Our Work
What We Do
As an Institute we work towards…
Inheriting
We embrace our inherited Protestant tradition through research, writing, and lectures that demonstrate the intellectual and lived vibrancy of the biblical worldview.
Informing
We equip the church to grasp the relevance and comprehensiveness of the gospel through events, conferences, translation work, and the publication of print and web resources.
Inspiring
We encourage God’s people to explore the depths of God’s Word and its rich applications for the reformation and renewal of church and culture.
Our Drive
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century emerged from a recovery of the goodness, beauty, and liberty of the gospel as the church sought to reform itself in conformity with God’s Word. The gospel is the good news of God’s restorative work in creation through His Son, Jesus Christ—beginning with the renewal of the human heart and overflowing into every cultural and creational sphere. This comprehensive gospel profoundly shaped the development of Western society, as the Protestant Reformers laboured to apply God’s Word to all of life. In recent times, however, this biblical gospel has too often been reduced from a full-orbed worldview to a privatized spirituality, confining God’s redemptive power to the inner life of the individual and little more.
In the case of Ibero-America, the region never experienced the fully blossomed Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. The early sparks of reform were censored, martyred, or driven into exile from Spanish territories, while Roman Catholicism was enforced as the sole permissible religion. As a result, Rome’s false gospel—principally a works-plus-grace system—took deep root, and the culture was never shaped by the fruits of a distinctly Christian worldview grounded in the exposition and application of the biblical gospel. Shaped by the scholastic dualism of Roman Catholicism, which separates reality into the sacred (grace) and the supposedly neutral (nature), and teaches that grace perfects nature, the Ibero-American world has been especially vulnerable to religious syncretism—including much of its Protestant church today.
For both Western and Ibero-American churches, the mission of advancing the kingdom of God has been hindered by a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel. In the West, the gospel has been narrowed in its scope and nature; in Ibero-America, it has often been polluted by religious syncretism. As long as these errors remain, neither Western nor Ibero-American peoples—or their cultures—will experience the renewal and transformation that the true gospel brings when it is faithfully proclaimed and rightly applied.
In response to this reality, the Cántaro Institute seeks to strengthen the church’s ongoing reform according to the Word of God. We aim to educate the church at every level—teaching the basics of the gospel as it renews the individual, and unfolding the cosmic scope of the gospel as it speaks to society and creation—while drawing deeply from our rich Protestant heritage. At the root of the Reformational movement, which recovered the truths of Scripture, stands the principle of Sola Scriptura. The Cántaro Institute seeks to carry this principle forward alongside the other four Solas—Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria.
Behind the Name
What does the term Cántaro mean? In Spanish, a cántaro is a large earthen vessel. It was handcrafted to bear and dispense life-giving water. The image of a cántaro carries connotations of receptivity to what is poured in, responsibility for what is carried, and fidelity in the act of pouring out. It serves as an emblem of stewardship rather than self-display, a symbol of something shaped for usefulness in the service of a greater good.
Historically, the cántaro gained particular resonance in the sixteenth century, when a protestant reformer, Cipriano de Valera, placed it on the cover of his revised Bible translation. In that context, the vessel signified Scripture as the fountain of living water entrusted to the church. It suggested that the Word, like water, refreshes, purifies, and sustains the people of God.
Our Institute intentionally draws upon this heritage. We aspire to be a vessel formed by the Word, filled with the truth of Christ, and faithfully poured out for the renewal of the church and culture. The cántaro thus becomes more than a historic ornament; it is a guiding metaphor for our mission, our posture, and our work.