Institute for Religious Research

Institute for Religious Research
Name	Institute for Religious Research
Formation	1970s
Type	Nonprofit research organization
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International
Language	English

Contents

Institute for Religious Research

The Institute for Religious Research is an American nonprofit organization that engages in applied studies of Christian apologetics, evangelicalism, and interdenominational debates, often interacting with figures and institutions in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism (Protestant) and movements such as Pentecostalism, Charismatic movement, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormonism. It has appeared in public discourse alongside organizations like the American Bible Society, Southern Baptist Convention, National Association of Evangelicals, Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and academic institutions including Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary and Biola University. The institute frequently intersects with controversies that involve figures and entities such as Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, Bart D. Ehrman, E.P. Sanders, N.T. Wright, John Dominic Crossan, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Karen Armstrong, Marcus Borg, Gordon D. Fee, F.F. Bruce, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Charles Stanley, Timothy Keller, Francis Schaeffer and movements like New Atheism.

History

Founded in the 1970s in the United States during a period of heightened debate among evangelicalism networks, the institute’s origins align with contemporaneous developments involving Billy Graham, Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College (Illinois), and the publishing houses Zondervan, Tyndale House Publishers, IVP (InterVarsity Press), and Baker Publishing Group. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s it engaged with legal and doctrinal disputes alongside organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty University, Hillsong Church, Calvary Chapel, and denominational bodies such as the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church in America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Anglican Communion. The institute’s timeline intersects with public debates over texts and translations involving the King James Version, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Septuagint, and Vulgate.

The institute states goals consistent with advocacy and scholarly critique, engaging in dialogues with organizations such as Pew Research Center, Gallup Poll, Barna Group, Christianity Today (magazine), First Things (journal), The Christian Century, and academic conferences at Society of Biblical Literature, Evangelical Theological Society, American Academy of Religion and venues like National Religious Broadcasters conventions. Activities include public lectures in partnership with seminaries such as Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, and university centers like Vanderbilt Divinity School, Columbia University, University of Chicago Divinity School, and Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. The institute has also collaborated with ministries and think tanks including The Gospel Coalition, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Discovery Institute, C.S. Lewis Institute, Acton Institute, and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

The institute publishes critiques, monographs and pamphlets that have been distributed via presses and journals associated with Eerdmans, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Brill Publishers, and periodicals like Journal of Biblical Literature, Harvard Theological Review, Journal for the Study of Christianity and Culture, and New Testament Studies. Publications address topics tied to texts and historical controversies invoking names such as Josephus, Talmud, Philo of Alexandria, Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Paulo Freire and modern commentators including Elaine Pagels, Reza Aslan, Karen Armstrong, John Shelby Spong and Marcus J. Borg. The institute’s bibliographies and reviews often reference archaeological projects at Qumran, Megiddo, Hazor, Jerusalem (city), Masada, and institutes such as Israel Antiquities Authority.

Critics have compared the institute’s methods to those used in polemics by groups like Fundamentalism (religious), Religious Right (United States), Progressive Christianity, Evangelicalism in the United States, and commentators such as Bart D. Ehrman, Elaine Pagels, John Dominic Crossan and Richard Dawkins. Public disputes involved exchanges with institutions like Oxford University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University, and media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, BBC News, CNN, FOX News Channel and The Atlantic (magazine). Legal and ethical criticisms cited by opponents reference cases and precedents involving First Amendment to the United States Constitution debates, nonprofit regulation under Internal Revenue Service, and standards promoted by scholarly bodies such as the American Academy of Religion.

The institute is organized with a board of directors and advisory councils that have included figures from evangelicalism networks, seminary faculties, and independent scholars associated with Institute for Creation Research, Discovery Institute, Thomas More Law Center, American Center for Law and Justice, and denominational agencies like the Southern Baptist Convention’s entities. Funding sources noted by observers include private donors, foundations such as Lilly Endowment, MacArthur Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and income from book sales through distributors like Amazon (company), Christianbook, and academic distributors. Partnerships and grants have intersected with programs at National Endowment for the Humanities, Templeton Foundation, Ford Foundation, and corporate sponsorships connected to faith-based publishers.

Across its history the institute has been associated with scholars, apologists and administrators who have interacted with seminaries, universities and ministries including names such as R. C. Sproul, John Stott, D. A. Carson, Alister McGrath, William Lane Craig, Norman Geisler, John Warwick Montgomery, Glynn L. Harrison, Michael Horton, Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, Simon Gathercole, Ben Witherington III, Craig A. Evans, Dale C. Allison Jr., E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, Luke Timothy Johnson, James D. G. Dunn, Elaine Pagels, Bart D. Ehrman, Karen Armstrong, John Dominic Crossan and administrators who have liaised with institutions like Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and national archives.

Category:Religious organizations in the United States