HOW IS ALETHIA UNIQUE
. . . or at least different ?
We are Christian, educational, scholarly, ecumenical; our purpose is to articulate a new Christian synthesis.
PHILOSOPHICAL AND CRITICAL IN SERVICE OF THE
CHRISTIAN FAITH
We have much in common, with many academic and professional organizations whose purpose is to research the relationship of science and religion. We are different from most of them in that we have a specific constructive as well as critical and exploratory purpose, and a comprehensive aim. Our ultimate objective is to offer a systematic worldview that is a specifically Christian one.
DEVOUT AND LIBERAL
We are different from various representative of the religious right, who, although they also offer a Christian worldview, lack commitment to independent research, outside the constraints of their agenda, and who hold a political and moral agenda that is incompatible, both in content and method, with that of The Alethia Foundation.
SERVING AND EXPLORING
We are different from service or client-oriented nonprofit organizations in that while we do in fact provide educational service in education and spirituality, we are primarily dedicated to research.
FAITHFUL AND REFLECTIVE
Yet we are different from many, but not all, scholarly associations in that our task and method arise from and depend on some spiritual presuppositions, which are derived from a specific, that is Christian, religious identity. The Alethia Foundation is a confessing Christian organization, meaning, it is rooted theologically and morally in the Nicene tradition of the Christian church.
CHRISTIAN AND HOSPITABLE
The Alethia Foundation is not unique among devout Christians and Christian organizations who advocate religious tolerance and interfaith cooperation.
A Christian perspective is one of many that can be rationally and comprehensively applied to the questions and issues of the day. The Alethia Foundation develops Christian themes, because that is where our convictions lie. But the Alethia attitude toward other religions and toward non-religious points of view is one of cordial camaraderie.
No human agent or agency has full possession of truth, nor exclusive access to it. We need each another. We are all seekers with much to learn from one another, from cultures and traditions other than our own.
In something of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Non-Christian Religions and Declaration on Religious Freedom, The Alethia Foundation believes that the Spirit of truth is at work in all peoples in all times, quite outside of the control of any human monopoly.
Janet McKensie "Jesus of the
People"
http://www.bridgebuilding.com/narr/jmjep.html
There is no place for coercion or intimidation of any kind, psychological or physical. Neither can we allow intolerance, intrusion, or isolationism to undermine the communication we need for peace-making and for learning from one another.
The Alethia Foundation holds fast to the sources of truth we have found, and continues to question, to dialog, to think critically and reflectively, in respectful, grateful companionship with those whose religion or tradition is other than our own.
We encourage others to do the same.
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY and THEORIES OF EVERYTHING
Probably the chief feature that sets us apart is that our purpose has less to do with any single issue than it does with the way a lot of issues come together.
The programs of The Alethia Foundation gather ideas presently advancing in many different fields, in order to think them through from a Christian Trinitarian perspective. Such a perspective illumines our knowledge, without treading on the independent prerogatives of the arts and sciences. A holistic Christian point of view gives us a way to coordinate what we know within a unifying frame of reference, while protecting intellectual freedom and directing a progressive social agenda.
One way we could answer the question, " What do you do? " would be to point to specific projects, but each project belongs to something larger. Each is directed toward a goal beyond its internal ones. Our purpose is the "whole", and the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
We seek a "unified field theory" much as the sciences (and not just physics) do. For theology, because it deals in mythopoeic as well as systematic descriptions of reality, the idea of grand unified theory is never outdated, although some eras of history make conditions readier for it than others.
Ours is one of those ripening times.
The objective of grand interpretive schemes in theology has much the same criteria as such schemes in their more limited contexts in the various sciences and their sub-branches: to bring all kinds of unwieldy new data and revised formulas under a comprehensive new explanatory framework which:
Three distinctive features of a theological unified field theory are its:
The gothic cathedral is an architectural image of an inclusive Christian synthesis. The universe is an expansive palace, fully oriented toward its Creator, whose love for it and us is revealed in Christ, in whom the eternal and temporal fully intersect. The arts and sciences enjoy the freedom of their own integrity and methods, however, a grander unity pavilions them and us; frees us to come and go, invites us to explore all of its workings. A gothic cathedral gives foundation, pillars and roof to vast open space from which human quests may begin and return.
A Christian synthesis, provides, as metaphysical models do, an interpretive framework for human activity, searching, and self-understanding. But the metaphysical cathedral which houses human existence locates its meaning beyond human existence, not merely within it.
The Alethia Foundation wants to see what a conceptual cathedral looks like in our time. We believe the resources are at hand for a new, breathtakingly beautiful construction.
The synthesis toward which The Alethia Foundation works is unlike the old metaphysical models however, which, although instructive, tended to be closed, deductive schemes. There may be many viable metaphysical models possible at present. But a carefully worked-out Christian one ought to be among those put forward. The Alethia Foundation is dedicated to this task.
...So we seek to formulate a unified field theory for the Christian faith in the third millennium.
Our mission is to organize the elements of a fresh description of reality, going to the roots of the faith in its ecumenical creeds and scripture, and looking around us at all that we have learned through the sciences about our universe; at ourselves as human beings; at our art, our past, our capabilities; at our social, economic and political systems; at our resources, at technology,--and let the light of the biblical theology behind our creedal confessions shine on all that we know, organize it and order it rationally, morally.
This we believe to be a timely, rare and urgent mission.
