The Centre for Theology and Public Issues was established in 1984 to stimulate and facilitate discussion, reflection and research on important public issues in which theology may make a constructive contribution. It works on the assumption that the realm of meaning and value and that of policy and practice are not separable from one another and that the connection between them is an important subject of enquiry. Its experience in these activities confirms its conviction that it is salutary at any time for a society to bring to greater awareness and articulation the visions and values which inform its policies and practices, but that this is specially necessary when a society faces major change. In the 14 years of its existence, The Centre has organised over 60 conferences and similar events and issued around 50 publications. While all the work could be said to concern the relation between vision and practice, several pieces of work have dealt more explicitly with visions and values underlying public policy.
Economic justice receives sustained attention.
A third major subject has been social care with three aspects receiving special attention - general welfare, health care and care of offenders. While there has Been a special focus on Scotland, and its future, the content of most of the Centre's work transcends national borders. It seeks to be of service, particularly through its publications, not only throughout the United Kingdom, but internationally. Concentration is on those topics which tend to be neglected, either because they present difficult dilemmas or produce polarisation or their significance is not yet recognised. The Centre has been described as a meeting place between three areas of life, academic, public and religious, and as a forum that combines the powerful and the powerless, practitioners and theoreticians, those with and those without religious affiliation.