Why?
What is Kategoria?
Kategoria 2026 is a gathering of the LMI network, held at the LMI Homestead at Murrumbateman, running from Thursday evening to Saturday evening. It serves three audiences at once, and holding all three in view is part of the design:
- An Alumni showcase. A homecoming and a platform — our Alumni bring their work, research, and thinking to the wider network.
- A faculty and adjunct fellowship. A rare chance for the people who teach across LMI’s programs, but seldom meet one another, to gather and collaborate.
- An open invitation. People curious about LMI can come, encounter the community, and take the measure of its ethos and intellectual seriousness.
Born from the mission of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, Kategoria brings together leaders from diverse fields to think deeply about Christian leadership and cultural engagement. We are convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only the hope of individual hearts, but the foundation for human flourishing in communities and societies.
At Kategoria, we soak in Scripture, sharpen each other through fellowship and discussion, and explore how to say and show the gospel in every sphere of life.
Kategoria is unique in the combination of themes and people it draws together. We proceed from the conviction that the gospel of Jesus is what our society needs. We are also convinced that when the gospel is heard and takes root in human lives it leads to change in individual lives, communities and societies. A well-equipped Christian leader has a social vision as well as an evangelistic calling. Kategoria takes both dimensions of Christian cultural engagement and leadership seriously.
Where does the name ‘Kategoria’ come from?
Kategoria (κατηγορία) comes from the world of the Athenian agora, the public assembly where citizens gathered to deliberate. In legal practice the kategoros brought the kategoria — the case for the prosecution — and the defendant answered with the apologia, the defence. The Christian tradition has been shaped overwhelmingly by apologia: we are practised at defending the faith. Kategoria asks the next question. What would it mean for Christians to step forward not only to defend, but to prosecute a positive case — to assert what is true about human flourishing, and to make the argument for how we might live well together?
Aristotle gives the word a second life. His kategoriai are the categories — the fundamental things that can be truly predicated of reality. So a Christian practising kategoria is doing two things at once: prosecuting a case, and predicating truth about human nature and the common good. The conference name, the public work it calls people to, and the papers presented on the weekend are therefore one and the same act. Each paper is itself an act of kategoria — an argument brought before the assembly.
Each year we put a single question to our network, in two keys — what have you found, in your field, that the public square needs to hear? The papers presented over the weekend are the answers.
