Ten objections to the study of Theology - 3

Is Jesus a Copycat Savior? - J. Warner Wallace

What is Metaphysics?

Easter Sunday Sermon: Answering Objections to the Resurrection of Jesus

52 tips about Apologetics

These are not originally mine, rather, they are from Brian Auten, from apologetics315.com

I hope these help you in your apologetics endeavours.

1. Be first a person of prayer with a goal to know the Lord.

2. Be a continual reader.

3. Know both sides of the issues.

4. Listen to as many good lectures as possible.

5. Listen to every debate you can get your hands on.

6. Learn from the best debaters.

7. Learn from the worst debaters. (what not to do)

8. Find a mentor if you can.

9. Apologetics is not a boxing match; it’s walking along side another in dialogue.

10. You’re not in it to win arguments; you are in it to win people.

11. Be mindful of your spiritual life above your apologetics studies.

12. Allow your apologetics studies to be worship unto the Lord.

13. Your wife doesn’t want to hear about your online debates.

14. Don’t talk about apologetics at the dinner table, unless you are with apologetics buddies.

15. Find like-minded friends to fellowship with and reflect on apologetic issues.

16. Get input and feedback from other apologists and mature Christian peers.

17. Pray for the people you are interacting with. If you don’t pray for them, what do you expect to accomplish?

18. Never respond to blog comments in an emotional state. Cool off first and pray.

19. Remember, you don’t have to win the whole world.

20. Study how Jesus interacted and communicated with people.

21. Remember that you have the truth.

22. Pray all the time.

23. Spend time with your family.

24. Enjoy worship at your church.

25. Get away from the apologetics stuff for a while regularly.

26. Avoid taking extreme views and ignoring other options.

27. Study logic and critical thinking; it will help you more than you can imagine.

28. Get into public speaking and learn communication skills. And learn to spell.

29. Always seek first to win the person.

30. You don’t have to respond to every possible objection.

31. Study theology alongside or before you get into apologetics.

32. Study and understand different apologetic methodologies and don’t defend your method to the death.

33. Read Pascal’s Pensées.

34. Read stuff that challenges you to think hard.

35. Be humble; you know so little.

36. Draw from the expertise of others.

37. Specialize if you can.

38. Understand the spiritual condition of those you are interacting with.

39. Understand the psychological reasons people have for holding their views.

40. Admit it when you are wrong.

41. Realize that there is no end to the subject; get in it for the long haul.

42. Don’t rush your studies.

43. Don’t be a hypocrite. Stay pure.

44. Poor character will destroy your apologetics.

45. An apologist is ultimately an evangelist; so first know how to share the Gospel well.

46. In evangelism, start with the Gospel and use apologetics only if the need arises.

47. Realize that not everyone at your church is going to be as excited about apologetics as you are.

48. Apologetics is about loving people; remove the love from your apologetic and you fail.

49. You don’t have to know every answer, just where to go to get the answers.

50. Apologetics can bolster faith and dispel doubt, but it cannot bend the will.

51. The results are up to the Lord.

52. At the end of the day, are you walking with Jesus?

What would you add?

William L. Craig answers a history "student" regarding the story of Jesus in pagan religions

Ten Myths about God. 1. Christianity is Blind Faith

10 Myths about God: #1 - Christianity is Blind Faith from Credo House on Vimeo.

Alister McGrath on Defending Christianity

“The best defense of Christianity is its explanation. In other words, if you want to defend or commend Christianity, it is best to begin by telling people what it is really all about.”

 - Alister McGrath

The Historical Jesus and Apologetics (with special mention of Albert Schweitzer)

By Sebastian Moll
Theological Faculty
University of Mainz, Germany
March 2012

“If the existence of the historical Jesus could be refuted, Christianity would lose much, but by far not everything.”

Who said it?

A: Rudolf Bultmann	B: Paul Tillich
C: Albert Schweitzer	D: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The answer is C. In his famous work “Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung” (first published in 1906) Albert Schweitzer comes to the above stated conclusion. This short essay obviously cannot comment on the question whether his conclusion is in itself right or not. Instead, I would like to point out a feature of Schweitzer’s theology which is often missed: his concern with the historical Jesus is motivated by an apologetic agenda.

This idea first entered my mind when I read a comment by Schweitzer on the history of the early church: “It should be remembered that between Paul and Origen Christianity was led by men of average minds – with the exception of the Apologist Justin.” Maybe it took a Patristic scholar to notice this fascinating statement. Of all people Schweitzer picked Origen, whom he values as the defender of Christianity against the philosopher Celsus, and Justin, that is, the Apologist Justin, whom he clearly distinguishes from the author of the Dialogue with Trypho. (Schweitzer does not actually deny the identity of the two, but he finds it hard to believe that one man should have written two so different pieces of work.)

This remark made me wonder. Then, in a letter to his friend Martin Werner, I found these remarkable lines by Schweitzer:

“I believe to be able to show that when thinking dares to think to the end, it will get to the absolute ethics of Jesus and to mysticism. This is the decisive factor to me. The deepest beliefs of Christianity are logically necessary.” If this is not a line by an apologist, then what is?

As recently pointed out again by Pope Benedict himself in his outstanding work on Jesus, the Christian faith is based on “history which took place on the face of this earth.” This is a distinctive characteristic of Christianity, which it does not share with every other religion. In fact, this feature proved to be an apologetic challenge from the earliest beginnings of Christianity. How do you combine universal religious thinking with the idea of a singular event in time and space? What about people who lived before that event? Or about those who lived in different parts of the world? This is the challenge that men like Justin and Origen took up in their apologetic works. In order to make Christianity more acceptable to his pagan audience, Justin identified the historical Jesus with the logos, the rational force operative everywhere and at all times, thereby justifying the Christian adoration for Jesus, but at the same time downplaying his importance, as it was possible to be in touch with the logos without being in contact with the historical Jesus.

With this brief, and certainly superficial, summary of Justin’s Apology in mind, it becomes understandable why Schweitzer showed so much appreciation for him. In a way, Schweitzer has a very similar agenda. What the logos is to Justin, the will is to Schweitzer. The ethical will of Jesus is the universal concept which everybody can get united with through mysticism (s. a.), and this is what constitutes Christianity in the eyes of Schweitzer. The ethical will was in the world, in us, before the appearance of the historical Jesus – just as the logos already existed before the incarnation. Jesus represented this ethical will in truth and perfection, and thus his appearance helped establishing this ethical will within us. However, his appearance was not a conditio sine qua non.

This is, again in daring brevity, the apologetic concept of Albert Schweitzer. As stated in the beginning, this is not the place to examine the sustainability of his system. But it is important to realize that even for a man like Albert Schweitzer, known as the incorruptible champion of the quest for the historical Jesus, it is not enough simply establishing historical results. He may have contributed to the ‘destruction’ of the traditional image of Jesus, but his real aim was to show that we do not really need it.

In Search of a New Apologetic Part 1: What’s missing from Modern Apologetics?

Posted on March 16, 2012 by lckeeney

Apologetics is experiencing somewhat of revival. Well, maybe a better term might be “rehabilitation.” While the stereotype of the apologist as a well-coiffed white male who can bring an atheist to their knees through the power of his arguments alone is still very much alive (with good reason, I might add), there is a small minority of people (including myself) who tentatively embrace the word “apologist,” but would really like to see the word itself given a makeover.

In a way, I feel about the word “apologist” the way I do about the word “evangelical.” Sure, it’s weighted down with a lot of baggage and too many stereotypes (some of which are deserved), but it’s also the best word to use to describe what it is that I do. The Greek word “apologia” means to “give a reason for” or “defend.” And what I do (or like to think I do, anyway) is give reasons why believing in and following Jesus is at least as reasonable as the alternative. After that, it’s up to the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons often cited for the comeback of apologetics is its ability to respond to the “new atheism.” According to many in the apologetics community, new atheism has co-opted the term “reason” and is claiming, in voices dripping with contempt and condescension, that the use of reason must inevitably lead to a rejection of belief in God.

Based on what I’ve seen, I have to agree with them on this point. It’s certainly true that the more militant atheists have positioned themselves as the sole possessors of reason and commonsense (see my previous post about The Reason Rally). Many leaders of the new atheism compare anyone who believes in a transcendent God to an adult who still expects a visit from the Easter bunny. And the truly ironic thing is that the way some atheists talk about Christians is so filled with vitriol and contempt that it goes way beyond what “reason” should allow.

Now I am not for one minute assuming that this anti-Christian rhetoric represents most atheists, anymore than Westboro Baptist church represents most Christians, but the level of vitriol in some of these blogs demonstrates what I think is one of the big weaknesses of modern apologetics. What lies behind these atheists’ hate-filled comments is not reason, but emotion—visceral anger and debilitating pain. And it is emotion that modern apologetics has historically ignored.

I really don’t blame the apologetics community for tending to ignore the gooey, amorphous side of the human experience. The anti-intellectualism of 20^th century evangelicalism, as recounted in Mark Noll’s classic The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, effectively marginalized the intellectual faction of the local church. For the last several decades, they’ve been treated somewhat like Edward Rochester’s crazy first wife and hidden away in the attic so normal Christians couldn’t see them.

The seeker-sensitive movement especially, with its emphasis on addressing the “felt needs” of the audience and its commitment to making Christianity as non-threatening as possible, effectively marginalized the “thinkers” within its ranks. Eventually, there was only one outlet for an intellectual’s darker side—apologetics. Unfortunately, what resulted was often an isolated culture that began to feed on itself. Rather than a celebration of all the ways in which faith speaks to and clarifies the human experience, apologetics too often became a refuge for people who simply enjoy winning an argument.

A perfect example of this is the response to Paul Copan’s recent post at The Gospel Coalition, “Questioning Presuppositionalism.” As the title indicates, Copan’s essay is a respectful critique of an apologetic method called “presuppositionalism.” In the post, Copan both summarizes what he finds helpful about it and what he finds problematic. For the purpose of this post, it’s not important that we understand presuppositionalism itself (I’ll address that in a later post), but that we notice how people reacted.

Based on the response, TGC readers seem to be an overwhelmingly presuppositionalist bunch. The bigger picture, though, is that not only are the comments overwhelmingly negative towards Copan’s critique, but many of them imply that there must, necessarily, be only one clear winner in the apologetic war. Evidential, philosophical, and moral apologetics are neither biblical nor valid. Apparently, apologetics is a contact sport and, as one commenter observed, “Copan effectively didn’t land a single blow.”

Now, I am the first to admit that this kind of theological boxing is not unique to apologetics. In fact, one of the primary complaints about Christians by outsiders is that they’re always arguing with each other about something. But Copan’s article makes an important point that many of the commenters seem to miss.

God can and does speak to unbelievers through reason, beauty, moral failure, and the existence of evil. As a cloud of apologetical witnesses can testify, God has used philosophical arguments for his existence, scientific supports for the universe’s beginning (Big Bang) and its fine-tuning, and historical evidences for the resurrection of Jesus to assist people in embracing Christ—just as God uses the preaching of the gospel (Romans 1:16) or the loving character of a Christian community (John 13:35). These are all part of the holistic witness to the reality of God and the gospel, all of which the Spirit of God can use to lead unbelievers to embracing Jesus Christ.

What Copan is saying here is that there are many things that can work to bring people to Christ. Faith must be reasonable (contrary to what some post-modernists might say) but it must also beintuitive. It must speak to both head and heart. And, unlike a few individual apologists who are still dedicated to the Enlightenment split between intellect and emotion, many of the most insightful apologists and Christian philosophers understand this.

There are a lot of exciting things happening in apologetics right now—and some of them doinvolve really smart Christians responding to the new atheism. But to me, the most exciting changes are the ones coming from people who acknowledge the artificial split between faith and reason and are working to heal it.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking a look at some of these new apologetic methods. Although it’ll soon be obvious that they’re not really new at all—they just needed to be revived.

Online Apologetics Conference 2012

This year Athanatos Christian Ministries is hosting its third annual Online Apologetics Conference. The conference will be held on April 19th,  20th, and 21st, 2012. This year's theme is: Using Story to Defend, Promote, Explain, and Transmit the Faith. Learn how to apply apologetics through story.

On the 19th of April, a number of apologists will present guest lectures free of charge on a variety of apologetics topics. Use this link to find out more about the conference and the sessions. Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society will present the keynote on: “Finding the Right Word: Chesterton on the Writer’s Art.”

Find the Online Apologetics Conference on Facebook and Twitter.
Apologetics 315 is happy to sponsor this event. (For those who are interested, Brian Auten will be speaking on the 19th on the topic, "Avoiding Apologetics Pitfalls.")

If you want to know which Apologetics books to buy, these were the best sells in 2011

Best Selling Apologetics Books of 2011

In reviewing some statistics from last year's Amazonaffiliate links, a top-10 post came  together. The best-selling book of 2011 by far was Doug Groothuis' excellent book Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. It is also the focus of Ap315's first Read Along project, so that could play a part in its popularity (at least through this site). Others on the list are perennial best-sellers (see #2), and others are especially suitable for group study (see #3). Koukl's Tactics, of course, is essential reading (#4). So here's the list of the top-selling books through Apologetics 315 in 2011, based upon those purchased through Ap315's affiliate links:

1. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
2. Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
3. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig
4. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl
5. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire
6. When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences by Norman Geisler
7. Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science by John Lennox
8. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
9. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan
10. Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener

Via Apologetics 315.

Ten top Apologetics schools

If you want to know where to study Christian Apologetics, these schools are a good way to start.

Hope this helps.

Apologetics is about rationally defending a position or view whose truth is challenged. Usually, apologetics refers to the defense of the Christian faith, laying out a case for the accuracy of its historical claims (such as the resurrection of Jesus) and for the soundness and coherence of its theology (such as the doctrine of the Trinity). Even so, most religious as well as secular worldviews have their own apologetics. For instance, Richard Dawkins’s book The Blind Watchmaker is an apologetics for Darwinian materialism.

Apologetics has been popular since the rise of Christianity and it has proliferated at different points in church history. Nonetheless, modern academia has largely sidelined it. That may, however, be changing. Graduate students can now find an array of master’s as well as doctoral apologetics programs.

TheBestSchools.org has researched the top apologetics graduate degrees in the United States and ranked them according to the quality of faculty, level of accreditation, diversity of degrees offered, cost, and overall accessibility.

The faculty criterion refers to whether a school cultivates a high academic standard through the professionalism and apologetic expertise of its faculty, who, preferably, are accomplished apologists themselves.

The accreditation criterion identifies the level of accreditation, namely, whether the school’s credentialing will be recognized on a résumé.

The “degrees offered” criterion refers to the variety and weightiness of degrees offered. A “certificate of apologetics” is not readily marketable, even within church circles, and represents little accomplishment. But a ministry-intensive school such as a theological seminary might be expected to have a DMin, or MDiv, and a Certificate, as those would serve its ministerial purposes.

Cost figures refer to the “per-credit-hour” rate and do not include additional fees, scholarships, cost of living, travel expenses, etc. Prospective students should recheck any of those numbers, as cost is the most flexible of the statistics here. Tuition and fees routinely fluctuate every year.

“Accessibility” refers both to the convenience of the campus, and access to classes, be it through online classes, streaming, extension campuses, distance learning, hybrid, night-classes, intensive courses, etc.

Also noted in the descriptions are key distinctions that may stand out, such as location, school emphases, apologetics opportunities on campus, etc.

(1) Best Academic Apologetics: Biola University

The most academically prestigious school on the list is Biola University and its graduate extension Talbot Theological Seminary. Their faculty includes such notables as William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, Philip Johnson, Craig Hazen, John Mark Reynolds, Doug Geivett, Scott Rae, Greg Koukle, Paul Nelson, and others.

Graduates of Biola are generally top-notch philosophers and academic apologists. Biola prioritizes transforming collegiate education in America by placing its graduates in prestigious PhD programs around the country. Also, the campus culture is apologetics intensive, with numerous free and low-cost lectures.

Set in Los Angeles, the cost of living is high and the traffic can be a real problem, hindering accessibility. Another downside is the lack of online learning options. The 36–credit hour M.A. in Apologetics can be achieved through a distance-learning track, but even it has an on-campus requirement (via two week-long, intensive modules). The 9- to 10-hour distance-learning “certificate in apologetics” is not an accredited degree and does not count towards anything academic.

The cost for Biola is higher than most at $485 per credit hour, but there are no accreditation issues to worry about.

(2) Best General Apologetics: Southern Evangelical Seminary

SES is a true apologetics school with all its degrees having an apologetic emphasis, including the BA, MA, MDiv, ThM, and DMin. Even its PhD is apologetics-intensive, though technically it is in philosophy of religion.

Founded by Norman Geisler, SES explicitly emphasizes apologetics and evangelism, distinguishing it, in practice, from Biola’s more academic initiative. However, SES comes second only to Biola in credentialed apologetics faculty, including Richard and Thomas Howe, and visiting faculty Gary Habermas, Ravi Zacharias, Ron Rhodes, William Dembski, and Michael Licona.

Campus life is rich with apologetics teaching, preaching, and ministry opportunities, such as Ratio Christi (a university-aimed apologetics club) or the international missions troupe TEAM (Tactical Evangelism and Apologetics Mission). The night classes and distance-learning options make SES highly accessible to non-traditional students, although there are no online classes yet. Online classes are likely to appear within the year. SES also hosts the largest annual apologetics conference in the country.

The biggest drawbacks are that its famous founder, Norman Geisler, no longer teaches there and that the school has only TRACS accreditation, lacking accreditation from the more-recognized SACS or ATS.

Students of SES will get a broadly evangelical education with the distinctive flavor of Thomistic philosophy (i.e., classical, systematic, and synthetic/non-analytic), plus a strong emphasis on evangelism.

Cost is a reasonable $333 per credit hour.

(3) Most Accessible Apologetics: Liberty University

A Baptist favorite, Liberty University (LU) offers several advantages in its apologetics program. First, besides the M.A. in apologetics, LU offers a rare PhD in “Theology and Apologetics.”

Second, and more importantly, Liberty stands out for its extensive use of online programs. LU is the most online-accessible school on the list. Online classes and distance classes do, generally, lack a bit compared to traditional resident classes. But for non-traditional students online classes are invaluable.

Also of note, LU has resurrection-expert Gary Habermas.

LU is a pricier entry, ranging from $436 to $476 per credit hour, depending on full-time or part-time status, and distance or resident classes.

LU is fully accredited. Students can expect a conservative Baptist apologetic, though not necessarily as Calvinist as, say, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

(4/5) (tie) Baptist Bargains: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Two entries from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS; pictured left) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS; pictured lower left). Both have apologetics tracks in their MDiv programs. Southeastern has the benefit of several extension centers including one in Charlotte, North Carolina, close to Southern Evangelical Seminary (non-baptist) mentioned above. That proximity has created some shared resourcing and mutual support in apologetics training.

Southern also has the rare PhD in “Apologetics and Worldview Studies.” Southern has a staunch conservative and reformed Baptist reputation, associated with its president Al Mohler.

SEBTS and SBTS both offer a distinct Baptist flavor to their education. Both have extension and hybrid classes as well as distance learning options which, together with Baptist networking, make these schools cost-effective and highly accessible especially for Southern Baptist Students.

Cost for either is a steal, again for members of the SBC. For non-SBC students, the cost is average, considering the denominational weight and status of the education they offer. SEBTS is $190–$257 per credit hour, depending on full- or part-time status ($514, if non-SBC). SBTS is a similar bargain at $219 per credit hour ($438, if non-SBC).

(6) Best Newcomer: Veritas Evangelical Seminary

Veritas Seminary in Murrieta, California, is another project of Norman Geisler, who currently teaches there along with several published apologists, including Ron Rhodes, Joseph Holden, and William Nix.

This young school shows many of the distinctives of its east-coast elder, Southern Evangelical Seminary. Several faculty hale from SES. The layout of the curriculum and degree programs are similar to SES. Veritas looks much like SES did in its first few years.

However, Veritas remains unaccredited, though it will most likely have TRACS accreditation by the time a new student completes a two-year degree. Nevertheless, the accreditation is the lowest score, since the school shows no signs yet of progress towards ATS or SACS accreditation. As such, this seminary is not in the top tier of schools.

It does offer MA and MDiv degrees and a certificate, all in apologetics. Standard classes are available, as well as streaming and correspondence courses.

The cost is very affordable at $215 per credit hour.

(7) Denver Seminary

Beginning in the Fall of 2012, the well-accredited Denver Seminary (DS) will be offering an M.A. in Apologetics and Ethics.

This will be in addition to their (unaccredited & non-degree) 10-hr “Certificate of Completion” in apologetics. That former track fits only the casual apologetics student. The M.A. should strengthen their apologetics status overall.

As a new program, this track is untested and there is not yet a major/concentration in MDiv, ThM, DMin, or PhD tracks. But the program looks promising, with such faculty veterans as Douglas Groothius, Gordon Lewis, and Craig Blomberg. And the school has no accreditation issues to worry about.

The cost is a little steep, but not terrible, at $450 per creidt hour.

(8) Luther Rice Seminary

Another promising entry is Luther Rice Seminary (LR) in Lithonia, Georgia. This seminary has an adjoining university, with apologetics tracks at both (MA and MDiv).

LR offers many of its courses online and even online-degree tracks with no residency requirement. The ease of access brings the prestige down a notch, as does its accreditation status with only TRACS.

But for the non-traditional student, or for those already having a master’s degree, this school is highly accessible and affordable at the low cost of $215 per credit hour.

Were the school better accredited, it could overtake Denver for the higher spot. A potential advantage is that LR is a university too, offering the on-campus benefits and resources of a full university.

(9) Westminster Theological Seminary

Proudly representing the Reformed Theological tradition is Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS).

This historic school has campuses in Philadelphia and London.

WTS  is the priciest candidate on the list, at $2,650 per class (about $885 per credit hour), and so its cost score is the lowest on the list.

WTS offers a Master of Theology (ThM) in apologetics, and has a respectable department of apologetics. It has no MDiv or MA in apologetics, however. But its lack of an apologetics certificate is excusable, since the school is aimed at training professional parish ministers more than at doing direct world evangelism or popular discipleship.

Non-Baptists seeking a less expensive or more versatile degree track in the Reformed tradition may want to look at Birmingham Theological Seminary.

(10) Columbia Evangelical Seminary

Our final entry is Columbia Evangelical Seminary (CES), based in Buckley, Washington.

The alma mater of James R. White, CES offers a self-directed mentoring curriculum similar to European programs. As such, it has no teaching campus and demands only a modest $95 per credit hour. Also—and unfortunately—this model might leave the school forever beyond accreditation by U.S. standards.

CES’s non-traditional program makes the school very accessible and its strong emphasis on philosophy adds some credibility. Its faculty is surprisingly sturdy, with numerous published authors and a century’s worth of teaching experience.

Founded in 1991, CES is fairly young. If it can somehow achieve accreditation, expect it to leap into the top tier of apologetics schools.

* * * * *

(11) Best Overseas Apologetics Program: Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics

As Oxford is not an American university, the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics cannot technically be included on this Top-10 list. However, Oxford University is a historic institution—one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world—and the Centre’s apologetics faculty is world-renowned.

The Centre’s faculty includes the most widely known and traveled Christian apologist in the world today, Ravi Zacharias. Mathematician and philosopher of science John Lennox is renowned for his books on apologetics, as well as for his debates with top atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. And the Centre’s chair, Alister McGrath, is legendary.

The Centre recently added an accredited two-year master’s degree in apologetics to its less recognized one-year, as well as six-week, non-professional degrees. Needless to say, the prestige of Oxford University makes the Centre’s accreditation a non-issue.

The cost is pricey, ranging from £5,000 for the six-week program to about £30,000 for the tw-oyear degree for non–European Union students. The cost for the two-year master’s degree is not reported online, but it is estimated to cost twice as much as the one-year degree, and further additional costs will likely apply.

* * * * *

Notable Omissions:

Several schools have the size, influence, and resources to merit an apologetics program. Yet there is no apologetics track to speak of at these schools or seminaries. Students may be able to patch together an apologetics education at these schools, but not through any formally established educational track.

The following have one or more apologetics classes, but no graduate degree in apologetics:

• Moody Bible Institute (has only a BA in Apologetics and Philosophical Theology)
• Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
• Dallas Theological Seminary
• Wheaton College Graduate School
• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
• Princeton Theological Seminary
• Fuller Theological Seminary
• Azusa Pacific University
• Reformed Theological Seminary
• Union University (new adjunct recruit, Voddie Baucham, will likely teach apologetics in the future)