Syllabus: Persuasive Faith
Trinity Baptist Church
2017-2018
Subject Modules
Module 1: INTRODUCTION (3 weeks)
Organization of our Campus Group (Class). The subject and purposes of the class. What the class is and what it is not. Class objectives. Class participation. What is apologetics? What it means to represent Christ as an apologist. The spiritual life of a Christian apologist. Objections to doing apologetics and reasons for doing it. The role of faith and the role of reason in the Christian faith. Developments in apologetics.
Module 2: EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES (3 weeks)
What does it mean to “know” something? How we know what we know. Warranted belief. The relationship between believing and knowing. Necessary epistemological assumptions. Justified True Belief (JTB). What is truth? How we know Christianity is true. Skepticism. Postmodernism. Sources and kinds of knowledge. Evidence bases. Role of the Holy Spirit in knowing. Revelation. Preliminary thoughts on logic.
Module 3: PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES (7 weeks)
Understanding logic and argumentation. The difference between deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning and why it’s important. Identifying and avoiding logical fallacies. Trends towards natural philosophy among contemporary philosophers. The existence of God: arguments for and against. The nature of God. What we mean by a “necessary being.” A God of the gaps? Causes: kinds of causes, uncaused cause, infinite regress. Atheism/naturalism’s misperceptions about the nature of God. Nature of humanness: dualism vs. physicalism. Free agency. Origin of morality. The problem of evil, suffering, and pain.
Module 4: WORLDVIEW ISSUES (5 weeks)
Understanding worldviews and their importance. Theism. Monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Islam’s similarities with and contrasts to Christianity. Monotheism vs. polytheism. Monotheism and the Trinity. Theism vs. Deism. Deism’s influence in history and Western culture. Pantheism. Panentheism. Religious pluralism. Naturalism. Atheism: implications of, the New Atheists, arguments against God. The Enlightenment: from Deism to Atheism. Source of morality in atheism. Can atheists be good people?
Module 5: SCIENCE ISSUES (6 weeks)
Science vs. Scientism. Metaphysical assumptions of science and of scientism. Limits of science. Science and the Bible. Christianity’s relationship to science—theologically and historically (incl. Copernicus, Galileo, Darwinism, etc.). Reductionism: methodological, epistemological, and ontological. The issue of causes. Observational vs. historical science. Evolution and creation. Cosmological issues: Big Bang, alternate cosmologies. Science and faith in God. “God of the Gaps.” Science and the origins of life, morality and religious belief, self-consciousness, information/language/code. Intelligent design. Fine tuning. Anthropic principle. Laws of nature and miracles/supernatural events. William Paley, David Hume and the teleological argument.
Module 6: AUTHORITY ISSUES (5 weeks)
History of the Bible, its origin and transmission. State of current Biblical scholarship. Attacks against the Bible: Enlightenment, “Higher” criticism, Quest for the Historical Jesus, Documentary Hypothesis. Historical reliability of the Bible. Textual reliability of the Bible. The Bible and science. The issue of inspiration. Infallibility and inerrancy. Interpretation. Canonicity: process of, pseudo-gospels, apocryphal books. Supernatural accounts/miracles. The Bible and myth.
Module 7: HISTORICAL ISSUES (8 weeks)
The problem of historical knowledge. Modern historiography. Ancient and Biblical history. Early Christianity and neighboring religions. The Christian view of history vs. ancient and pantheistic views: linear vs. circular. Impact of the Christian view of history on discovery, inventions, democratic institutions, and rise of modernity. Misconceptions of Christianity’s influence and role in history: the Roman Empire, Constantine, the "Dark Ages," Medieval scholasticism, Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Crusades, witch hunts, slavery, Wars of Religion, atrocities in the New World, impact of missions on other cultures, relationship to science, discovery, and intellectual development, David Hume, Voltaire, et.al.
Module 8a: JESUS ISSUES, GENERAL (5 weeks)
The historical record regarding Jesus. “Quest(s) for the Historical Jesus.” The “Jesus Seminar.” Recent developments in Jesus scholarship. The story of Jesus and neighboring paganism. Jesus’ self-understanding (Did he view himself as God?). The deity of Jesus. Miracles of Jesus. The atonement: the “offense of the cross,” is it a repellent belief (as per the New Atheists)?, Islamic denials of the crucifixion. The New Age Jesus: Eastern travels/influences?, Christ consciousness, Gnosticism (past and present). Historical Jesus and pagan influences. The early church’s understanding of Jesus.
Module 8b: JESUS ISSUES, THE RESURRECTION (3 weeks)
Its centrality to the credibility of Christianity. Developments in resurrection apologetics. Views of resurrection in the Greco-Roman world and first-century Palestine. Historical evidences for the Resurrection. Arguments against the resurrection. Traditional and minimal-facts defenses of the Resurrection. Supposed resurrection beliefs in pagan religions? State of current scholarship on the Resurrection. Possibility of the Resurrection. Differing accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels. Testimony of the Apostles. Testimony of the early church. The meaning of the Resurrection.
