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Save the Date | C. S. Lewis - Education of the Soul

July 23rd, 2015

Pacifica Christian invites you to save the date for our inaugural Great Conversation Symposium. This year's symposium features renowned C. S. Lewis scholars who will lead attendees through a two-day exploration of Lewis's thoughts on "the education of the soul". Our program of dynamic lecturers, challenging question-and-answer sessions, and social gatherings will provide great fun and challenging conversations for participants. Don't miss this unique opportunity to join with others in our community in conversations that will transform the way we live, study, work, and engage the world—or, stated another way: how we think and live well.

The Great Conversation Symposium

SAVE THE DATES Friday evening, October 2, and
Saturday, October 3 

LOCATION St. Andrews Presbyterian Church
Newport Beach, California

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Symposium Speakers

Michael Ward is a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall in the University of Oxford, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis (OUP, 2008), co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (CUP, 2010), and presenter of the BBC television documentary, The Narnia Code (2009).

As an Anglican clergyman, Michael served as Chaplain of St Peter's College in the University of Oxford from 2009 to 2012 and as Chaplain of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge between 2004 and 2007. He was resident Warden of The Kilns, Lewis's Oxford home, from 1996 to 1999. He studied English at Oxford, Theology at Cambridge, and has a PhD in Divinity from St Andrews. Andrew Cuneo graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in English and then traveled to England to complete an M.Phil. in English Renaissance Literature at the University of Oxford. Before completing graduate studies, he assisted Walter Hooper with research on the unpublished letters of C. S. Lewis, a subject which then became the focus of his doctorate at Oxford. The University awarded him his D.Phil. in English in 2001, making him the first Oxford scholar ever to receive a doctoral degree on C. S. Lewis. Andrew was a former Professor of English and C. S. Lewis Scholar at Hillsdale College and St. Katherine's College. Diana Pavlac Glyer is a professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. She has published extensively on Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings, including contributions to The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia and C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. She is the recipient of the Wade Center's Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant (1997), APU's Chase A. Sawtell Inspirational Teaching Award (2002), and The Mythopoeic Society Scholarship Award (2008). She is best known for her book The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. Her latest book is Clay in the Potter's Hands.

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The Great Conversation

We’ve designed TGC to allow our students and our community to participate in a dialogue that will transform the way we live, study, work, and engage the world—or, stated another way:  how we think and live well. TGC taps into the great conversations, debates, and issues of our time—and throughout history. TGC will involve online postings and videos, guest lecturers in Pacifica classrooms, public symposia on topics of interest, salon-style events with Pacifica faculty members, and major community speaking events. TGC speakers will include Pacifica educators, visiting professors, marketplace and non-profit professionals, public officials, and church leaders. Ultimately, through TGC, we learn that all parts of life matter to God, including entering into a good conversation with our neighbors—whether or not we always agree. It is with this understanding that we encourage our community to pursue lifelong learning, relationships, and careers.  And we encourage our students in the training of their minds, the engaging of their world, and their faithfully leading wherever they are called.