Our Mission

The Church exists to evangelize (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14), therefore her mission must be this:  that every person in the US would have a powerful relationship with God, faith in His Gospel, and spiritual life through His Church. That was the mission of every missionary who ever entered a foreign land, and it remains our mission today.

Our Vision

We envision a future where the West views Christianity as a better worldview for understanding reality – including modern science and technology – than relativism, materialism, or nihilism.

Our Objectives

Naturally, this project contains multiple objectives over both the near and long term.

  • Engage the best Catholic scholars and leaders of our time to discern the greatest challenges to the faith from within their respective fields – e.g. physics, biology, artificial intelligence, archaeology, etc.
  • Drawing on their expertise, write a 21st century summa that answers the most difficult and fundamental questions that are undermining faith today.
  • Produce the New Summa so that it will be accessible online, searchable, and easily edited to ensure that this project continues to be refined and updated well into the future.
  • Integrate this with two related, future projects – (1) creating a concrete, long-term, and intentional plan for changing the trajectory of our society; and (2) creating incentives for Catholic academics to dedicate a significant amount of their work to these efforts.
  • Gift to modern people a Christian framework and imagination that coheres with modern discoveries and is indeed more plausible than relativism and materialism.
  • Follow the Spirit where it leads as we strive to achieve the mission set forth.

“Since faith rests upon infallible truth, and since the contrary of a truth can never be demonstrated, it is clear that the arguments brought against faith cannot be demonstrations, but are difficulties that can be answered.”

~ S.T. I, q. 1, a. 8, co.

Thomas Aquinas wrote those words 750 years ago. He was responding to a host of worldviews that were challenging Christian thinking. Rather than simply rejecting those views, or falling back on the truisms of the past, Aquinas embarked on a great rapprochement between Christian theology and what was true, good, and beautiful in those worldviews. We believe we are in a similar moment today.

What Can I Do?

If you would like to learn more about the group behind this project, see Our Team.

If you would like to support this effort; join the team as a researcher, writer, or leader; or to get on the mailing list, see Support & Join Us.

But This is Impossible

“For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

Naturally, some will question the plausibility of such a project. It is too big, too ambitious. It requires the collaboration of too many experts. Others may believe that it is unnecessary – that all that is needed is a proper explanation of Catholic philosophy as it is, with no additions needed. On the other hand, others may believe that such a project is impossible because religion and science truly contradict, and the best that a 21st century Christian can do is take the latter on faith.

Some of these questions are briefly addressed in our FAQ page. Others will be the subject of the New Summa itself. Either way, we hold to the belief – long held by the Church – that whatever is true, good, and beautiful must be united as one reality. As a result, any difficulties raised by modern worldviews can either be shown to be false, or to be consonant with Christianity.