Lipa is the linden tree: the plant sacred to ancient Slavic peoples has become the tree of the resurrection in Christian symbolism. This tree is normally planted in front of homes so that people can then meet there to talk in the evening during the summer. Bringing this tradition to life today, LIPA seeks to provide fertile ground for the meeting of the separate heritages of eastern and western Christianity.

Today, while the world is driving itself to hammer out a global civilization, Europe has yet to create a synthesis that's either cultural or theological-spiritual that can overcome the huge break up of east and west and that will be able to open the way into the future. Europe still must create something that allows the west's demands to interact with the abundance of original and well-preserved answers in the east. Europe will be able to offer shining and unknown answers if these questions are asked without scorn - as if they were the product of an atheistic and immanent mentality. Rather, it must accompany these questions and nurture them in order for the foundations of faith to feel effective and alive and to live in today's world so as to face the questions of today and tomorrow.

Founded at the end of 1994, LIPA's objectives are to make itself be an instrument of a faith that expresses itself through a harmonious whole: a theology that's reconciled with life, with the most advanced ideas in cultural and scientific research, and with liturgy and spirituality. It aims for a culture and art that become rich in the incarnation and transfiguration of the cultures in Christ; something that's able to take on existential importance for people.

LIPA's editorial work stems from the work of the Aletti Center. The Aletti Center is a Jesuit center that is part of the Pontifical Oriental Institute which works for a synthesis of the east's and west's Christian heritage in relation to the problems of modern day. LIPA's closeness to the Aletti Center's mission allows the publishing house to help with the task of bridging the churches' separate experiences. It is also able to help make the west listen to the voices of Christianity in the east - voices which are often smothered, overburdened with suffering, holding hidden sacrifices and persecution. This way, brotherly collaboration between churches can then be achieved in order to fit the task for the future of faith for all of Europe.