Proudly sponsored by the Provost’s Office, The Disputed Questions Forum provides a venue for contested intellectual, moral, and spiritual questions to be discussed and debated in a way that honors the distinctive dignity of the human person. Animated by the belief that each person is created in the image of a God who is both logos and love, this forum is based on a simple premise: the highest compliment you can pay a being who is endowed with logos (reason) is to take his or her thoughts, ideas, and reasoned arguments seriously.
This Forum takes its name from an impressive academic exercise that characteristically marked the internal life of medieval Catholic universities. Regularly, a magister (master) would stand up before the entire university, set forth a brief opening lecture on a controversial topic, and, then, respond to objections and counter arguments proffered by other masters, bachelors, and students. The Forum brings the entire Assumption community together to listen—not just hear—to several thinkers think seriously about timely all-too-human questions and concerns in the kind of informed and reflective untimely manner that Assumption’s unflinching commitment to Catholic liberal education proudly allows and demands. At a time when most universities blink when confronted with the opportunity to discuss hotly debated contemporary concerns in a respectful, civil, and serious way, we are fortunate to be members of an ennobling educational community that can—and does—do this with intellectual courage, intellectual generosity, and intellectual humility.
At Assumption, this is what genuine civil discourse looks like. The Disputed Questions Forum exists to further such truly humanizing conversations among the company of friends.