Ethics, Philosophy

Approaches to Defending the Faith

Taught by Joe Minich
Runs 9/26 – 12/10/22
$225.00 – $399.00

 

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.

Deadline to register: Wednesday, September 14th

 

 

ENROLLMENT OPTIONS

Auditing ($225):

participate in readings and live class sessions, but no graded assignments and no course credit

Full course (Full-Time Discount) ($275):

for-credit courses (at least four per term) toward our Certificate or M.Litt in Classical Protestantism

Full course ($399):

individual classes on a for-credit basis; you can later apply them toward a Certificate or Degree

 

ENROLL NOW

Enrollment for this course has closed.

Description

This Core course will be taught by Dr. Joe Minich, and will run from September 26th through December 10th. The syllabus is available HERE.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Details

Online only, runs 10 weeks, meeting 2 hr./wk. via Zoom. Students will also have the option to participate in class discussion on 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 course. Although a BA is not a necessary pre-requisite for this course, students should come prepared to do graduate-level work.