The Capps Center was established in January, 2002 to honor and further the legacy of Walter H. Capps. The first public event —an Inaugural Lecture— occurred on October 6 of that year.

From 1963 to 1996, Walter Capps was a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1996, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served from January, 1997 until his untimely death in October of that year. Throughout his career he sought to bring the academy and the community together through discussion of important issues facing the nation and the world. He was committed to the inclusion of all voices and believed that public dialogue was vital to an informed and engaged citizenry.

Following his example, the Capps Center seeks to advance discussion of issues related to ethics, values and public life and to encourage non-partisan, non-sectarian civic participation. Because of the Center's location on the West Coast, issues arising out of, or influenced by this highly globalized region receive special attention, among them: the challenges of pluralism; the transnational movement of peoples, cultures, and belief systems; war, violence, and the possibilities of peace; environmental ethics; indigenous populations, religion and politics; moral and ethical debates, civic engagement, and the role of religious influences generally in society. Given this broad focus on ethics, religion, and public life, the Center's agenda is flexible enough to address many of the most compelling issues of our time.

The guiding principles that inform all activities of the Center are two-fold. First is the conviction that attention to the diversity of beliefs, values, and ethics is crucial to a civil society and the envisioning of our human future. Second is the commitment to bridging the worlds of the university and the community, and to this end the Center forges links, and sponsors programming with other institutions in the Central Coast area such as La Casa de Maria Retreat and Conference Center and with state agencies in Sacramento and the University of California, Washington Center in the nation's capital.

The Capps Center is independent from, but works cooperatively with the Walter H. Capps Foundation to further the legacy of Walter Capps through conferences, community programming, curricula, student internships and fellowships, and other activities that advance a vigorous dialogue about religion, public policy, and public affairs.