About the Rivendell Institute

We take up our mission in a variety of ways.  Through our research, writing, and teaching we aim to cultivate an intellectually engaged and socially responsible Christian faith that will stimulate others in their scholarly and professional work.  Through our lectures, forums, and colloquia, we seek to enrich the environment on campus by providing opportunities for thoughtful engagement with the issues of the age from a faith perspective, and to do so in the spirit of public conversation.  Through spiritual formation and mentoring we aim to cultivate the faith of Christian students and faculty as they undertake the challenge of living out their convictions in their professional lives. 

In an era when polarization and vitriol dominate our public discourses within and beyond academia, our ambition to “speak the truth in love” requires a different way of engaging people. To cultivate our faithful presence at Yale and in the university, we promote intellectual honesty and integrity, but also intellectual hospitality. Our desire is to season the Yale campus and all of our programs with this combination of scholarly vigor and charity.

We understand our role within the Yale community as both servants of Christ and servants of the university. Accordingly, our central commitment to hold forth a Christian vision of life at Yale includes a concern for the welfare of the campus and affirms the mission of higher education in its pursuit of truth.

With those of Christian faith, we are committed to helping them deepen their understanding of how their convictions intersect vitally with their scholarship and profession. For all members of the Yale community, we seek to create conversations that provide interdisciplinary opportunities for critical reflection on the great questions and issues of the age, and how faith illuminates these matters.

Our commitment to academic excellence includes the work we produce in our various fields and the work we promote by others. Believing that the Christian tradition commends the highest levels of intellectual engagement, we find common cause with any who share a commitment to exploring questions of vital importance in a spirit of honest inquiry.