AP 213 Course at a Glance

Course Description

Attempting to learn from the past, the course will incorporate some of the trajectories of this course’s historic iterations. The purpose of this course will be to study in-depth some of the principles of a Reformed, Christian apologetic. Where relevant, we will also glance at ‘a history of unbelief' in order to formulate, by contrast, biblical principles of Christian apologetics. In studying a Reformed apologetic, we will be looking at some of the problems that have plagued both philosophy and non-Reformed apologetics in order to argue against any attempt to synthesize Christianity with unbelieving thought. In pointing out the various problems and solutions presented by these trends, we will be better equipped to formulate our own principles of Christian apologetics. We will be both offensive and defensive, building up a series of Reformed, Christian principles in order to defend the faith, but also, at times, moving forward and ‘destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ' (2 Corinthians 10:5). We will also look very briefly at the history and development of postmodernism. We will attempt to show how certain ideas and developments have in ways led to the very thing of which Kuyper warned in his Stone Lectures at Princeton, namely paganism and atheism. We will seek to address the rise of the New Atheism, and what a Christian apologetic looks like in a pop-culture that is seeking to distract itself from its despair.