In this course, we take a rhetorical approach to defending the faith. The defense of the faith, both to others and for ourselves, involves appeal to the whole person. This includes both giving satisfying reasons to believe, and satisfying answers to objections or hesitancies that stand in the way of belief. And yet in a real life, none of these remain abstractions. We bring our whole story into the study of apologetics, and the study of apologetics can also shape our story. How does increased confidence and public persuasion arise out of this? All of the tools of persuasion (ordered to the true, the good, and the beautiful and not to manipulation) aid in our task.
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 be more effective witnesses for the Lord in their own community. The major apologetical schools will be surveyed, and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. We will survey answers to the famous question of apologetic method, but our focus will be on apologetic exemplars, craftsmen in the art of persuading themselves and others concerning the veracity of the faith.