Ethos is offering 2 courses related to apologetics during the Fall 2011. Classes will be capped at 24 students, so register soon to insure your place.
Mastering the Fundamentals of Apologetics with Mrs. Betsy McPeak
This course will cover the basics and beyond!
Mrs. Betsy McPeak has a degree in Philosophy and is a C.S. Lewis Institute Fellow. She has taken advanced Apologetics instruction from the greats, including a graduate class in apologetics at Cambridge and has studied at the feet of Greg Bahnsen, Ellis Potter, and Francis Schaeffer. This course offers an exploration of the methods and facts that establish the Christian faith. Mastery comes from learning to examine and communicate these truths in an intellectually honest and respectful way.
Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. – 12 noon Eastern Standard Time
September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30.
Students will watch a segment of a teaching DVD prior to class each week. The focus will be on using/finding lots and lots of examples to reenforce the understanding of the concepts and methods of apologetics. Students will be encouraged to face their own doubts about the Christian faith, strengthening their own faith. Students will also learn how to give a defense of the hope within them as Christ’s ambassadors.
Topics covered:
1. Intro to Apologetics and Worldviews
2. Gentle and Respectful Ways to Interact
3. Classical Apologetics: Ontological/Cosmological/Teleological Proofs
4. Presuppositional Apologetics
5. Evidential Apologetics
6. Epistemology
7. The Trinity and God’s Attributes
8. Reliability of the Old and New Testatments
9. Christ: His Deity and His Resurrection
10. Tolerance and Exclusivity
11. Modern and Postmodern Thought
12. The Problem of Evil
Mastering the Fundamentals of World Views with Mrs. Betsy McPeak
As Mrs. McPeak has instructed Impromptu Apologetics to some of the top speakers in the country, she has seen the need for a charitable study of modern, anti-Christian philosophies. This course teaches students to infer world views from both reading and culture. Students will learn how to read non-Christian authors advocating non-Christian ideas.
Wednesdays, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30.
This class will use The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, Fifth Edition, by James W. Sire, as a foundational text. A wide range of literature will be read as students learn to read “worldviewishly.” In the fall semester, we will study the following worldviews: Christian Theism, Deism, Naturalism and Nihilism. ( If students choose to register for a second semester, we will cover Existentialism, Eastern Pantheistic Monism, The New Age, Postmodernism, and Islam.)
Each worldview will be studied for 3 weeks. For each worldview, students will:
1. Read Sire’s chapter on the worldview.
2. Read literature (genre will vary greatly from worldview to worldview) written from the worldview.
3. Write an essay on the literature selection.
4. Make an “idea collage” of examples of the worldview expressed in contemporary culture.
More Info:
Tuition: $300 for a 12-week course. This will include a weekly 2 hour online class (with both teaching and discussion), personal feedback on your essays and projects, and email access to your instructor (Betsy McPeak) as you have questions about the course. There are no refunds for this course after it begins.
Go here to register: http://www.ethosdebate.com/instruction/register/
I’m not familiar with how a webinar is conducted. Is it live? We live in Malaysia, is it possible to have it earlier if it needs to be live? Is there a minimum age requirement for these courses?
Hi Mei Leng!
Thanks for your interest and questions.
Yes, the webinar will be live. I can’t really adjust the times, as they are set for the convenience of the majority of students (and the instructor), who are in the U.S.
There is not a stated minimum age, but the materials are on a rhetoric level. This is normally high school, but if a student is advanced and shows the ability to analyze/understand the materials, and communicate about them in writing and speaking, then they would be welcome. It is up to the parent to decide if the course content is suitable for the student.
Does that help? I will post some more guidelines on my blog today. Look at the bottom of yesterday’s post, or on the page “Fall 2011 Webinar Classes” by clicking on that tab at the top of the blog opening page.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Betsy McPeak
Thanks Betsy for your reply.
Is the time listed on EST? Joshua is keen to take your classes. So we might still be able to pull off the course on Apologetics, it’ll be 10pm in our time. Is he required to have taken a course on Logic? He’s only studied mostly on logical fallacies.
Yes, Mei Lee, the class in EST. Sorry, I should have said that!
Logic is not required. He should be fine!
Thanks for your interest,
Betsy McPeak
[...] by Dr. James Tallmon, PHC’s professor of rhetoric, and Mrs. Betsy McPeak, proprietor of ethosapologetics.com. These are rigorous, classical-method classes that will help students think deeply and practice [...]