Past Keynote Presenters & Veritas Forum Speakers:
2024 Heather Holleman (Creative Writing/Penn State) Addressing the Epidemic of Loneliness (Feb. 15)
2023 Phil Gehrman (Psychology) and Justin McDaniel (Religious Studies)—Penn faculty discussants, on How to Rest (Veritas Forum, Nov. 13)
2022 Andy Crouch, author of The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World (April 21)
2020 Jeffrey S. Morris (Director, Biostatistics Division; Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Informatics/PSOM)
COVID-19: A Biostatistician Looks Back to Project Forward (Sept. 17)
2019 Max McLean (Fellowship for Performing Arts, NY); C.S. Lewis: The Most Reluctant Convert (Veritas Forum, one-man drama; Nov. 6, Annenberg Center)
2018 Rosalind Picard (Affective Computing/MIT) and Michael Platt (Psychology/ Penn); What Is Humanity? The Nature, Future, and Ultimate Meaning of Human Life (Veritas Forum, March 22)
2016 Dick Keyes, Director, L’Abri of Massachusetts; Seeing Through Cynicism (Oct. 20)
Andy Crouch, Executive Editor, Christianity Today; Racism and Human Trafficking: Systemic Injustice and the Image of God (Feb. 10)
2015 Francis Su (Mathematics/Harvey Mudd College) and Stewart Friedman (Organizational Psychology/Wharton), The Enigma of Academic Success (Veritas Forum, Nov. 13)
2014 Drew Trotter, Charlottesville, VA; The Oscars and America: What the 2014 Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us
About Ourselves (Faculty Luncheon, Oscars week)
David Skeel (Penn Law) and Rogers Smith (Political Science/Penn) Is Justice Possible? (Veritas Forum, Oct. 22)
2013 “Same Data, Different Conclusions”—a Penn Christian faculty response to Richard Dawkins, with Panelists Peter Dodson (Paleontology), Jim Kirkpatrick (Medical Ethics), David Skeel (Law), Ray Townsend (Renal Medicine) (held two days after Richard Dawkins’ Penn lecture)
2012 John Lennox (Mathematics/Oxford University) Is Anything Worth Believing? (Veritas Forum/Irvine Auditorium and preceding faculty seminar)
2011 Michael Oh, President, Christ Bible Seminary; Nagoya, Japan; Christ and Culture
2010 Anthony Lawton, The Mirror Theatre Company; The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (Veritas Forum, one-man drama)
2009 Lucas Morel (Politics, Washington & Lee University) Lincoln: Pragmatic Politician or Inspired Prophet? (Black History Month)
2007 Miroslav Volf, Director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture; Healing the Memory of Evil (Veritas Forum Keynote)
2006 Andy Crouch, Senior Editor, Christianity Today; Christians and Cultural Power: Where is America Headed?
2005 Drew Trotter, Center for Christian Study; Charlottesville, VA (Veritas Forum Faculty Luncheon)
Meaning and the Movies: What the 2005 Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves
2004 Ed Welch, Christian Counseling & Education Foundation; Glenside, PA;
When People are Big and God is Small
2003 John Patrick, M.D., Augustine College/Ottawa, Ontario (Veritas Medical Ethics seminars)
— Ethical Decisions in a Society Without Consensus
— Manipulating Human Society Through Molecular Biology
2002 Tom Key (Theater/Emory University) Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta;
C.S. Lewis On Stage (Veritas Forum one-man drama)
2001 Matthew Conolly, M.D., Anesthesiology/UCLA Medical Center (Veritas Medical Ethics)
— The Medical Alternative to Assisted Suicide
— Euthanasia, Pain and Suffering: A Physician Speaks From Experience
2000 John Patrick, M.D., University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine (Veritas Medical Ethics)
— The Myth of Moral Neutrality
— What Hippocrates Knew and We Have Forgotten (Dulles Auditorium, PSOM)
William Edgar (Apologetics/Westminster Theological Seminary)
— Heaven in a Night Club: The Spiritual Roots of Jazz (Black History Month concert)
1999 William Edgar (Apologetics/Westminster Theological Seminary)
The Great Reversal: The Power of the Powerless (10th anniversary/fall of the Berlin Wall)
1998 Michael Behe (Biochemistry/Lehigh University) Darwin’s Black Box
1997 David Aikman, Senior Foreign Correspondent/TIME Magazine; (Fellow/The Trinity Forum)
— Injustice, Human Rights and Hope (faculty and grad student luncheon)
— China and the World: Do Human Rights Matter? (seminar, with International Studies)
1996 Hugh Ross (Astrophysicist) Author, president of Reasons To Believe/Pasadena
Beyond the Cosmos: God’s Extra-dimensional Metaphysics
1995 Phillip Johnson (Law/University of California, Berkeley)
Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Scientific Naturalism
1994 Paul Vitz (Psychology/New York University)
The Psychology of Atheism: The Psychological Reasons for Rejecting God
1993 Henry F. Schaefer, III (Computational Quantum Chemistry/University of Georgia)
Stephen Hawking, the Big Bang, and God
1992 Udo Middelmann, Philosophy; Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation/Gryon, Switzerland
Culture, Christianity, Education and Reality
1991 Otto Helweg (Dean, Architecture & Engineering/North Dakota State University)
— Are Science and Theism Incompatible?
Phillip Johnson (Law/University of California, Berkeley) — Darwin on Trial
1990 Alvin Plantinga (Philosophy/University of Notre Dame) Christianity, Atheism, and the University
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