CFI Events

The Center for Faith and Inquiry is dedicated to forming the thoughtful Christian for global engagement.

Full Events Calendar

Date	Title	Location	Description
SEPTEMBER 28	The One and The Many: Making Connections, Creating Conversations	KOSC Fowler Auditorium + Loggia	How should we approach the question of unity and diversity? Are we one, essentially the same as each other, united by our similarity? Or are we many, perhaps so different that we can barely know each other? In America, in the church, and at Gordon, these questions can be profound and challenging. Join faculty from three different departments as they engage on these vital questions.
OCTOBER 26	The One and The Many: On Black Fugitivity, Politics, and Christian Society Steven Harris	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	In this talk, Steven Harris will discuss the contradictions of American Christian history and the formation of what has been termed, the black church. He will also explore the concept of fugitivity as a potential mode of evangelical existence. What might it look like to disavow contemporary political binaries and constraints? How might we cultivate authentic community and Christian sociality? Does "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) have a sustainable future amidst such deep division and disagreement?
JANUARY 23	The One and The Many: Oneing and Hospitality: Responses to "The One and the Many” Ivy George	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	The idea of oneing rests on the premise that God dwells in creation, and all creatures dwell with each other and God. Divine Love is the guiding force that runs through our terrestrial life. In this bond of love, the many creatures and the one God are inseparable and remain continuous in their connections. This experience of oneing inspires a fresh understanding of hospitality for believers.I am proposing that the cultivation of hospitality as disposition and response can contribute towards our effectiveness in God’s healing work today.
FEBRUARY 5	The One and The Many: The Princemere Writers Series x The Center for Faith and Inquiry: A Poetry Reading on “Desire” Micheal O'Siadhail	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	O’Siadhail will be reading from his most recent book Desire. Desire is a quartet of poems which addresses the pressing global concerns of our times. The book addresses the disaster as a reflection of our relationship to our damaged environment and the current ecological crisis. Fueled by reckless patterns of rapacity, we fail to curb our greed. Our need for comfort, convenience, and instant communication on the internet, which began as an idealistic dream of making knowledge universal, has resulted in an overconsumption that further harms our planet. Through an exploration of the devastations that have impacted our world in recent years, maybe we can learn again to be better forebears for the generations to come, responsible stewards of the earth we share.
MARCH 19	The One and the Many: How God Brings Reformation Through Diverse Voices Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	The move towards “deconstruction” has made many Evangelicals nervous about the future of the church in America. However, if the church were able to expand our vision to see how God works in the global context, we may begin the see God’s work of reformation.
MARCH 26	The One and The Many: The Struggle is Real - How We Derail Diversity Efforts and what to Do About It Dr. Michelle Loyd-Paige	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	Diversity is both a gift and mandate from God. Research demonstrates time and time again that our communities and organizations benefit when diversity is present and celebrated. However, achieving the kind of compositional diversity we long for is a struggle. Our diversity efforts sometimes fail, even with the best of intentions. Why? What can we do? In this lecture, Dr. Loyd-Paige will share lessons from her experience as a diversity educator and insights from her book, The Diversity Playbook, on why diversity efforts fail and what it takes to SHIFT from struggling to flourishing.
APRIL 18	The One and The Many: SYMPOSIUM 2024 Keynote Lecture Dr. Tal Howard	KOSC Chair's Room + Loggia	Wisdom: One or Many? This talk will explore the category of wisdom in the Christian intellectual tradition. Some questions broached in it include: What does wisdom actually mean? How does it speak to God's role and the role of humankind in the divine plan? How has it been treated by past theologians, thinkers, and artists? How might a recovery of a vocabulary about wisdom breathe new life into Christian higher education, which currently finds itself facing many challenges?