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Westar Institute is a member-supported, non-profit research and educational institute founded in 1986 and dedicated to the advancement of religious literacy. Westar's twofold mission is to foster collaborative research in religious studies and to communicate the results of the scholarship of religion to a broad, non-specialist public.
Until a few years ago, essential knowledge about biblical and religious traditions was hidden in the windowless studies of universities and seminaries—away from the general public. Such research was considered too controversial or too complicated for lay persons to understand. Many scholars, fearing open conflict or even reprisal, talked only to one another. The churches often decided what information their constituents were "ready" to hear.
Through publications, educational programs, and research projects like the Jesus Seminar, Westar has opened up a new kind of conversation about religion. This is an honest, no-hold-barred exchange involving thousands of scholars, clergy and other individuals who have critical questions about the past, present and future of religion.
Some of the principles guiding the work of Westar are:
- All serious questions about religion—including biblical and dogmatic traditions—deserve research, discussion and resolution; no inquiry should be out of bounds.
- The scholarship of religion should be collaborative in order to expand the base of decisionmaking, cumulative in forming and building on a consensus, and genuinely ecumenical
- Religion and bible scholars should conduct their deliberations in public and report the results to a broad, literate audience in simple, non-technical language
Westar is not affiliated with any religious institution nor does it advocate a particular theological point of view.
Board of Directors