Casting Light on the Issues Where Theology Matters for Our World

In keeping with the deep instincts of most of humanity, Theology takes the spiritual and transcendent as a key feature in understanding how address global challenges, be they AI, civic life, the environment, or healthcare. Theology understands that faith is living, evolving, and creative, and therefore always responding to the ever-changing nature of the world. As such, Theology seeks to have a dynamic engagement with issues to do with religion or faith, asking not only what these faiths are and say, but what they might, could, or even should be and say. We bring the question of God to the questions the university, church and the world ask.

In this activity, we seek to be the global leaders in the academic world, helping to make interventions at the highest levels of intellectual life on the major issues of our day. We have an extraordinary 40 year history of doing this, convening the very best theologians and biblical scholars to work with other university professors at the very top of their areas of academic study, be they Anthropology, Computing, Economics, Law, Philosophy, Music, or various Natural Sciences. And we enable our scholars to pursue their work in a community of excellence and trust, where the most difficult questions can be asked and debate can happen in an ethos of ongoing intellectual friendship.

We are convinced that the most rigorous intellectual pursuits cannot afford to relegate matters of faith to the margins. Accordingly, we work to ensure that theological wisdom remains central within academic research, in the confidence that Theology Matters (as we call our podcast) and needs Fresh Thinking (as we call our magazine). More broadly, we seek to discern, distill, and disseminate the profound theological insights that would enable our society to raise up a generation of leaders and citizens of the world capable of tackling the complex issues that confront our ever-changing contexts.

CTI was founded to bring about the theological renaissance required to fulfill this challenge. We exist both physically and metaphorically at the intersection of the Seminary, the University, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the public square.And we occupy that space believing that the wisdom offered by our theological inquiries might have the keys to unlocking humanity’s deepest intellectual and societal potential.

In our new building and under the visionary leadership of our new Director, renowned theologian Dr. Tom Greggs, we are poised to ignite a theological renewal with far reaching intellectual, ecclesial, cultural and societal impacts.

Our shelves of works written at CTI are a “Who’s Who” of the theological world. Scholars and intellectuals who have researched as residential members of our program include (very indicatively):

Sarah Coakley, David Ford, Reinhard Hütter, Nico Koopman, George Lindbeck, Peter Ochs, Peter Paris, Fleming Rutledge, Katherine Sonderegger, and N. T. Wright.

The leading scholars and intellectuals from other disciplines with whom these theologians have engaged are just as impressive, including such notable figures as:

Anne Case, Angus Deaton, Roland Frye, Agustín Fuentes, David Grinspoon, Marilynne Robinson, Susan Schneider, and Jeremy Waldron.