Cambridge University (U.K.)
February 29, March 1 and 4
What Is Veritas?
The Veritas Forum at the University of Cambridge seeks to explore the possibility of truth, beauty and goodness in every aspect of our academic and personal lives. The forum is an opportunity for the entire university community to explore and discuss life's hardest questions together. By asking the pressing questions on campus and answering them with respected university voices, we hope to engage the entire university in fruitful discussion. The topic of the first Veritas Forum at Cambridge is "Faith in the Public Sphere." In the UK in general, and in Cambridge in particular, there has been much discussion about religion in the public sphere. While some have argued that one’s religious convictions should have no bearing on decisions that one makes as a ‘public person’, it seems inevitable that one’s most deeply-held convictions will influence the way one performs one’s job and the political positions one adopts. The pressing question of the day is not whether personal faith should influence decisions that one makes in the public sphere, but how and in what ways.
To explore these questions we will be holding a series of seminars in Lent Term 2008. The speakers at this event, as well as its organizers, are committed to the Christian faith and world-view, and will explore this difficult issue from a Christian perspective. However, we believe that everyone benefits when people from many different viewpoints respectfully consider life’s most challenging and important questions together. Thus, we invite members of all Christian denominations, adherents to other faiths, and those of no faith at all, to come and join in the dialogue. In wrestling with these difficult questions, you will not only put the Christian world-view to the test, but your own convictions as well.
The forum is sponsored by a collection of campus and community groups and created by a group of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and local community members.