The Veritas Forum is a non-profit organization which works with Christian students on college campuses to host "forums" centered on the exploration of truth and its relevancy in human life, through the questions of philosophy, religion, science, and other disciplines. The organization, named after the Latin word for truth, aims to "create university events engaging students and faculty in exploring life's hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life." The first Veritas Forum was held at Harvard University in 1986. By 2008, 300,000 students had attended over 300 forums at 100 campuses across the United States, Canada, France, England, and the Netherlands. In the 2010–2011 academic year, Veritas Forums were held at over 50 institutions of higher education. Veritas Forums are available for viewing online, and the organization has published several books with InterVarsity Press.
To plan a Forum, Veritas partners with Christian student groups, who organize and host the Forum, typically co-sponsored by other student organizations and academic departments. Typical events include evening keynote addresses, workshops, debates, and discussions. Common topics include the existence of God; the relationship between science and religion; social justice work; questions of social ethics; feminism and women's issues; questions of meaning or purpose in human life, evil, or beauty; human sexuality and relationships; the existence of objective truth; religion and art; Christianity and popular culture; and the historical validity of the Bible.
The Veritas Forum has hosted several discussion events with prominent speakers representing secular or non-Christian points of view, including Peter Singer, Steven Pinker, Antony Flew, Christopher Hitchens, Shelly Kagan, Alan Lightman, and Jeffrey Sachs.
Recent discussion events include the following: the 2009 Veritas Forum at MIT with atheist philosopher Peter Singer, Christian philosophical theologian John E. Hare, and philosopher and religious scholar Eric Gregory; the 2010 Veritas Forum in the Sheldonian Theatre of the University of Oxford, with atheist and journalist Christopher Hitchens alongside Catholic philosopher and ethicist John Joseph Haldane; and the 2010 Veritas Forum at UCLA with Christian mathematician and apologist John Lennox being interviewed by UCLA Law Professor Daniel Lowenstein.
The first forum took place at Harvard University in 1986, and was organized as an academic conference in Christian apologetics. Peter Gomes, Harvard's campus minister, participated in the forum in 1986. The Forum's name derives from Harvard's motto, Veritas, meaning Truth. Harvard's motto reflects the school's Christian heritage: although it is popularly trimmed to the one word Veritas, it officially reads "Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae," or Truth for Christ and the Church. With this name, Veritas seeks to remind the university community of the centrality of Christ to its founding. At the first Veritas Forum writers of the book Finding God at Harvard gathered to share their own questions, sufferings, journeys, and discoveries with the Harvard community.
After its first forum at Harvard, Veritas Forums spread to the University of Michigan, Ohio State, the University of Virginia, Yale and eventually across the country to Berkeley, Stanford, UC Davis, and UCLA.
France had its first Veritas Forum in 2006; England and the Netherlands in 2007; Macedonia in 2010. In the academic year 2010-2011, Forums were held at over forty American institutions of higher education. To date, over 400 speakers have presented at a Veritas event, representing a variety of disciplines and worldviews.
Denis Alexander - Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St Edmund's College, CambridgeJustin L. Barrett - psychologist and member of the Thrive Center for Human DevelopmentJeremy Begbie - scholar of Christianity and the arts at Duke Divinity SchoolCraig Blomberg - American New Testament scholar at Denver SeminaryMia Chung - award-winning pianist and professor of Interpretive Analysis at Curtis Institute of MusicFrancis Collins - American physicist-geneticist, former head of the Human Genome ProjectCaroline Cox - member of the British House of Lords and CEO of the Humanitarian Aid Relief TrustWilliam Lane Craig - American apologist, theologian, analytic philosopher and professor at Talbot School of TheologyMarla Frederick - professor of African-American Studies and the Study of Religion at Harvard UniversityRobert P. George - professor of jurisprudence at Princeton UniversityOwen Gingerich - professor of astronomy and the history of science at Harvard UniversityOs Guinness - noted author and apologistGary Habermas - American philosopher of religionWilliam Hurlbut - physician and consulting professor in the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford UniversityTimothy Keller - Christian pastor in New York City and author of "Reason for God"Peter Kreeft - professor of philosophy at Boston CollegeMadeleine L'Engle - American author and winner of the Newbury Medal for "A Wrinkle in Time"John Lennox - Irish apologist, mathematician and philosopher of scienceArd Louis - reader of theoretical physics at Oxford UniversityPaul L. Maier - American historian and writerGeorge Marsden - historian and professor at The University of Notre DameFrederica Mathewes-Green - Eastern Orthodox author and speaker on religionAlister McGrath - Anglican priest, theologian, professor at King's College LondonKenneth R. Miller - American professor of biology and author of "Finding Darwin's God"J.P. Moreland - American philosopher, theologian, and apologistRichard John Neuhaus - prominent Christian cleric, founder and editor of "First Things"Rosalind Picard - professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media LabAlvin Plantinga - American analytic philosopher and former professor at the University of Notre DameJohn Polkinghorne - English theoretical physicist, Anglican priest, and professor at Cambridge UniversityMary Poplin - professor of education at Claremont Graduate UniversityNabeel Qureshi - Christian apologist, speaker and former MuslimVinoth Ramachandra - Sri Lankan Christian theologian and Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement for the International Fellowship of Evangelical StudentsFritz Schaefer - computational and theoretical chemist, professor at the University of GeorgiaJohn Stott - English Christian leader and Anglican cleric, principal author of the Lausanne CovenantS. Joshua Swamidass -American scientist in computational biology, professor at Washington University in St. LouisPeter Thiel - American investor and venture capitalistVince Vitale - British philosopher, theologian and speaker at Ravi Zacharias International MinistriesTroy Van Voorhis - MIT chemistry professorMiroslav Volf - Croatian professor of Christian theology at Yale UniversityJohn H. Walton, theologian and Old Testament scholar at Wheaton CollegeDallas Willard - American philosopher, formerly a professor at the University of Southern CaliforniaPeter J. Williams - British bible scholar and lecturerLauren Winner - author and lecturer, professor at Duke Divinity SchoolJennifer Wiseman - American astronomer at NASA Goddard Space Flight CenterNicholas Wolterstorff - philosopher at Yale UniversityN.T. Wright - noted scholar and professor at the University of St. AndrewsRavi Zacharias - public intellectual and Christian apologistColin Adams - mathematician, author, and professor at Williams CollegeDan Barker - prominent American atheist and former Christian preacherAkeel Bilgrami - Indian-born philosopher of language and mindSean M. Carroll - American physicist and theoretical cosmologistVeena Das - professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins UniversityDavid Eisenbach - historian and professor at Columbia UniversityAntony Flew - British philosopher of religion and former atheistMarcelo Gleiser - Brazilian physicist at Dartmouth College, astronomer, and author of "A Tear at the Edge of Creation"Garrett Hardin - renowned American ecologist, coiner of the phrase "tragedy of the commons," and long-time professor at UCSBDavid Helfand - chair of the Astronomy department at Columbia UniversityChristopher Hitchens - British author, journalist, and noted communicator of atheismShelly Kagan - professor of philosophy at Yale UniversityNicholas D. Kristof - American journalist and winner of two Pulitzer prizesAlan Lightman - MIT professor and author of the bestselling Einstein's DreamsGerd Lüdemann - German critical New Testament scholar and atheistSteven Pinker - Harvard University professor of psychology and leading atheistJeffrey Sachs - American economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia UniversityScott Sehon - professor of philosophy at Bowdoin CollegePeter Singer - Australian philosopher, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, and preference utilitarianVeritas Forum recordings are freely available on the Veritas website.
Veritas Forum Books seek to provide "academically engaging, culturally relevant and distinctively Christian points of view" to the public. Current titles include the following:
A Place for Truth edited by Dallas Willard, published in the fall of 2010Finding God at Harvard edited by Veritas founder Kelly Monroe KullbergFinding God Beyond Harvard edited by Veritas founder Kelly Monroe KullbergThe Dawkins Delusion by Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrathFinding Calcutta by Mary PoplinDid the Resurrection Happen? featuring a discussion between Gary Habermas and Antony Flew
