Terms of Service

Welcome to Theoria. These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and Telosbound Institute Inc., a corporation incorporated under the laws of British Columbia, Canada (“Telosbound,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of the Theoria website, applications, and related services (together, the “Service”).

Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, accessing the Service, or clicking to accept these Terms, you confirm that you have read and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree, please do not use Theoria.

1. About Theoria

Theoria is a reading and study environment for historic Christian texts. It offers tools for close reading, annotation, discussion, and assisted inquiry, with the aim of helping readers encounter the Christian intellectual tradition with care and seriousness.

We may add, change, or remove features from time to time. Some features are free, and others are available only with a paid plan (see “Subscriptions and Billing” below).

2. Eligibility and Accounts

Theoria is intended for users who are at least 16 years of age. By using the Service you represent that you meet this requirement. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use Theoria only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure, for all activity that occurs under your account, and for promptly notifying us at support@telosbound.org if you suspect unauthorized access. Account creation and authentication are handled through our identity provider, Clerk.

3. Subscriptions and Billing

Theoria offers a free tier (Explorer) and paid plans, including Scholar Monthly, Scholar Annual, and Lifetime Access. The current features and prices for each plan are described on our pricing page and may change from time to time. Material changes will not affect an existing billing period without notice.

Paid plans are processed by Stripe. By purchasing a plan you authorize us, through Stripe, to charge your chosen payment method for the applicable fees, taxes, and any recurring charges until you cancel. Recurring subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price unless you cancel before renewal.

You may cancel a recurring subscription at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period: you will continue to have access to paid features until that period ends, and you will not be charged again.

Refunds. Except where required by applicable law, all payments are final and non-refundable. This includes monthly and annual subscription fees and Lifetime Access purchases. You will not receive a refund or credit for partial billing periods, unused time, or features you did not use. If you believe you have been charged in error, please contact us at support@telosbound.org and we will review your request in good faith.

Lifetime Access. A Lifetime Access purchase grants you access to the features included in the Scholar plan as they exist from time to time, for the operational lifetime of the Service. “Lifetime” refers to the lifetime of Theoria as offered by Telosbound, not your own lifetime. We will make commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the Service, but we cannot guarantee it will be available indefinitely. If we discontinue the Service or materially reduce the Scholar feature set in a way that is not offset by equivalent or improved functionality, we will give reasonable notice and act in good faith toward Lifetime members.

Taxes. Prices may exclude applicable taxes. Where we are required to collect tax, we will display it at checkout or add it to your invoice.

4. Acceptable Use and Community Standards

Theoria exists to serve readers who want to engage the Christian tradition seriously. You do not need to share any particular faith commitment to use the Service, and disagreement and honest argument are welcome. What we ask is that you participate charitably.

You agree that you will not:

• harass, threaten, defame, or attempt to intimidate other users;
• post content that is unlawful, hateful, sexually explicit, gratuitously violent, or that incites harm against any person or group;
• impersonate another person, misrepresent your affiliation, or attempt to extract or publish another user’s personal information (“doxing”);
• use the Service to spam, advertise, solicit, or distribute malware;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, or our infrastructure, or interfere with the operation or security of the Service;
• scrape, mirror, or extract substantial portions of the Service or its content by automated means without our written permission;
• use the Service or its outputs to train machine-learning models without our written permission;
• circumvent any access control, plan limit, rate limit, or feature gate;
• use the Service to do anything illegal under the laws that apply to you.

We may, at our discretion, remove content, restrict features, or suspend or terminate accounts that violate these standards. We generally prefer to warn before we remove or restrict, but we are not required to.

5. Your Content

“Your Content” means any annotations, highlights, notes, discussions, replies, library requests, inquiry questions, and other material you submit through the Service.

You keep ownership. You retain all rights you have in Your Content. We do not claim ownership of it.

License to operate the Service. To run Theoria for you and other users, you grant Telosbound a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, display, adapt for technical purposes (such as formatting or backup), and otherwise use Your Content as needed to operate, improve, and provide the Service. This license lasts as long as Your Content is on the Service and for a reasonable period afterward to complete operational tasks such as backups and deletion.

Public discussions are public. When you post in a public discussion, your content is visible to anyone who can access the relevant page, including unauthenticated visitors and search engines. Public discussions may also be quoted or featured in promotional material about Theoria, with attribution to your display name. If you do not want your contribution shown publicly, keep it in a private discussion or note instead.

You are responsible for what you post. You represent that you have the rights necessary to grant the license above and that Your Content does not violate anyone else’s rights or any law.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Service, we may use them without obligation or compensation to you.

6. Theoria’s Content

The Service includes texts drawn from the historic Christian tradition. Many of these are in the public domain. Where we host material from third-party editions or translations, we do so under the rights granted to us. The selection, arrangement, formatting, metadata, software, design, and trademarks that make up the Service are owned by Telosbound or its licensors and are protected by copyright and other laws.

You may read, annotate, and quote reasonable portions of the texts for personal study, teaching, scholarship, and review. You may not republish the Service’s texts in bulk, mirror the library, or pass our editions off as your own.

Copyright concerns. If you believe content on Theoria infringes a copyright you hold, please write to legal@telosbound.com with: a description of the work, the URL where it appears on Theoria, your contact information, a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is unauthorized, and your signature (electronic is fine). We review every notice we receive and remove material when appropriate.

7. AI-Assisted Features

Theoria includes AI-assisted features such as the Inquiry tool, which allows you to ask questions and receive responses generated by a third-party large language model. When you use these features, your question and the relevant cited passages are sent to our AI provider for processing. Conversations are stored in our database so you can return to them.

Please treat AI output with care. Large language models can be confidently wrong. They may misattribute quotations, invent citations, summarize unfaithfully, or misrepresent doctrine and history. Theoria’s AI features are a study aid, not a theological authority and not a substitute for the texts themselves, for primary scholarship, or for the counsel of qualified pastors and teachers. Always verify important claims against the cited sources.

Telosbound is not responsible for decisions you make in reliance on AI-generated output.

8. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third parties for things like hosting, payments, authentication, error monitoring, and AI processing. The current list of sub-processors is described in our Privacy Policy. Your use of those services through Theoria is also subject to their own terms, and we are not responsible for them.

9. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using Theoria at any time. To delete your account or request deletion of your data, contact support@telosbound.org.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, if your account creates legal or security risk for us or other users, or if we are required to do so by law. If we terminate a paid account for cause, you will not be entitled to a refund of fees already paid. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will give reasonable notice where practicable.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including ownership, licenses you have granted us, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and the governing-law clause — will survive.

10. Disclaimers

Theoria is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, Telosbound disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. We do not warrant that the Service, any content on it, or any AI-generated output is accurate, complete, current, reliable, or suitable for any particular use, including theological, legal, medical, or financial decision-making.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you. In that case, such warranties are limited to the minimum scope and duration permitted by law.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Telosbound and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Service.

Our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid Telosbound in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred Canadian dollars (CA$100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation of liability for certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Telosbound and its directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with (i) Your Content, (ii) your use of the Service, (iii) your violation of these Terms, or (iv) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Effective” date at the top of this page. If the changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as posting a notice in the Service or sending an email. Your continued use of the Service after the updated Terms take effect means you accept them. If you do not agree, you should stop using the Service.

14. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable in that province, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You and Telosbound agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Vancouver, British Columbia for the resolution of any such dispute, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property or confidential information. Nothing in this section limits any rights you have as a consumer under the mandatory laws of your country or province of residence.

15. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Telosbound regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

16. Contact

Telosbound Institute Inc.
British Columbia, Canada
legal@telosbound.com