Syllabus for Covenant Community Church (Bellwood, PA) — Spring 2026

Written By Daniel L. Arter

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Instructor/Facilitator Information

Rev. Daniel L. Arter, MA
Cell: (814) 600-9667
Email: me@danielarter.com

Class Description

A study of the defense of the Christian faith particularly dealing with biblical and theological foundations, methodology, and some modern case studies.

Class Objectives

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  1. Explain the importance of learning apologetics and how the study of apologetics benefits the modern Christian in today’s culture.

  2. Recognize and evaluate different apologetic methods and determine their preferred method for apologetics.

  3. Understand the concept of worldview and how worldviews influence a person’s life.

  4. Demonstrate the reasonableness of Christianity and reliability of the Bible.

  5. Interact with typical objections to Christianity in a logically coherent and biblically faithful way.

Recommended Textbooks and Readings

  • Steven B. Cowan, Five Views on Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000).

  • Michael S. Jones, Mark J. Farnham, and David L. Saxon, Talking About Worldviews: A Conversational Introduction to Thinking Philosophically (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2025).

  • Mark Ward, Biblical Worldview (Greenville, SC: BJU Press, 2015).

  • Cornelius Van Til, A Christian Theory of Knowledge (Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2023).

Schedule

Unit 1: Introductory Material

  • Week 1 — Introductory Issues in Apologetics

  • Week 2 — History of Apologetics

  • Week 3 — Methods of Apologetics

Unit 2: Understanding Worldviews

  • Week 4 — What are Worldviews?

  • Week 5 — Common Worldviews Today

Unit 3: Reasonableness of Christianity and Reliability of the Bible

  • Week 6 — The Consistency of Biblical Christianity

  • Week 7 — The Reliability of Scripture

Unit 4: Typical Issues in Apologetics

  • Week 8 — The Existence of God

  • Week 9 — The Problem of Evil

  • Week 10 — The Historicity of Jesus

  • Week 11 — Christianity and Science

  • Week 12 — Christianity and Morality

Notice

Completing this class does not provide any college or seminary course credit. Rather, it is intended to edify the average church attender in their own ability to faithfully defend their faith biblically. Future iterations of this course may be accredited, but until that moment, any offer of this course is completely unaccredited and cannot be utilized to fulfill the Introduction to Apologetics requirement at any college or seminary. If this course becomes accredited in the future, accreditation is not retroactive.

Daniel L. Arter

Daniel L. Arter is a confessionally Reformed Baptist pastor, philosopher of religion, and apologist. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Theology with an emphasis in Apologetics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

His work lies at the intersection of systematic theology, philosophical theology, and philosophy of religion, with particular focus on theological method, epistemology, and presuppositional apologetics. He is especially concerned with articulating and defending the rational coherence and truth of the Christian worldview.

Daniel teaches apologetics and theology in church, academic, and conference settings in the United States and internationally. He resides in the Central Pennsylvania region with his wife, Natalie.

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Introductory Issues in Apologetics