Dana Trent
Trent at the 2022 MegaCon in Orlando, Florida
Born	Judith Dana Lewman (1981-04-11) April 11, 1981 (age 43) Arcadia, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Salem College Duke University
Occupations	Author professor podcaster
Years active	2013–present
Website	jdanatrent.com

Dana Trent ( née Lewman / lumən / ; born April 11, 1981), known professionally as J. Dana Trent, is an American author, teacher, and minister. ^[1] Trent is a full-time Humanities faculty member at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina. ^[2] Trent's debut trade memoir from Penguin Random House, Between Two Trailers, received a starred review from Library Journal. ^[3] Kirkus Reviews calls it a "A powerfully intimate look into the struggles of American poverty and mental illness." ^[4] Publisher's Weekly compared Trent's work to Jeannette Walls and Tara Westover. ^[5]

Early Books

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]

Early life

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]

Podcast

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]

Controversy

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]

Career

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]

Personal life

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

Works

• 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.

References