Blaise Pascal (1632-1662) was a seventeenth century French academic and Christian. He is remembered today as a forerunner of Newton in the establishment of Calculus, and as the author of his Christian meditation, Les Pensées. Members of the University of Waterloo, wishing to establish a forum for the presentation of Christian issues in an academic environment, have chosen to commemorate the spirit of Pascal by an annual event, The Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University.

The Pascal Lectures bring to the University of Waterloo outstanding individuals of international repute who have distinguished themselves in both an area of scholarly endeavour and an area of Christian thought or life. These individuals discourse with the university community on some aspect of its own world, its theories, its research, its leadership role in society, challenging the university to a search for truth through personal faith and intellectual inquiry which focus on Jesus Christ.