What the Center of Theological Inquiry Has Given
the World Since 1978

Founded in 1978, the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) was created with a bold and enduring purpose: to provide a permanent home for theology at the highest level of intellectual life, bringing deep religious reflection into sustained conversation with the most important questions facing the modern world. 

From the outset, CTI was modelled on Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study—an institute not defined by classrooms or degrees, but by the conviction that the most important thinking requires time, space, and intellectual friendship. Over nearly half a century, CTI has quietly become the world’s most influential center for advanced theological research.

A Global Engine of Scholarship

CTI’s most significant contribution has been its role as a generator of landmark scholarship. Through its residential fellowships and research programmes, CTI has supported over 450 leading scholars whose books and articles—published with major academic presses and journals—shape theological education, scholarly debate, and public discourse worldwide. Over 300 books and more than 250 academic journal articles in theology and Christian scholarship at the highest levels have been published directly from work undertaken and made possible by CTI.

CTI’s influence is visible across the global academy: in classrooms, libraries, syllabi, and public conversations where ideas first honed at CTI continue to bear fruit. Our shelves amount to a “who’s who” of contemporary theology. We shape and support those who shape the discipline: we teach the teachers who form tomorrow’s ministers, church leaders and academics around the world.

Theology at the Frontiers of Knowledge

Throughout its history, CTI has insisted that theology must engage the world as it is—not retreat from it. Its interdisciplinary research programmes have brought theologians into sustained dialogue with scientists, economists, philosophers, legal scholars, and cultural theorists.

Across successive decades, CTI has hosted major initiatives addressing:

• Science, cosmology, and evolution

• Politics, law, and social trust

• Climate, ecology, and human futures

• Technology, artificial intelligence, and digital life

• Despair, hope, and the moral resources needed for global crises

These programmes have generated conferences, workshops, and long‑term scholarly collaborations whose impact extends well beyond Princeton, the University and the Church.