The Cateclesia Institute pursues its mission to cultivate biblical imagination by developing and distributing ecclesially-minded scholarship and holistically formative resources and by fostering a ministry and culture that unites priorities that are often unnecessarily separated. We seek to be:

Reformed and catholic

The work and ministry of the Cateclesia Institute is firmly rooted in the theological tradition of the magisterial Protestant Reformers. This theological tradition, however, is not a narrow silo so much as a hospitable and formative home from which the rich contributions of other traditions within Christian orthodoxy may be charitably explored, appreciated, affirmed, and critiqued. In a world characterized by sectarianism and suspicion, the Cateclesia Institute thus seeks to embrace, benefit from, and promote the catholicity of the church while remaining faithful to its Reformed theological identity.

Convictional and irenic

The Cateclesia Institute endeavors to model and stimulate modes of discourse marked by the manifold virtues demanded and empowered by the Christian faith. This commitment takes shape in resources that speak with truthfulness, boldness, and courage about the Bible and its implications for the life of the church in the world while simultaneously manifesting a fitting humility and circumspection that fosters dialogue, exhibits openness to correction, and eschews unprofitable provocation. In this way, Cateclesia seeks to cultivate an ethos and a tone that witnesses with candor and conviction to the contours, claims, and significance of Scripture and winsomely invites engagement from a variety of perspectives.

Scholarly and pastoral

Situated between the academy and the church, the Cateclesia Institute strives to bring these two spheres into mutually enriching relationship. The sought-after fruit of this mutual enrichment is rigorous scholarship animated by ecclesial concerns and characterized by pastoral sensitivity as well as church-oriented resources that translate and apply the work of the academy for the sake of pastors, laypeople, and worshipping communities.

Historically rooted and faithfully creative

Recognizing that this generation is not the first to prayerfully reflect upon God’s word, the Cateclesia Institute humbly seeks to listen to, learn from, and continue the church’s two-millennia conversation about Scripture. Yet in light of the Bible’s inexhaustible beauty and riches, Cateclesia seeks to hear, interrogate, and apply the whole counsel of God with faithful creativity, exploring the details and broad sweeps of God’s inscripturated narrative in the eager expectation that attentively indwelling the biblical world will yield a renewed understanding of Scripture’s symphonic unity, depth of teaching, and bearing on all of life that fosters worship and holiness, faith and hope and love.

Theological and practical

The Bible narrates the true story of God’s world and beckons humanity to live in the world as interpreted by God. Cultivating a biblical imagination requires learning to hear and receive God’s scriptural story and learning to inhabit that story as the controlling and liberating framework within which we perceive, think about, and act within God’s creation—a new way of reading and a new way of being. Toward this end, the Cateclesia Institute produces resources that uncover the interconnectedness, unity, progression, and theological witness of God’s redemptive narrative in Scripture as well as resources that utilize that immersive narrative as a lens for reflecting upon the whole life of God’s people, investigating diverse issues ranging from systematics and ethics to liturgical formation, from cultural dynamics to traumatic violence, and beyond.

Digital and embodied

The Cateclesia Institute endeavors to establish a digital presence in order to make academic and ecclesial resources widely accessible to scholars, pastors, and laypersons. The Institute’s website aims to serve as a distribution point for articles, lectures, courses, and multimedia content and as a gathering point that brings together diverse voices into constructive dialogue. Cateclesia simultaneously seeks to engage in embodied forms of ministry—contributing within local church and academic settings, hosting public events, offering in-person training and instruction, and providing a physical space for scholarly interaction and collaboration.

For the flourishing of the church and the blessing of the world

As the Cateclesia Institute enacts this vision in pursuit of a biblical imagination, we prayerfully anticipate several fruits of our labors. We hope to see a burgeoning of rigorous scholarly study of the deep literary and theological contours of the biblical story and its significance across diverse disciplines in the academy. We long for churches to experience a renewal of discipleship and liturgy that forms God’s people for and witnesses to her distinctive calling in the world in ways that counter the dominant assumptions and practices of an individualistic and consumeristic age. We want to see pastors equipped to approach and preach Scripture in a manner that models an imagination shaped by God’s story of the world and invites the church to participate in this world with them. We pray that Christian laypeople, formed in teaching and practice by God’s word, will creatively manifest a renewed imagination in every sphere of life—in professional and family life, in friendship and the arts, in scholarship and political engagement, and in every other endeavor to which they have been called as witnesses of God’s kingdom. In serving the academy and the church, Cateclesia seeks to serve God’s people for a life of faithfulness and worship, a life that spills over in love of neighbor and blessing for the world.