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CFI Events

This Year's Theme: Ready to Listen, Learning to Talk

At Gordon College, much of our time is spent in pursuit of truth. In classrooms, in our experiments and our term papers, in our chapel servics and our Bible studies, we are concerned with finding truth as students, as professors, as Christians. However, finding ways to talk about truth - what we know, what we believe - is also something we find challenging. And what is true at Gordon can be even more difficult in our families, in our churches, in our nation.

CFI seeks to help our community learn how to talk - which may require also learning how to listen. How can we find ways to engage genuinely with each other, even when we disagree about important things? How does our pursuit of what is true and just and beautiful relate to how we listen and talk with other about these things? And even further, are there ways that we might begin practicing these habits? Over the 2024-2025 year, join faculty, students and campus guests, as we explore these vital questions together.

  1. Is healthy disagreement actually getting harder, or does it just seem that way? What stands in the way of healthy disagreement?
    • Are there contemporary social trends making it harder?
    • Do you experience good conversations in your church, in your small groups? What makes them good?
    • Are there models for healthy disagreement in contemporary society?
  2. What are the difficult conversations in your major? Are there ways Gordon might model academic disagreement?
  3. How might our relationship (with friends, with family, with other students and colleagues) be deepened even amidst disagreement?
  4. Are there ways Christians might be able to offer distinctive paths to healthy disagreement? What virtues and practices might we adopt that might improve how we engage with one another?
  5. How do we speak in truth, without abandoning love? How do we love, while still holding to truth?

Fall Event Calendar

DATE TITLE SPEAKER TIME & LOCATION
Sep 19

Ready to Listen, Learning to Talk: A Faculty Conversation

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Prof. Gregory Deddo

Prof. Scott Hwang

Prof. Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza

Prof. Ruth Melkonian-Hoover

Reception: 4:00P.M.

Discussion: 4:30P.M.

KOSC

Chair's Room + Loggia

Oct 3

Listening with St. Benedict

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Lauren Whitnah

Reception: 4:00P.M.

Discussion: 4:30P.M.

Jenks

Gregory Auditorium

Oct 22 Repairers of the Breach, Restorers of the Streets Dominique Gilliard

Reception: 4:00P.M.

Discussion: 4:30P.M.

KOSC

Chair's Room + Loggia

Nov 21

Personhood and the Perception of Truth in the Age of AI

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Derek Schuurman

Reception: 4:00P.M.

Discussion: 4:30P.M.

KOSC

Chair's Room + Loggia


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