Respectful Conversations
"Respectful Conversations" was a favorite phrase of the first director of the CFI, Harold Heie, as he felt the work of a university or college should be thought of as an ongoing, civil conversation among those with different points of view, between the past and the present, and among different academic disciplines.
Visit Respectful Conversation a project hosted by Harold Heie to encourage and help facilitate forums for respectful conversation regarding important contemporary issues.
The activities of the CFI listed below help sustain this vision; they help "keep the conversation going," as it were, here at Gordon College.The Gordon College Spring Symposium has become an annual tradition at the College. One day in the spring semester, all classes are canceled, and students, faculty, and staff engage in learning from one another around a particular theme. For this day, the entire Gordon community is invited to propose panel discussions, lectures, dialogues, interviews, art displays, theatrical performances, and more.
The CFI Fellows Program helps support the scholarly work of Gordon College faculty—and, occasionally, kindred spirits at other institutions—whose work strongly resonates with the mission of the Center for Faith and Inquiry.
OPEN FACULTY–STUDENT DISCUSSIONS
Once each semester, the CFI hosts a panel discussion on topics both timely and timeless. Beforehand, faculty discussants from different academic disciplines are invited, along with students, to read a short piece on the given topic. At the event, faculty members offer brief reflections on the topic before engaging in a general discussion with those in attendance.
Each year the Center for Faith and Inquiry hosts an artist in residence and he or she displays their art the CFI House.
Periodically, the Center for Faith and Inquiry helps host a major academic conference.
ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL CONVERSATIONS
The Alternative Political Conversation (APC) that officially concludes on October 31 was intended to model a “better way” of talking about important public policy issues than the current vitriolic political discourse that is characterized by name-calling, demonizing and the unyielding commitment to “fixed positions” that has made it virtually impossible to uncover the “common ground” needed to govern.