Participants in an Institute consultation, summer 1999

Each summer the Institute hosts invitational conversations on subjects of current concern to the church, ecumenism, and society. Consultations typically include 15-20 participants from a variety of traditions and perspectives. Conversation and discussion are in the first person. One's own experience and ideas are the touchstone for what is said. Participants say what they think and carefully listen to what others say. This "first person method" approach to theological discourse, practiced at the Institute since 1976, is known in international theological circles as "the Collegeville approach." The method rests on a conviction that every Christian is a theologian-that is, every Christian has something to say about God. The method also assumes that all good theology, however scholarly, is grounded in lived faith.