The Theōros Project

The philosophy behind our new initiative

Photo by Peter Conlan

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In my last essay, I offered up an account of my views on the current state of the humanities, paying special attention to the challenges they are facing today. I argued there that I believe we need to think differently about how we defend the humanities, eschewing common arguments about transferable skills and economic advantage alone.

Instead of this approach, I offered that the humanities consist in substantive books and works of art and artifacts that are, to be sure, goods in themselves—goods that lead to greater knowledge of our circumstances as human beings—but, more importantly, that the humanities also consist in and emerge from practices of transformation in attention and perception.

These practices, I argued, attune us to the world and each other in deeper, more subtle ways, and they also train us in arts of expressiveness that let us articulate these deeper senses in more profound and generative ways than we could without them.

This was all in service of introducing our new initiative, The Theōros Project, through which we are curating a series of essays, lectures, and local in-person events that are designed to aid our contemplative thought, conversation, and practice. Our view is that thinking well requires the practice of contemplation but also the conviviality of dialogue.

We aim to cultivate both through our event series, events which will share in a tradition of thought—both timeless and historical—carried by the humanities. But how and why are we doing this? And who is the theōros? This short essay will introduce our approach to contemplation and the humanities and the figure who inspires it.

For more information, please do visit the Theōros website to keep up-to-date with our work there. My own essays and updates will continue to appear here on The Base Camp as usual.

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I. The Crisis and Opportunity in the Humanities

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The Theōros Project is renewing the contemplative dimension that sits at the heart of the humanities. We view these disciplines—including the arts and languages, history, philosophy, literature, and religion—as consisting in vital practices that aid in the transformation of our perception. These transformations not only elevate our self-understanding but also deepen our awareness of the world as a whole. These are disciplines and practices that have been safeguarded for centuries, if not millennia, in our monasteries, libraries, universities, and academies. Their lineages have helped to shape our intuitions and understandings across the ages.

Today, we often hear news that these same programs face declining enrollments, funding cuts, and even outright closures. However, their fundamental value remains undiminished, and amidst the decline there is opportunity and hope, as new forms of social life are giving shape to these disciplines in new ways. These new forms of life—developing inside and outside of universities, across and between institutions—ask for a different type of scholar to emerge. This scholar draws from the past while looking to the future, a wayfaring scholar who can move between institutions, perspectives, and locations—physical places and philosophical ones.

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II. The Theōros: An Ancient Figure for the 21st Century

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In seeking a model for this new type of scholar, we find inspiration in an ancient Greek figure: the theōros—a contemplative, a representative, and a traveler. The word means “seer,” “observer,” or “spectator.” As a group, the theōroi were practitioners in the art of theōria (contemplation), from which our word “theory” also derives. A theōros could be a figure of civic, philosophical, or religious importance. At times, the theōros would move among all three of these spheres. In this sense, theōroi were not just contemplatives but also delegates and civic representatives, travelers who would move from city to city to bear witness to events of special significance.

Indeed, one could find the theōroi traveling to Olympia, to Delphi, and to other Greek city-states during moments of importance. The theōroi would come to observe and then return home to give an account of the event to their community. In their contemplative modes, theōroi were also committed to that higher seeing we associate with religious pilgrimage to sanctuaries and sacred places. Travel for a theōros can thus mean physical travel but also theoric travel—a different kind of journey and return seen in the movements between history and timelessness, sacred and secular, and immanence and transcendence.

The concept of traditional theōria in ancient Greek culture, then, encompassed a range of meanings, from sacred observation to civic participation. Originally referring to delegates at religious festivals or spectators at public events, it evolved to include travelers and explorers of many kinds. At its core, theōria involved a journey or pilgrimage, often to witness these sacred events or spectacles. This practice included three key elements: the journey from home, focused contemplation, and a return journey, with the act of seeing a sacred event or place at its center.

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III. Theōria and Philosophy

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In philosophy, theōria took on additional significance, particularly from the fourth century BCE onward. Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle elevated it to mean a comprehensive contemplation of reality and the natural world. It came to represent the highest form of intellectual activity and human fulfillment. This activity can take many forms. For example, in the Republic, Plato depicts theōria as the activity of leaving the cave to contemplate the Sun—the Good—and in the Symposium he renders it as the ascent to the Beautiful. In both cases, the philosopher embarks on a journey and is transfigured by a numinous encounter before returning home.

Learn more about our upcoming events by visiting our calendar here.

This philosophical theōria was also conceptualized as a form of heightened seeing, distinct from ordinary perception. It involved actively observing something of great significance or sacredness, again akin to a spiritual pilgrimage. The analogy to pilgrimage helps bridge the gap between traditional and philosophical theōria, highlighting their shared elements of sacred observation and transformative journey. Philosophical theōria would in time expand on this metaphor to include dialectical and intellectual activity more fully, an expansion that today joins contemplation to the humanities through practice in a more integral mode of thinking.

Why is the figure of the theōros relevant today? 

Just as the ancient theōros traveled to witness events of importance and returned with new insights, today’s intellectual landscape calls for scholars who can travel to new places and between fields of knowledge, while bridging academic, private, and public institutions, bringing new perspectives to timeless questions. This human mission to understand ourselves, our world, and the mysteries of existence is not a vocation that ends, grows old, or blooms once and fades. It is perennial. As such, this mission needs to be received and renewed in every generation, especially as an emerging ecology of social and institutional life is making possible new kinds of organization and practice.

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IV. Contemplation as Transformation

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Our aim is to participate in this renewal by embodying the spirit of the theōros—as observers, representatives, and travelers—and to in turn invite others to share with us their visions and perspectives through exploration and dialogue. This view suggests that the life of the mind, at its fullest, is a contemplative life, one that involves a transformation of the mind through practices that change the practitioner inside and out. These are practices that open up what can be known of the world outside oneself, and of what human beings are in their fullness in this relation.

In other words, through these practices, one learns not only how to perceive the deeper mystery in the nature of things; one is transformed and re-ordered by this very perceiving. The soul itself is transfigured by the contemplative encounter. Such a re-ordering points to a link between our own practices of transformation and what we are able to perceive in the world. Moreover, this encounter renders clear how we, as human beings, can come to see ourselves as an integral part of this deeper world, this cosmos. The experience invites us to see that we are living beings woven into and intimately linked to a living world, and that we are, in turn, expressive of this world through our art, philosophy, religion, science, and literature.

In this sense, the humanities in this contemplative mode are valuable not only as subtle commentaries on the human condition, but as transformative practices that attune us more deeply to reality. It is on this basis that we seek to renew the traditions carried by these disciplines. To achieve this aim, we are cultivating a community of scholars, readers, and practitioners for deep thinking, conversation, and practice. We believe new social, technological, and economic opportunities are leading to a revival of these practices, inside and outside of the current university system, in a way that will enrich our understanding of humanity and the world in the twenty-first century.

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V. Renewing the Humanities

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The Theōros Project joins these efforts in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation by offering an ancient tradition of hospitality and exchange revised for our times. This practice of theōria—of deep transformation through contemplation—offers us a way to revitalize the humanities, not merely as academic disciplines, but as living traditions that continue to shape our perception of reality and our place within it. Together, we can renew the link between contemplation and the humanities and illuminate new paths for deep thinking today and in the future to come. 

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