The 1996-97 Harvard Veritas Forum, a weekend-long conference exploring the role of God at Harvard, opened last night to a rapt audience in Sanders Theatre.

Approximately 800 members of the Harvard and greater Boston communities listened to speeches and discussions on what it means to fear God at Harvard, whether faith and science conflict and the how the Bible resolves race and gender divisions.

Last night's session will be followed by a dozen workshops today. The workshops are free and schedule and location information is available all day at Phillips Brooks House. Participants will visit local churches tomorrow.

About 25 other universities have held their own Veritas Forums since the first one at Harvard in 1989. More than 30,000 students have been involved nationwide.

The featured event of the evening was an open forum with some of the authors of "Finding God at Harvard," a compilation of conversion and religious experience stories.

The authors of the book shared parts of their stories of conversion or the struggle of maintaining their faith at Harvard, addressing Christian truth from a number of disciplines, including science, philosophy and public policy.

The panelists then fielded questions from the floor for about an hour.

Habib C. Malik '85, one of the panelists, drew applause with his response to the question of what it means to fear God at Harvard.

"We should fear God more than fearing Harvard, and also distinguish between the two," Malik said.

Jeffrey Barneson, another panelist, said that fearing God at Harvard means "questioning the standards of success that Harvard puts before us."

When challenged to locate answers for race and gender divisions, panelist Betsy Dawn Inskeep Smylie '75 said that "Jesus breaks down walls between races and gender."

"I have found in Jesus great affirmation of myself as a woman," Smylie said.

The final question for the panelists, "How should we...live," came from Kelly K. Monroe, an officer of the Harvard United Ministry who edited "Finding God at Harvard" and is the forum's coordinator.

Malik's response was that Harvard Christians must continue to seek religious truth. He suggested that they could compile a new book, "Keeping God at Harvard."

According to Monroe, the purpose of the forum is to "raise and explore...the possibility of truth in relation to Jesus Christ as originally understood by the founders."

"It's a bit like a symphony with different voices from which the same theme emerges," Monroe said.

The evening also featured the first inaugural Foster Lecture, which was delivered by William Edgar '66.

"God will stop at nothing to draw us to Himself," Edgar said in the lecture, titled "The Great Reversal." "He wants your friendship with him."

Brian Foster read a selection written by his brother Brent J. Foster '97, a Leverett House resident who died of cancer last year. The speech detailed Brent Foster's turn to God during his illness.

In a striking change of mood, actor Tom Key presented selections from C.S. Lewis and the Revelation of John in a moving performance.

The evening had a communal ending as the crowd and panelists joined to sing Amazing Grace and students congregated on the stage to continue conversations with the authors.

Student response was positive.

Dan B. Jan '97, a member of Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Fellowship, said he attended in order to "explore some of these questions, find some answers, and come out with deeper questions pertaining to Christianity."

"I was moved by the conviction of the panel," he said. "They depict Christianity very accurately."

Kennedy School Student Sue Hahn, a member of the Kennedy School Christian Fellowship, said she was also moved by the different stories of the panelists.

"I'm here to explore the whole question of what truth is," she said. "[People] have the opportunity to ask their hearts questions...That doesn't happen much."

Abigail R. Montgomery came with a group of Wellesley College students.

"I didn't know what to expect from the Forum...but I really liked the question and answers. It pertained to things I was studying," she said