Advanced Apologetics: Defending Christianity in the 21st Century
Package Info
- Advanced Apologetics: Defending Christianity in the 21st Century (item #610-00)
- Advanced Apologetics Instructor's Guide (item #610-01)
- Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Gregory Koukl (Zondervan, 2009) (item #610-02)
- A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics by James W. Sire (InterVarsity Press, 2006) (item #610-03)
- Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis (IVP Academic, 2011) (item #610-04)
Time Requirements/Co-op
Email Inquiry:
Hello, I am considering advanced apologetics for my 15 and 17 year old. Can you advise how many hours a week I should allow, and how this would be distributed between individual reading and discussion time? And does it teach well in a co-op situation? Thx.
After pulling the materials and going over them, here's the answer I came up with:
Our Advanced Apologetics course is usually used by students ages 16-18 in 11th or 12th grade, so it may be a little advanced for a 15-year-old. I estimate that it would take 20-30 minutes a day to complete the reading, and perhaps another 15-20 minutes for discussion. There is a weekly assignment that would probably take a little longer on the fifth day of the week.
I think it could work for a co-op setting if the students did the reading and weekly assignments on their own, and then used class time for discussion and going over the assignments. -KC 12.02.15
Course Summary
Since its inception Christianity has faced intellectual challenges. In the 21st century Christianity continues to encounter opposition to its truth claims about reality, especially from vocal skeptics, atheists, and other faiths. One Barna Group research study indicated that 80 percent of Christian teens who were once highly active in church are no longer spiritually active by the time they are 29 years old ("Most Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf Following Spiritually Active Teen Years"; https://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/147-most-twentysomethings-put-christianity-on-the-shelf-following-spiritually-active-teen-years). Another study, this one by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, showed that after three years of college there is a 23 percent drop in frequent involvement in religious services (see "Students abandoning the Faith"; http://www.summit.org/resources/essays/students-abandoning-the-faith/).
Clearly, Christian students are facing significant challenges to their faith, especially as they transition from high school to college and beyond. As a result, Advanced Apologetics is designed to educate, equip, edify, and encourage students to understand opposing viewpoints and to become familiar with the extensive and convincing evidence in support of Christianity. In short, there is an abundance of support for the Christian faith. Like Paul the Apostle stated, Christianity is "true and reasonable" (Acts 26:25, NIV). As such, it is able to withstand the most rigorous intellectual scrutiny, provide positive evidence on its behalf, and, when compared to other worldviews, demonstrate that it offers the best explanation of reality.
Book Titles and Summary of Book
Advanced Apologetics includes three books that were carefully selected from a wide selection of contemporary resources on the defense of the Christian faith. The books in this elective are intended not only to address intellectual matters, but also to emphasize the development of moral character and the nurturing of a winsome approach to sharing and defending the faith.
A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics by James W. Sire (InterVarsity Press, 2006). Sire is well known as the author of the influential book The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. As a campus speaker, Sire is well acquainted with common questions and debates regarding Christianity and the challenges Christians face in the marketplace of ideas, such as in university settings. A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics provides a solid foundation for the practice of apologetics. Sire addresses the definition of apologetics, its value, limits, contexts, arguments, and the call to defend the faith. As Sire so astutely points out, the defense of the faith is not just about having the best arguments or evidence, but also about approaching the topic with humility. As such, this is the first book students will read over the course of this 18-week elective.
Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Gregory Koukl (Zondervan, 2009). Koukl holds a graduate degree in apologetics, but beyond his academic credentials he is an experienced apologist, having interacted with people regularly on his radio broadcast and via his ministry Stand to Reason. For years Koukl has been living out his approach to conversing with others about Christianity and has collected his best insights in Tactics. Koukl's book is not so much about apologetic arguments, but about the approach one can take in dialogue with others. As such, Tactics is helpful to apologetics, evangelism, and also contributes to making everyone a better speaker, listener, and winsome ambassador for Christ, no matter what the topic.
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis (IVP Academic, 2011). This is one of the finest contemporary books covering the borad spectrum of apologetics that offers both positive evidence for faith, as well as thoughtful critiques of other viewpoints. As a graduate-level seminary professor, Groothuis is clearly thoroughly familiar with the defense of the faith. Although the length of the book is at first glance somewhat intimidating, the chapters themselves are well-organized and in general straightforward enough for the layperson to grasp. The one possible exception is chapter 10 on the ontological argument for God's existence, which is a complex subject to condense into one chapter. On the whole, however, Christian Apologetics is one of the best resources available on the topic.