpatient psychiatric institute four years before she was born.^[11] Her parents followed televangelist Robert Schuller to Los Angeles before she was born to be near the Crystal Cathedral.^[11] They hoped Schuller's message of self-healing and self-empowerment would allow them to conceive a child. About a year later, Trent was born in Los Angeles and named for the Indiana town where her father was from.^[11] 

Trent was born in Los Angeles, and moved to Dana, Indiana as an infant. According to Religion News Service, Trent grew up in a trailer in the small town of Dana, Indiana, the daughter of parents who sold and used drugs.^[13] Trent’s father trained her in the drug business; her street name was “Budgie.”^[11] The name is a label given to parakeets.^[14] She lived in Indiana until age six, when her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to North Carolina.^[1] Trent attended Reidsville High School in Reidsville, North Carolina, and won a Rockingham Community College sponsored speech contest for high schoolers in 1996.^[15] She was the 1998 winner of the “I Dare You Leadership Award.”^[16]

Trent first publicly shared her drug-trafficking upbringing in “Breaking Good,” a podcast produced in conjunction with the Lilly Endowment-funded Louisville Institute.^[11] Trent is writing a book version of the podcast that will tell the story in greater depth.^[11] Her agent is Mark Tauber.^[17]

Trent is one of only 2,500 women total ordained in the Southern Baptist tradition.^[18] She is publicly critical of Beth Moore, criticizing Moore's stance on complementarianism.^[19] On State of Belief with Welton Gaddy, Trent questioned Moore's apology and timing of leaving the Southern Baptist Convention.^[20] Trent says that Moore was unwilling to abandon complementarianism all together, suggesting that Moore believes there are circumstances in which complementarianism is appropriate and that Moore benefits from a "neutral posture" on complementarianism.^[19]

Trent is one of the few female ordained Southern Baptist ministers in the United States. She graduated from Duke Divinity School with a Master of Divinity in 2006.^[21] After graduating from Duke at the age of 25, she served as a UNC Health intensive care resident chaplain where she worked with terminal patients and bore witness to 200 deaths in one year.^[22] Publishers Weekly called Trent's fourth book, Dessert First, “hilarious and poignant.”^[22] According to Englewood Review of Books, Dessert First decidedly is not a treatise expounding traditional Christian views on death. Trent’s focus instead is starting the conversation about death early and often, regardless of the reader’s faith background.^[23]

Trent married Fred Eaker in July 2010 after meeting him on eHarmony.^[24]

• Trent, J. Dana (2013). Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk. Fresh Air Books. ISBN 978-1-935205-16-6.
• Trent, J. Dana (2017-10-01). For Sabbath's Sake: Embracing Your Need for Rest, Worship, and Community. Upper Room Books. ISBN 978-0-8358-1721-9.
• Trent, J. Dana (2019-01-01). One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic's Guide to Christian Meditation. Upper Room Books. ISBN 978-0-8358-1857-5.
• Trent, J. Dana (2019-09-10). Dessert First: Preparing for Death While Savoring Life. Chalice Press. ISBN 978-0-8272-0669-4.