A Quarterly Gathering for Thoughtful People
The Sunday School is a new quarterly meetup in Grand Rapids playing in the tradition of Viennese cafes and Parisian salons — social gatherings to wrestle with big ideas in science, philosophy, the arts, and politics.
Historically, these gatherings would take on a different structure depending on the culture and host, but they were rooted in a familiar aspiration:
- Build Community: Although Parisian salons gained an intellectual weight later, initially they were social in nature (albeit with a heavy splash of classism, which is not what we’re going for) LINK
- Advance Big Ideas: Salons and coffee houses served as information hubs — “a place for learning and the circulation of knowledge, particularly in matters of science…” LINK
- Critical Discourse: These spaces held the tension of open sharing and intellectual rigor — they were workshops for people to wrestle “in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.”
We long for a space like this in Grand Rapids; a place to better understand the forces shaping our world, to connect with good people, wrestle with how to make things better, and maybe even hatch a few hope-filled schemes.
It’s more policy, psychology, and economics.
It’s less angels and demons.