Reality, Truth, and Beauty: Faith and the Pursuit of Authenticity

June 27-30, 2019

Part of the image of God in us is the capacity to create. But “seeing through a glass darkly” seems to be a universal description of all human quests towards reality, beauty, and spiritual truth.  Our limited vision creates in these quests not only the drive and imagination to “see better,” but also the mechanisms to safeguard their authenticity and enhance their reach: a fundamental humility, intellectual respect for existing norms, and submission to peer feedback. The process is not easy – it takes the best out of us and challenges us to our limits – yet the struggle seems ordained by a God who sets it before us as a path towards a higher road, or a deeper place, where we can be more rooted in our true identity and our place in the cosmic enterprise of His making.

At the 2019 faculty retreat we focused on the centrality and commonalities of human quests. Cutting across academic, artistic, and spiritual pursuits, we worked to become more authentically centered in what we do as believers called to His purposes in the world.

The 2019 conference Guest Speaker Dr. Ehsan Samei is a Persian-American medical physicist and a tenured Professor of Radiology, Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University.