How to Learn Apologetics Through Self-Study (Course Outline)
By Joel Settecase
You can teach yourself apologetics without needing to go to seminary. It is going to take organization, motivation, and diligence on your part, but if you commit to doing it right, you can absolutely super-charge your apologetics know-how through a program of self-study. And because this is The Think Institute, we’re not going to leave you on your own.
Allow me to walk you through ten steps you can take starting today, to build your apologetics knowledge base, and skill, and become better able to defend your faith. We are going to design our own apologetics course together.
For reference on how to design your own courses, see this video by Parker Settecase on the ParkNotes channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudbUMr9pXY.
#1: Choose Your Exact Topic
To begin with, you need to decide what your research subject is going to be. Christian apologetics is a broad field of study. What is the specific topic related to apologetics that you want to learn?
For our purposes, let’s assume that you want to learn a basic introduction to defending the Christian message in a presuppositional way. You want to learn presuppositional apologetics.
#2: Decide On Your Workload
How much effort do you want to put into this course? How much time do you have in your life for this kind of learning project? How much extra time can you find?
In my brother Parker’s excellent video on how to create your own grad courses, he describes this choice as choosing your credit hours. Here’s what that means. Each class in college/seminary/grad school is assigned a certain number of credit hours, which reflects two things: (a) How much closer it gets you to your degree, and (b) how much time it takes.
To flesh this out, a one-credit course will involve one hour of class time (lectures) each week. As a general rule, assume that you will spend three hours outside of class for every one hour you spend in the classroom. So a one credit course would involve one hour of in-class lecture, one day a week, and three hours of study and writing time outside of class, for a total time commitment of four hours each week (these aren’t hard and fast rules, but they are reliable general guidelines).
For the course we are designing, let’s make it a one-credit course. You will need to dedicate about four hours each week—one hour of “in-class” time, and three hours of “out-of-class” time—for learning apologetics. If you want to make it a two-credit or three-credit course, go ahead and adjust it accordingly.
#3 Schedule Your “In-Class” Time
When is the best day and time for you to take in a lecture on apologetics? Maybe it’s Sunday after church. Maybe it’s Monday morning, first thing. Maybe you want to end your week with a lecture on Friday evening. It’s up to you, but take out your calendar or planner now and schedule the time, so you don’t forget it. Having a specific day and time set aside will help you maintain consistency in your learning.
#4 Schedule Your “Out-of-Class” Time
When will you do your reading? It’s quite possible that having dedicated times to read during the week is not part of your current routine. So if you are going to learn apologetics, you will need to incorporate reading times into your schedule.
Remember that for a one-credit class, you should plan on about three hours of reading per week. You could bang this all out in one shot (e.g. on Saturday afternoon), but more likely you will work it into your schedule on a more daily basis. You can break up three hours of reading into about half an hour a day, six days a week.
#5 Select Your Lectures and Create a Playlist
Because we are living in 2023 and have internet access (otherwise how are you reading this right now), we have access to untold resources for Christian theological and philosophical learning.
In fact, I know of one website, Veritas Domain by name, that offers more than 999 audio lectures on topics ranging from apologetics to hermeneutics to church history (find that here: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/999-audio-lectures/). Then there are the excellent courses and lectures from Revealed Apologetics’ Presup U, Apologia Studios’ Bahnsen University, and Reformed Forum’s Reformed Academy.
Since this is The Think Institute, and we happen to think our resources are rather fitting for the purpose of equipping regular believers to defend their faith, I will recommend several lectures for you from our archives.
For your convenience, I have put them into a playlist on YouTube for you. Of course, if you choose to use other videos, you can compile your own playlist with those.
Here is the playlist I created for you: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfSpUNYR5qo6sv8Pk8x0tmaq8lLQHHlTm.
It features videos on apologetics basics and answering specific challenges and objections to the faith. In total, it is about 16.5 hours long. So if you spend one hour a week watching (and taking notes), you will wrap up within the span of a semester (4 months) easily.
#6 Choose Your Books
You will need to supplement your “in-class” lectures with robust reading outside of class. For this, you’re going to need some quality books. In The Think Institute’s Apologetics Resource Directory, we recommend several. Here are the ones I suggest you take for this apologetics course. N.B. these are all books I have finished, and this list is specifically curated to help you learn apologetics the way I learned it. These books have helped give the apologetics we do at The Think Institute its unique flavor. I have ranked them in the order I think you should read them. If you are only going to read a few, then read the ones closer to the top of the list.
Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief, by John M. Frame: https://a.co/d/aRmibfz
Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, by Greg Koukl: https://a.co/d/aIx5WfC
Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith, by Greg Bahnsen: https://a.co/d/hBVDltn.
Persuasions: A Dream of Reason Meeting Unbelief, by Douglas Wilson: https://a.co/d/1g1kOPl
The God Who Is There, by Francis Schaeffer: https://a.co/d/5iRqtyQ
We Are All Philosophers, by John Frame: https://a.co/d/bwSGthX
The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (A Theology of Lordship), by John Frame: https://a.co/d/ghHSugZ
Escape from Reason, by Francis Schaeffer: https://a.co/d/2SiQiNh.
He Is There and He Is Not Silent, by Francis Schaeffer: https://a.co/d/djzmZDl
Expository Apologetics: Answering Objections with the Power of the Word, by Voddie Baucham, Jr.: https://a.co/d/fr6kWZ3
Pushing the Antithesis, by Greg Bahnsen: https://a.co/d/ghHSugZ
The Defense of the Faith, by Cornelius Van Til: https://a.co/d/hFIcsoc
Ultimately, this course is a self-study endeavor. That means it is up to you how much you choose to read. If you think you can finish one book a month, then choose four from that list. If you think you can finish one book a week, then take on all twelve. You can do this, with God’s help.
#7 Build Your Syllabus
Next up, give yourself time parameters. Commit to a full semester—16 weeks—of studying. The great thing is that, because this is a self-study course, you do not have to follow typical college semester dates. You can start your course in the middle of December, or at the beginning of the year, or halfway through the summer. But choose a start and end date, and determine how much you will accomplish each week. To help you in this process, I wrote up a syllabus for you, that you can feel free to use. Find it here.
#7 Assign Yourself Challenge Papers
Now, how are you going to check yourself, to see if you have actually been learning apologetics? According to the Lord Jesus, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34b). So if you want to see if this knowledge has gone into your heart (which, in biblical parlance, has more to do with the mind than the emotions), you need to speak about it. Or better yet, write about it.
This is why you need to assign yourself “challenge papers.” As you watch lectures and read, record your responses to what you are learning. Don’t feel like you need to regurgitate everything you have been learning. All that stuff will be included in your notes (definitely be taking notes as you watch and read). Instead, choose one topic you find important, from a book or video, and home in on that.
As you do this, challenge yourself to create something that will be edifying for others to read and learn from. Here is the format I recommend following for your challenge papers, following the model used in classical rhetoric:
Exordium: introduce the subject and why it matters.
Narratio: state your thesis.
Divisio: list the main points you will discuss.
Confirmatio: actually flesh out your main points. Discuss the thesis and/or make the argument.
Confutatio: anticipate and refute one or more possible objections.
Conclusio: Summarize what you have said, and urge greater attention.
Feel free to point out areas where you disagree with the video or book, or where you think the author should have gone further or stated something differently, as well. In this way, you will be joining the great conversation of ideas.
#8 Start a Blog
After you write your challenge papers, how are you going to know if they are any good? And furthermore, how are you going to get your ideas out to others, so that they may benefit from them?
Parker Settecase recommends starting a blog or a Substack, and I think this is a good idea. Each week, as you write your challenge paper, post it to your blog. If you are on social media, send out a post with a link to your blog post, telling what it is about and inviting others to read it. This is a nice, informal way to get some peer review on your writing. Who knows? Over time, as you write down, share, and allow others to interact with your ideas, you may come to be seen as an authority in the area of apologetics.
#9 Gather a Cohort
Learning by yourself can be good, but as the weeks stretch on, it can be easy to fall out of the habit. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. You know what I’m talking about. The solution: find a cohort of others who can help hold you accountable. Share your apologetics course idea with them, and invite them to go through the process with you. At the very least, invite a few people to read your blog posts and share their feedback with you.
Of course, if you can find a few guys to meet up with you at the local pub for a pint and a discussion of your latest challenge paper, then you will have reached Inklings status, and you will truly be living the dream.
(I believe strongly in the power of learning in community, which is why I lead the Hammer & Anvil Society, the semi-secretive learning fellowship of The Think Institute. Feel free to check that out.)
#10 Repeat
When you have made it through your semester course in apologetics, why let the learning stop there? The world of Christian apologetics is broad and deep, and there is no shortage of subjects for you to dive into. Pick another topic, such as the textual reliability of Scripture, the evidence for the historicity of the Gospel, or the superiority of Christianity vs. other religions and cults.
Learn more about how you can get apologetics training with brothers in a dedicated learning community through the Hammer & Anvil Society. Go here: https://thethink.institute/society.