About the Center
What Is the CSS?
The Center for Scripturalist Studies (CSS) is an independent research center dedicated to the study of Scripturalism, the Reformed tradition, philosophy, worldviews, and culture.
The Center publishes and organizes articles, working papers, translations, bibliographies, reviews, documentary sources, and research projects according to areas of interest and thematic relationships. Its purpose is to build, over time, a coherent, permanent, and accessible intellectual archive rather than a scattered collection of unrelated texts.
The CSS proceeds from the conviction that serious intellectual research can also be conducted outside formal university structures, provided that it is pursued with argumentative rigor, documentary accuracy, command of the relevant sources, editorial transparency, and openness to critical revision.
Its work focuses especially on the tradition associated with the Scripturalism initiated by Gordon H. Clark and its later developments, particularly in the work of Vincent Cheung, without restricting its research to that tradition. The Center also supports research in Reformed theology, philosophy, worldview studies, and culture, including the critical examination of authors, systems, and movements that do not share the Center's own intellectual commitments.
Mission
The mission of the CSS is to research, preserve, translate, organize, and further develop the intellectual tradition associated with Scripturalism and Reformed thought while also encouraging broader philosophical, theological, historical, and cultural inquiry.
The Center seeks to contribute to the development of rigorous Christian intellectual work in Portuguese while expanding its international circulation through English editions of selected publications.
This mission includes:
- developing original research;
- recovering and making relevant sources accessible;
- producing careful translations of significant texts;
- organizing bibliographies and research tools;
- critically examining established interpretations;
- engaging competing philosophical, theological, and cultural traditions;
- maintaining clear distinctions between completed research, research in progress, translations, documentary materials, and critical scholarship;
- building an archive that can serve researchers, students, readers, and writers interested in these fields.
Intellectual Perspective
The CSS has a defined intellectual identity.
The Center originates in an interest in Scripturalism, Christian philosophy, and the Reformed tradition, understanding divine revelation as indispensable to the construction of a coherent Christian worldview.
This identity, however, does not remove the need for rigorous historical research, precise conceptual analysis, or fair representation of the positions under examination.
When studying an author, tradition, or movement, the Center does not seek to replace documentation with prior agreement or disagreement. Criticism should arise from an actual examination of sources, arguments, and the consequences of the positions being studied.
The CSS therefore distinguishes intellectual commitment from apologetic simplification. Explicit philosophical and theological convictions do not release a researcher from the obligation to understand accurately what he intends to defend or criticize.
Areas of Interest
Scripturalism
Historical, philosophical, and systematic research into the Scripturalist tradition, especially as developed by Gordon H. Clark and later thinkers such as John W. Robbins, Gary Crampton, Vincent Cheung, and related authors.
This area encompasses revelational epistemology, logic, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, apologetics, philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and debates between Scripturalism and other philosophical and theological traditions.
It also includes critical study of the historical development of Scripturalism itself, its internal controversies, competing interpretations, and possible contemporary developments.
Reformed Theology
Historical, biblical, and systematic study of the Reformed tradition, including John Calvin, the Reformed confessions, the Westminster Assembly, Reformed scholasticism, Puritanism, and later developments.
This area encompasses doctrine, historical theology, systematic theology, confessional controversies, dogmatic development, and research into continuity and change within Reformed thought.
It also includes the analysis of primary sources, confessional documents, minutes, treatises, correspondence, and other materials relevant to the historical reconstruction of the tradition.
Philosophy
Investigation of philosophical problems, authors, arguments, systems, and traditions in areas such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, philosophy of religion, political philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of history, and related fields.
This area includes both the exposition and development of philosophical positions and the critical analysis of schools of thought and authors from different traditions.
The Center does not restrict this area to Christian authors. Competing philosophical systems may also be studied directly, both because of their historical importance and because of their relevance to contemporary debates.
Worldview
Study of the fundamental structures through which individuals, traditions, and societies understand God, humanity, knowledge, reality, morality, history, and social order.
This area includes the exposition of the Christian worldview, comparison among different worldviews, identification of their presuppositions, examination of their intellectual and practical consequences, and investigation of conflicts between competing systems of interpretation.
It also includes studies of education, politics, science, religion, society, ethics, and other areas in which fundamental presuppositions shape interpretation and practice.
Culture
Investigation of cultural phenomena in their intellectual, artistic, social, and popular expressions.
This area encompasses literature, music, film, visual arts, cultural movements, mass culture, media, entertainment, subcultures, social transformations, and the ways in which ideas, symbols, values, and worldviews are produced, expressed, transmitted, and contested.
It allows for both historical studies and analyses of contemporary phenomena, including individual works, artistic genres, aesthetic movements, forms of communication, and broader cultural transformations.
Research and Publication
The CSS distinguishes among different forms of intellectual production.
Articles are works that the author considers complete in their current editorial form.
Working papers are substantial academic studies made publicly available while remaining open to revision, expansion, or reformulation.
Translations make relevant texts available in other languages and may include introductions, notes, and editorial commentary.
Bibliographies organize primary and secondary literature related to authors, subjects, controversies, or research projects.
Sources and documents include primary materials, transcriptions, editions, historical documents, and other resources useful for research.
Reviews present and critically evaluate relevant books and other publications.
Research projects organize long-term investigations and may bring together different types of publications around a specific question or field.
These distinctions allow readers to understand clearly the editorial status of each item made available by the Center.
Rigor and Editorial Transparency
The CSS seeks to distinguish carefully between academic research, editorial review, and peer review.
A work published by the Center should not be described as peer reviewed unless it has actually undergone a formal process of peer evaluation.
Working papers are clearly identified as research in progress.
Translations may identify the translator, reviewer, original language, source used, and editorial version.
Revised works may indicate version numbers, dates of revision, and significant changes.
Whenever possible, publications should provide sufficient information for identification, reference, and citation.
Sources and Documentation
Research conducted by the CSS seeks to prioritize direct engagement with primary sources whenever relevant and possible.
Secondary interpretations are important for understanding scholarly and historiographical debates, but they do not replace examination of the texts, documents, and records upon which those interpretations are based.
The Center also seeks to distinguish carefully among:
- original text;
- translation;
- paraphrase;
- interpretation;
- argumentative reconstruction;
- editorial commentary.
These distinctions are especially important in historical, philosophical, and theological research.
Multilingual Publication
The CSS publishes primarily in Portuguese while seeking to make part of its work available in English as well.
Versions in other languages are not treated as automatic translations to be published without review.
Whenever a work has an edition in another language, that version should be prepared, reviewed, and editorially approved before publication.
When a work quotes sources originally written in English or another available language, translated editions should, whenever possible, restore the wording of the original source rather than translating an intermediate translation back into the source language.
The goal is to make the Center's work internationally accessible without sacrificing terminological precision or documentary fidelity.
Intellectual Independence
The institutional independence of the CSS means that its research and publications are not subordinate to university programs, academic departments, or external editorial agendas.
Independence does not mean isolation.
The Center seeks to engage specialized scholarship, academic journals, researchers, universities, archives, libraries, and other relevant institutions whenever such engagement contributes to the quality of its research.
Independence also entails responsibility. Without the automatic authority of a university affiliation, the Center's credibility depends directly on the quality of its documentation, arguments, translations, and accumulated body of work.
Institutional Nature
The CSS is an independent research center.
It is not a university, college, seminary, accredited educational institution, or certifying agency. It does not grant academic degrees, diplomas, or credentials.
Its authority does not derive from institutional accreditation but from the quality, consistency, transparency, and usefulness of its intellectual work.
The Center seeks to build that authority progressively through serious research, responsible publication, verifiable documentation, and continuity of work.
A Long-Term Project
The Center for Scripturalist Studies was not conceived merely as a platform for immediate publication.
Its purpose is to build, over time, an interconnected archive of research, sources, translations, bibliographies, and projects capable of documenting the development of a coherent intellectual agenda.
Each publication should be able to interact with other publications, contribute to larger projects, and provide foundations for future research.
In this sense, the CSS is both a publishing platform and a permanent research infrastructure.