Dear Friends,

As I sat listening to Bishop N.T. Wright last October in a room literally overflowing with Georgetown students and faculty (many sat on the floor and in the hallway!), I could not help but realize that God was on the move. Faced with the distressing decision of the Georgetown administration to deny official status for outside Protestant ministries, students pulled together, secured the sponsorship of the Department of Theology, and hosted the first Veritas Conversation at Georgetown. Read below to get a taste of what took place that night.

Amidst a myriad of growing pressures on campuses across the country and the increasing pervasiveness of "secular fundamentalism" as championed by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et. al., we are more than ever aware of the importance of seeding and nurturing Veritas Forums as opportunities for students to ask their most important and difficult questions and connect them with the person and story of Jesus Christ. Over the next three months alone, Veritas events on some 18 campuses will address critical questions and concerns such as: Does it matter what I believe? Is there hope for reconciliation and healing? What's the big deal about pornography? Is God a virus of the mind? Can robots become human? Click on the calendar to the left for a full list of events.

The Veritas Forum strives to present hope and a response to the emptiness and confusion. In the articles below, we share an interview with a key Veritas planner in New York City and announce a new edition of Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians. These are just a few of the many who are finding knowledge, truth, significance, and beauty in Jesus Christ.

Looking ahead to this season of forums, we are grateful for the kindred spirits who share our vision. And most of all we are thankful for Him who gives us hope.

Join us as we explore True Life.

Gratefully yours,

Dan Cho
Executive Director

Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright is a theologian and biblical scholar from Durham, England who has spoken at several Veritas Forums. His presentation at Georgetown University in October 2006 entitled, "Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense," was based on his recently published book of the same name. Described as a "Mere Christianity for the 21st century," Wright's book and this excerpt of the lecture address the question, "What is Christianity all about?"

"Christianity is all about the belief that the living God in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel has done what we needed: finding us, saving us, giving us new life in Jesus. With Jesus a great door has swung open in the cosmos which can never again be shut. It's the door to the prison where we have been chained up. We are offered freedom, freedom to experience God's rescue for ourselves to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access. And to discover through following Jesus that this new world is indeed a place of justice and spirituality and relationships and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to bring it gloriously to birth on earth as in heaven...

The resurrection is the launching of God's new creation. And in fact the resurrection of Jesus is not so much a very, very odd event within the old world; it is the prototypical and launch pad event within God's new world. Believing in the resurrection—from the New Testament's point of view—is believing that. It's about the new thing God is doing in which God will not rest until, as the prophets foretold, the earth—not just heaven, but the earth—shall be full of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's the promise. And we who live between Easter and the fulfillment of that promise are not to be passive spectators. We are not merely to be beneficiaries of God's new world (though please God we will be that) but we are to be agents of it—and that's what gives genuine, biblical Christianity its central dynamic...."

Student Question: Isn't loving people for the sake of loving them enough? Why do you have to believe in Jesus?

Bishop Wright: From one point of view, emphatically yes, that it is enough. If you see somebody in need, and you think, "This person needs helping" then just go for it. The problem is that it isn't enough in the sense of a lot of people have been trying to do that for a long time and the world actually gets worse and not better...Somehow evil seems to be more deep rooted in the human condition than simply saying, "Go and do good to people" will address. We can say that; we must say it. And if people don't want anything to do with Jesus I'll say, "Please still feed the poor and care for the planet." But at the same time I really do believe that in Jesus the living God has dealt with evil at its root and if you want to work for the serious doing good in the world you are building on a much more secure foundation, indeed the only ultimately secure foundation...I do believe and have argued that this story makes more sense of that entire project than anything else.

Student Question: This may seem all convincing under this roof, but once we step out that door it may not seem quite so convincing. What advice do you have?

Bishop Wright: We all face that day by day by day. Even bishops face that question sometimes, sometimes more often than you think. Again and again the usual, fairly obvious and maybe even boring advice applies. There is this thing called the Bible and if you open it and read it regularly you will find that that narrative is enormously sustaining and regenerating, whereas if you regularly don't open it and read it you will be imbibing all sorts of other stories that will blow you off course. And there is this thing called prayer...and there are these things called the sacraments...and there are these creatures called fellow Christians...

But in particular don't take things for granted: when you see advertisements, when you read magazines, when you watch the television, when you imbibe the culture all around you, develop as critical a faculty as you can. Not critical in the negative or carping sense, but critical to be able to say, "Where is this coming from? What's the subtext? Where are we going with this? What is good and wonderful and lovely in this that I can praise? And what is there in this do I need to say, "I need at least to think about this and critique it and perhaps reject it?'" Develop those faculties as a Christian and develop them in company with other Christians. And that I guess is the reason we have universities built on Christian foundations.

Click here to listen to the full-length talk and entire Q&A session.

Kevin Oro-Hahn is the InterVarsity Regional Director for New York City, and was instrumental in starting the Veritas Forum at Columbia and NYU. The Explorer asked Kevin to reflect on the presence of Veritas on New s campuses, its impact on individual lives, and how he sees Veritas in the work of the kingdom.

Explorer: Can you describe the climate on campuses in the New York City area in the years before you began hosting Veritas Forums?

Kevin: Four years ago, I convened a roundtable discussion on campus ministry in New York City. There was a tangible dissatisfaction in the room. Despite some really amazing stories of God at work in the lives of individual students, the general flow on campus was going in the wrong direction. Christian groups were too small and too peripheral to the life of the campus, the Christian community was too fragmented, and the effort put into outreach was often higher than the results.

Explorer: What effect did you find this was this having on campus?

Kevin: The vast majority of students are asking spiritual questions and expect the university to provide guidance in seeking answers, and yet very few faculty believe that this guidance is an appropriate role for them. Such findings guided our prayers.

Explorer: How did you catch the Veritas vision?

Kevin: As we prayed and did research, we looked at different models of campus engagement. I was personally quite taken with the example of Kelly Monroe. For several of us, reading through Finding God at Harvard was a revelation. We got the sense that Veritas provided a missing tool for us, a lever of sorts to take our hopes and efforts and turn them into something significant.

Explorer: What challenges did you face in starting Veritas in New York City?

Kevin: One challenge that was overcome quickly was getting organizations to work together. It would have been tragic for Veritas to have been taken up by one organization, without buy in from others. We found just a great desire for partnership. Our core leadership team of five students at Columbia represented five different campus fellowships. We found churches, foundations, business people, etc. who all partnered in significant ways.

Explorer: What impact have you seen Veritas make so far?

Kevin: In just two years, Veritas has become a trusted brand name on campus, with a reputation as a leader in honestly addressing the most significant questions students are asking. We are consistently attracting student leaders of the highest caliber, and have some of the best marketing and logistics processes at Columbia. After the November event this year, with Alister McGrath and s Chair of Astronomy David Helfand, a journalist told me he thought the caliber of conversation was the highest he had observed, certainly trumping the Time Magazine cover on the same subject released that same week.

Explorer: Looking ahead, where do you see Veritas going? What are your hopes for Veritas in New York City?

We would like to increase the frequency of events, allowing response to hot topics. We envision a "quick response team", able to pull together quality content in a short time frame, allowing Veritas to be at the forefront of framing discussion on campus. The core hope remains the same as it was from our initial prayer meetings. Students come into university asking big, significant, spiritual questions. We want to help the university become a place which encourages and equips them for the journey.

A new edition of Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians is now available at InterVarsity Press and will soon be available at other on-line and local vendors.

A Boston Globe bestseller and winner of the ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award, Finding God at Harvard presents the compelling testimonies of forty-two faculty members, former students, and distinguished orators at Harvard. Their candid reflections explode the myth that Christian faith cannot survive a rigorous intellectual atmosphere. Contributors include Robert Coles, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Armand Nicholi, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lamin Sanneh, Elizabeth Dole, Owen Gingerich and Mother Theresa. More...

We are grateful for the many of you who have purchased and shared copies of Finding God Beyond Harvard. For a limited time, receive 50% off this book when you buy it through InterVarsity Press. Enter coupon code "VERITAS-9" at the checkout.