Core

Approaches to Defending the Faith

Core

Apologetics is often viewed as a matter of mere arguments. This course, whilst surveying the major schools of apologetics, will reframe apologetic encounters as occurring between whole persons, with many persuasive tools coalescing to persuade one’s interlocutor. Students will learn how to cultivate tools and habits of soul in order to be more effective Christian witnesses.

Taught by Dr. Joseph Minich.

Runs 9/27-12/10/21.

Description

ThisĀ Core course will be taught by Dr. Joseph Minich, and will run from September 27 through December 10. The syllabus can be viewed here.

There are as many arguments for the Christian faith as there are Christians to believe them. In this course, we take a rhetorical approach to defending the faith. While we give pride of place and deference to the classical school of apologetics, the actual apologetical encounter is fundamentally an encounter between whole persons. And it is all the tools of persuasion which coalesce to persuade one’s interlocutor. This course functions to train Christians to learn how to cultivate all these tools (and habits of soul) in themselves in order that they might bre more effective witnesses for the Lord in their own community. The major apologetical schools will be surveyed, and their strengths and weaknesses discussed.

Dr. Joseph Minich (Ph.D. The University of Texas at Dallas) is a Teaching Fellow with The Davenant Institute, and a co-host of the Pilgrim Faith podcast along with Davenant Teaching Fellow, Dale Sternberg. He is the author of Enduring Divine Absence and a frequent contributor to Modern Reformation. He lives in Garland, Tx, with his wife and four children.

Online only, runs 10 weeks, meeting 2 hr./wk. via Zoom. Students will also have the option to participate in class discussion in the Davenant Common Room Discord server. Register to reserve your spot and schedule will be set after a poll of participating students; if the class time does not fit your schedule, you will be eligible for a full refund.
This is a graduate-level co. Although a Bachelor’s degree is not a necessary pre-requisite for this course, students should come prepared to do graduate-level work.