Alumni Week
on the Close
We are excited to invite you back to the Close for Alumni Week!
Alumni Week will run from June 9 to June 12, and include a retreat, the 2025 Paddock Lectures, and the Alumni Memorial Eucharist with the conferral of the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Alumni Retreat
Learning How to Live Our Life
A reading retreat led by the Rev. Dr. Luigi Gioia. Through guided reflections on Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, we’ll explore themes of grace, self-awareness, interiority, and spiritual authenticity, rediscovering how novels can enrich our faith, broaden our humanity, and deepen our joy in everyday life. The retreat begins at noon with the Eucharist on Monday June 9 and goes through to noon on Wednesday June 12. Each day, said Morning Prayer will be held in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at 8:30am, Eucharist at noon, and Evening Prayer at 5:30pm.
2025 Paddock Lectures
Desiring Truth: Interreligious Wisdom for the Post-Truth Crisis
The Rev. Dr. John J. Thatamanil, Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary.
In 2020, President Obama stated that we are in “an epistemological crisis,” a crisis in which we are unable and even uninterested in discerning truth from falsehood. The now extensive post-truth literature proposes the following solutions: teach critical reason, teach numeracy (not just literacy), teach social media literacy, teach the scientific process not just isolated scientific facts, and so forth. The sounding cry and unifying theme of these efforts is “Return to the Enlightenment!” These lectures argue that doubling down on narrow conceptions of reason is doomed to fail. I hold that we face a desire problem not a knowledge problem (actually, even that bifurcation is problematic). Put simply, you cannot know the truth if you don’t want to. Drawing on wisdom and practice from Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian traditions, I suggest that only a therapy of public desire that addresses disordered desire can bring us out of the post-truth crisis.
Events
Sunday June 8
Alumni staying on the Close are welcome to arrive after 12:30pm and before 9:00pm. Said Evening Prayer will be held in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at 5:30pm
Monday June 9 – Wednesday June 11 at 12:00
Join fellow alumni from June 9 to 11 at General Theological Seminary for “Learning How to Live Our Life,” a reading retreat led by the Rev. Dr. Luigi Gioia.
Wednesday June 11th
3:00pm to 4:30pm - The 2025 Paddock Lectures, Desiring Truth: Interreligious Wisdom for the Post-Truth Crisis, delivered by the Rev. Dr. John J. Thatamanil, Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary.
5:30pm - Choral Evensong and the reading of the necrology followed by a light drinks reception on the lawn.
Thursday June 12th
3:00pm to 4:30pm - The 2025 Paddock Lectures, Desiring Truth: Interreligious Wisdom for the Post-Truth Crisis, delivered by the Rev. Dr. John J. Thatamanil.
5:30pm - Alumni Memorial Eucharist with the conferral of the Distinguished Alumni Award.
6:30pm - A banquet in Hoffman Refectory
Further details
The cost of attending the retreat is $250 per person (non-refundable). We have space for 20 people to sleep on the Close in Dodge. There is no additional charge for this accommodation, but rooms will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
There is no charge for attending the 2025 Paddock Lectures, Choral Evensong, Alumni Memorial Eucharist with the conferral of the Distinguished Alumni Award and the banquet, but please register here for a free ticket so that we know how many people are coming.
You can sign up for the retreat and Paddock Lectures below.