Both building upon and implementing the visiting scholars program described above, is the program of inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural seminars. These are participated in by professors from a broad range of departments at The Catholic University of America The Cluster of Independent Theological Schools and other universities in the Washington area.

This responds to the desire of advanced scholars to apply their special capabilities in a coordinated manner to the issues of our times.

These have a number of distinctive characteristics. They are:

- restricted in size--under 20 scholars--in order to facilitate intensive interchange, basically around one table;

- interdisciplinary, in order to draw upon the contemporary capabilities in the various humanities and sciences;

- inter-cultural, in order to reflect the multiple rich experiences and perspectives of mankind, as well as the many modes of a problem and the ramifications of proposed responses;

- advanced level, consisting of professors at the postdoctoral level, generally with many years of scholarship in their field;

- focused upon a single topic, in order to make possible a convergence of efforts and insights;

- 10 week duration, in order to allow the issues to mature and the participants to establish a growing degree of mutual comprehension;

- consisting in the intensive discussion of the papers planned in common and written by each of the participants during the seminar; and

- published as a volume in a series in order to make the work available to many.