The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts was founded to provide a solid education in the liberal arts, a Catholic education for students of all faiths, united in the quest for what is true, good, and beautiful. It pursues this mission by seeking wisdom and sharing it joyfully with the world.
The College holds that every human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for his own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. Man and his endeavors are worthy of our regard, interest, and study. Humanity and the capacity of the human person are seen most clearly when viewed under the eye of eternity and under the light of Revelation. As St. Ireneaus wrote so many centuries ago, “The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation already brings life to all living beings on the earth, how much more will the manifestation of the Father by the Word bring life to those who see God.”
Thus, the College affirms and enriches the age-old tradition, inherited from Greco-Roman civilization, of studying the humanities through the masterworks of Classical and Christian civilization. It holds with equal conviction that the path to Wisdom is best found with the good companions of the Catholic intellectual tradition—the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, whose lives were dedicated to understanding and living according to the Word of God. In pursuing its mission, the College does not neglect the desires and insights of those from other cultures and other ages, which strive to answer the greatest questions of mankind’s existence. All men have been created to know the highest truths and discover happiness in their final end. The search, marked strongly by the desire for God and knowledge of metaphysical truth, is only sustained when men and women live according to both the classical and the theological virtues. Thus, the Board of Trustees is committed to supporting the moral as well as the intellectual life of the College community, and so, in the words of its patron, St. Thomas More, it seeks to establish, govern, and sustain a Catholic academic community in which “learning is joined with virtue.”
The College must be, therefore, a place to encounter the living God, who, in Jesus Christ, reveals his transforming love and truth.
For this reason, the College affirms that Catholic education is integral to the mission of the Church in Her proclamation of the Good News. The College must be, therefore, a place to encounter the living God, who, in Jesus Christ, reveals his transforming love and truth. This relationship should elicit in all members of the College community a desire to grow in knowledge and understanding of Christ and His teachings. Far from separating reason, the study of culture, or science from faith, this Catholic humanism allows faith to illuminate reason, enliven culture, and give meaning to all learning. Equally, it allows reason to give voice to humanity’s orientation towards the truth. Such a relationship between faith, reason, and culture demands a response in contemplation, prayer, charity, and action, and it necessitates that the College supports each of its members in his discernment of discovering God’s particular vocation and living it. In this way, those who meet the Truth are drawn by the very power of the Gospel to lead a new life characterized by all that is beautiful, good, and true; a life of Christian witness nurtured and strengthened within the community of our Lord’s disciples, the Church.
As a participant in the Catholic Church’s educational mission, Thomas More College binds itself to the magisterial teachings of the Church, communion with Her authentic hierarchy, and fidelity to Petrine authority.
Read a reflection on the Mission Statement by a TMC student.
