It is true that only a small minority of people will be converted to Christianity by being intellectually convinced of its veracity. Yet it is also true that many people dismiss Christianity out of hand because they view it as ignorant, medieval, unscientific, or just one religion / worldview among many. Even many sympathetic people – people who are attracted to Jesus and his Gospel – hesitate to embrace religion because they believe it means “turning off your mind.” So the aim of this project is not to argue people into faith, but rather to remove a major obstacle that prevents many modern people from taking religion seriously.

In fact, the New Summa is only one part of a three part plan. The other two parts have to do with: (1) creating a concrete, long-term plan for re-evangelizing our society; and (2) creating a Catholic academy that is on fire for its true mission – furthering the New Evangelization by dedicating all of our God-given wisdom, talent, and experience to building the Kingdom.

There are many groups doing exceptional work in apologetics today. Yet there are two things that make this initiative different: its method and its scope.

Modern apologetics is often written for the believer, rather than the non-believer. It is not designed to convince the skeptical, or often, to even take their views seriously. However, this project will include specific, dialectical mechanisms to present the other side as strongly as possible – and by doing so – why the Church’s answer must be correct.

Modern apologetics is also often written at the popular level, typically by generalists, rather than being written by experts in his or her own field – e.g. physics, biology, archaeology, philosophy of mind. And when Catholic experts do write in their own field, these works are not synthesized into one coherent whole. Even sympathetic readers presently need to know and then read 100 niche books to understand the Catholic position. Then the connections between all of these views are left up to the (hopefully persistent) reader.

Secondly, the scope of this project is to demonstrate how Christianity is compatible with the whole of reality. Right now, the Church only seeks to compass religious truth (dogma) and morals. Scientistic materialism, however, claims to compass the whole of reality. Human beings instinctively know that worldviews that can plausibly explain more of the world are more likely to be true. Until we do the same, we have little credibility with modern thinkers, and our society’s core of secular relativists will expand while the thin crust of natural law thinkers will get thinner and thinner.

First, it is important to note that the New Summa is styled as a Summa Contra Gentiles for the 21st century, not a new Summa Theologiae. Just as Thomas wrote Contra Gentiles in addition to writing the Summa Theologiae, we believe a work dedicated to apologetics for today is justified.

Secondly, there are other Thomists – including those very familiar with this project – who hold that there is still more to say. After all, Aquinas predates both the Council of Trent and the Theology of the Body, yet few would say that they were redundant additions to extant Catholic thinking.

Finally, science has revealed ideas and possibilities that would have been fanciful in the Middle Ages – e.g. that the universe is 13.8 billion years old; that humans evolved from lower species; the potential for creating artificial intelligence; the technological replacement of whole organs of the body, etc. And even if Thomas did anticipate these modern puzzles implicitly in his works, it is obvious from the collapse of Christendom that this has not been enough to stem the tide.

Asking ourselves how we can answer these questions, even if the Church already has the answers, is still a question worth asking. For we are failing egregiously–in at least some aspect–somewhere in our mission. Asking these questions is a first step to determining where that is happening, and how to correct it.

No, simply because the initiative would then cease to be what it is. As mentioned above, there are very good groups already working in the areas of evangelization and apologetics. What has not been done up to this point is to publicly ask why so many people – including many Christians – do not believe that Christianity is compatible with many modern ideas? Is Christianity truly compatible with the whole of reality – evolution, artificial intelligence, deep time? If it is, can we offer modern people a convincing worldview that compasses all of reality – and anticipates things coming down the pike – better than materialism and relativism can? If Christianity is to survive and flourish, we must do so.

Only God knows. But everyone involved is encouraged to approach this initiative with the expectation that it will come to fruition many decades from now. We are planting the seeds of trees under whose shade we will never sit.

Rather than this being an obstacle, however, we believe it is an advantage. Too often modern people are restricted by what they believe they can achieve and enjoy within their own lifetimes. But the Catholic Church thinks in centuries, not in years. We know that the Church will be here 100, 200, and 300 years from now. With that confidence, and ever guided by the Holy Spirit, we can make plans that reach far beyond our own horizons. In a word, we can truly think bigger.