The Strongest Academic Training for Apologetics
… which is important but secondary to the strongest training of all, which is simply to know the Scriptures
The Strongest Training for Apologetics
The strongest training for apologetics is simple: know your Bible.
(I know, I know: you thought I was going to say, “Go to Southern Seminary” or “Listen to The Apologetics Podcast”—we’ll get to those later, but I really do mean what I said first. The strongest training for apologetics is to know your Bible.)
So why is my first admonition for any apologist to know the Scriptures?
It’s because the vast majority of apologetics issues are the result of some misunderstanding of the Scriptures. The better you know your Bible, the more equipped you are to respond to those misunderstandings.
The second-strongest training for apologetics is to read the writings of the church fathers, particularly those who wrote in the first four centuries of Christian history. What you will learn from Aristides and Athenagoras, Irenaeus and Augustine, and so many more is that nearly all the challenges of this present era have been faced before. Students sometimes ask me, “What should I read to stay current in apologetics?”—to which I answer, “Don’t stay current; stay classic.” When you soak your mind in the Scriptures and in the writings of the early church, you begin to see how shallow many of the current doubts and challenges are.
The Strongest Academic Training for Apologetics
But what if you want training that’s more academic?
That brings me to a new Master of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The core of this new degree is much more lean and focused than ever before—the entire degree is now only 84 credit hours total—but it’s now packed with plenty of elective opportunities.
Best of all, you can pursue graduate certificates that let you specialize in particular fields of study, and that brings us to the strongest academic training you can possibly get in apologetics.
The strongest academic training is to do the new Southern Seminary Master of Divinity and to complete these two graduate certificates (which you can still do within the 84 hours of this degree):
One nine-hour Graduate Certificate in Apologetics and Philosophy (3 three-hour courses of your choice)
One nine-hour Graduate Certificate in Greek Exegesis (3 three-hour courses of your choice)
If you do that, you’ll not only be able to defend the faith but you’ll also be able to read the writings of the apostolic fathers in the original language. You’ll have one elective course left over to complete either Latin or a Hebrew Exegesis class, which would prepare you to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree, if you should ever be called to do that.
Here’s one of the best parts: If you’ve already earned a Master of Divinity degree, you can still earn one or both of these Graduate Certificates.
To learn more about these certificates, go here: Graduate Certificate in Apologetics and Philosophy.