Welcome from the Director
The CEU Angel Ayala Institute of Humanities began its activity in 1999 as a result of a concern caused by the growing tendency to separate university studies from the humanities. The excess of technicality and the excessive specialization of the degrees was seen as a lack of training with respect to what a university student should be. We believe that in addition to being excellent in his/her field, every university graduate should have a sufficient human perspective to have an active impact on society. The complexity and uncertainty of the job market have proven right those who thought that an integral education that considers the human being in all its intellectual, cultural, and moral perspectives is one of the best educations that can be given to our students.
Since then, the Institute's professors have taught the principles of Christian Humanism and Christian anthropology in the disciplines of History, Literature, Philosophy and Social Doctrine of the Church to all the students of the three universities of the CEU Group: San Pablo in Madrid, Cardenal Herrera in Valencia, and Abat Oliba in Barcelona, always with the intention of enriching their critical thinking, their creativity and their ability to transmit their own ideas.
Along with the training of students, the Institute is also a center of scientific production. Its faculty includes a large number of prestigious scholars who have contributed over the years to fostering dialogue between secular culture and religion, or between science and faith, but also between the age-old tradition embodied in Christian Humanism and the new intellectual challenges of today's society. Two decades of innumerable activities guarantee our trajectory, from research and training projects, to seminars, interdisciplinary conferences, as well as dozens of scientific publications.
The CEU Angel Ayala Institute of Humanities is facing its third decade of existence with an illusion that has been filled with the experience and the enormous responsibility of facing the challenges that are appearing in this new era, from artificial intelligence to transhumanism. We are aware that new questions are being posed to human beings and we aspire to know how to answer them with the strength of Christian values and doctrine, ancient as the Gospel but always current, and with a sense of mission rooted in two thousand years of Catholic Tradition.