Lilly Endowment Inc. and Its Religion Division

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family—J. K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons J. K., Jr. and Eli—through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. In keeping with the wishes of the three founders, the Lilly Endowment exists to support the causes of education, community development, and religion.

The goals of the Lilly Endowment's Religion division are:

• to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians, primarily by helping to strengthen their churches;

• to support the recruitment and education of a new generation of talented ministers and other religious leaders;

• to encourage theological reflection and religious practices that recover the wisdom of the Christian tradition for our contemporary situation;

• to support scholars and educators who seek to help the American people to better understand contemporary religion and the role it plays in our public and personal lives; and

• to strengthen the contributions that religious ideas, practices, values and institutions make to the common good of our society.

In all these ways, the Lilly Endowment Inc. seeks to support people and organizations striving to generate knowledge, communicate insights, nurture practices, and renew and sustain institutions that provide the religious resources upon which a flourishing and humane society depends.

In addition to the Congregational Resource Guide and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, Lilly Endowment Inc. helps to support a number of organizations, projects, and Web sites that users of the Congregational Resource Guide may find interesting:

American Religion Data Archive
http://www.thearda.com/arda.asp?Show=Home

Association of Theological Schools
www.ats.edu

Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
www.calvin.edu/worship

Faith Communities Today
www.fact.hartsem.edu

Fund for Theological Education
www.thefund.org

Hartford Institute for Religion Research
www.hartfordinstitute.org

Louisville Institute
www.louisville-institute.org

Material History of American Religion Project
www.materialreligion.org

The Polis Center
http://www.polis.iupui.edu/polis/home.htm

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
www.thirteen.org/religionandethics

Religious Practices of American Youth: A Collection of Research Resources
http://www.youthandreligion.org/

Resourcing Christianity
www.resourcingchristianity.org

Transforming Christian Leaders
www.christianleaders.org

Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith
www.practicingourfaith.org

Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology
www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu