The forum is a five-year pilot program made possible by a gracious gift from William L. Heard, Jr. and his wife, Carolyn.  This program provides a forum for an evangelical scholar and a non-evangelical scholar to come together for dialogue on a particular issue of religious or cultural significance.  The forum is not exactly a debate, although by design the speakers necessarily differ in their opinions.  Instead, the intention is to provide a model for civil discourse on important topics and an environment in which to discuss differences--without abandoning one's convictions--and to make a case for one perspective over against another.   

This year's forum, scheduled for April 4-5, 2008, will feature Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Daniel Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary as they discuss the textual reliability of the New Testament.

Previous forums have included John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright, The Resurrection: Historical Event or Theological Explanation? (2005); William Dembski and Michael Ruse, Debating Design (2006); and Daniel Dennett and Alister McGrath, The Future of Atheism (2007).  Audio CDs and MP3 downloads are available for purchase on our online store. The contents of the first conference are also available in The Resurrection of Jesus: John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright in Dialogue, edited by Robert B. Stewart (Fortress Press, 2006) from major booksellers everywhere.  A  book based on the second conference, Intelligent Design (edited by Robert B. Stewart), is also available from Fortress Press (2007).