Dear Friends and Partners,

Welcome to the new electronic version of The Explorer, the quarterly newsletter of The Veritas Forum! In response to the many requests from the Veritas community, we have revived The Explorer in this new format. Along with our campus forums, free media downloads, and line of Veritas Forum Books (the first of which is featured in this issue), this newsletter is aimed to inspire shapers of tomorrow's culture to connect their hardest questions with the person and story of Jesus Christ.

It is a joy to serve students and faculty as they make these connections and explore the vitality of an integrated life in Christ. During the 2005-2006 academic year, we were privileged to guide planning teams on 17 campuses across the country - including 5 new ones - in creating dialogues seeking to restore the heart, mind, and soul of the university to true life in Christ. (Sample one of these dialogues below.)

We eagerly anticipate the academic year ahead, and are grateful for the friends and partners across the country who journey alongside us. In our pursuits within and beyond the university this fall, may all our vision and action be centered on Him who is Veritas.

Join us as we Explore True Life.

Gratefully yours,

Dan Cho
Executive Director

Read a review by Chuck Colson

The following thoughts are taken from an interview with Kelly Monroe Kullberg about her new book, Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas. You can read the complete interview at Common Grounds Online. “The crisis of education and life in universities is widely known. Critiques are everywhere, but hope is rare. We feel much heat, but see little light. After witnessing about a quarter-million students explore their ideas and questions in Veritas Forums, it seemed time to tell that story.... I wanted to share a true story, both mine and Veritas’ story, that reveals hope. And to say that Harvard (and many universities) bears within itself the seed of its only hope, because its founding vision – Veritas (Truth) – is alive. Truth isn’t an intangible abstraction but rather a Person who is raised from the dead.... “What a contrast to our culture’s emptiness and confusion. Harvard’s original motto was “for Christ’s glory,” and this understanding of truth as a Person is the secret key to hope, freedom, and joy.” More... For a limited time, receive 50% off this book when you buy it through InterVarsity Press. Enter coupon code "VERITAS-1" at the checkout.

The following excerpt is part of a dialogue held at The Veritas Forum at Columbia University in February 2006 entitled, “People Suffer—Who Cares? A Secular Humanist and Christian Dialogue.” This portion is from Dr. Vinoth Ramachandra, a theologian from Sri Lanka.

The Christian answer to the question “Why care?” is simply “Because God cares.” I remember being amazed when reading the Bible for the first time as a student to discover a strange God, so different from the God that both atheists and religious people I knew talked about. I discovered a God who protests against innocent suffering, who condemns the religious sanctioning of such suffering, and whose deep pain over evil is expressed through the prophets and culminates in the crucifixion of Jesus. If the cross of Jesus tells us that God is found in the mess that we have made of the world, then God’s power can hardly be that of a distant monarch who shows his supremacy by avoiding pain; it can only be the power of a love that works through weakness. A God who has chosen to be vulnerable to suffering and death cuts away the ground from beneath an atheism of protest, because protest atheism envisages God as a cruel tyrant who manipulates people and moves them around like pieces on a chessboard. If God suffers then God too is to be numbered among the victims and not among the torturers and oppressors....

When we share in God’s own indignation against unjust suffering we turn from bitterness and self-pity to actions in the world that embody resurrection hope. Participating in God’s own protest makes our protest creative rather than cynical. We live in the tension between the Cross of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus. And they sum up the distinctiveness of the Christian vision—of a God who suffers with us and for us, and a God who brings hope for the world. And, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted from his prison cell, awaiting execution in 1945, “The difference between the Christian hope of resurrection and a mythological hope is that the Christian hope sends a man back to his life on earth in a wholly new way....”

You can watch or listen to the entire discussion by downloading it from our free media site.

Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges hosted their first Veritas Forum in 2006. Over the summer The Explorer chatted with three members of the planning team - Astrid (Bryn Mawr '06, English and French), Phil (Haverford '08, pre-med and mathematics), and their faculty advisor Dr. Sharon Bain (Bryn Mawr Russian Department). Here are some of their reflections:

Explorer: How is the good news of Veritas relevant to the needs on your campus?

Astrid: Like many liberal arts schools, the dominant opinion at Bryn Mawr is relativism. I think it's important for people to hear other perspectives-and students even like having open dialogue-but it seems like Christianity is a perspective that's often looked down upon, rejected, or ignored. As Christians, we believe our faith is relevant to everything in life, so something like Veritas can shed light on any need on campus.

Phil: Haverford is a very liberal place... and since a lot of people tend to associate Conservative America with Christianity, Jesus is not very popular. I've also realized that Haverford is a place where people are willing to listen to you only when you have a good intellectual reason to support your argument. The combination of a taste for intellectual stimulation with a need for the Gospel really makes Veritas relevant.

Explorer: Veritas Forums are aimed to explore true life. Where did you see true life spring up on your campus?

Astrid: One area was the willingness of several different Christian fellowships to work together from both BMC and HC. It was the first time all of the fellowships met together with such a specific common vision.

I also remember how exciting it was to see several people raise their hands during the Q & A session and share their own thoughts and questions. It was cool to hear people responding because it gave us an idea of what kinds of philosophies and beliefs students had-it was a good jumping off point for future conversations.

Explorer: Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the forum this year and beyond?

Dr. Bain: In the academic world Christians often are perceived as narrow-minded or anti-intellectual. It is our hope that Veritas discussions and forums at Bryn Mawr and Haverford will serve to debunk this myth and to engage our campuses with the gospel of Christ.