What is an apologetics degree? Apologetics is a branch of Christian theology devoted to justifying Christian beliefs against objections. It’s a key feature in evangelism and church outreach, serving to convince non-believers and win converts through logical and persuasive arguments for God’s truth, relying on Scripture, historical evidence, and morality.
You are probably no stranger to people questioning your faith. Although the United States has the world’s largest population of Christians, that number has been dropping since the 1990s. According to tracking polls from Pew Research, since 2009 alone, the percentage of American adults identifying as Christian has declined from 77 percent to only 65 percent in 2019.
That’s a crisis of faith for American Christians and a tragedy for non-believers. But Christianity has always faced challenges of culture and competition. And since the time of the Apostles, there has been an answer to those challenges: the art of apologetics.
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But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
Apologetics isn’t about apologizing for your beliefs, but it is about justifying and arguing for having faith in Christ. It’s a critical part of evangelism. It also requires a strong underlying knowledge of Scripture and theology. To be an apologist, you have to do more than just quote chapter and verse of the Bible; you need to understand the logic of belief and have the communication skills to explain it to others.
Those are all skills that are best developed by earning a degree in Christian apologetics.
Christian Apologetics Makes Arguments for Evangelism and Sustaining Faith
Peter exhorts believers to always be ready with an answer to the reason for your belief in Christ; early Christians, spreading His Word, frequently found themselves facing such questions. Paul spends much of Acts explaining and justifying his religion.
Justifying and explaining a belief in Christianity isn’t an apology for keeping faith in Christ. Instead, apologetics comes from the Greek apologia, which is a form of formal verbal defense of an intellectual or legal position.
Since those early days, apologetics have flourished. Many famous Christian philosophers have built schools of Christian apologetics based on everything from:
- Biblical Canon
- Lived Human Experience
- Historical Records
- Moral Philosophy
Apologetics isn’t just about non-believers, though. It’s also one of the ways that pastors help congregations sustain their own faith in the face of questioning. Every Christian experiences doubts at times—Jesus Christ himself was challenged on the cross. But apologetics offers answers to those moments of uncertainty.
Today, apologetics lives on in both formal and informal ways. Scholars and academics debate the logic of Christian beliefs in dense journal articles; evangelists deliver epistles to non-believers in print and in person, and increasingly on the internet.
It’s important to show the passion behind those beliefs, but it’s also important to make sense. Apologetics degrees help you understand the logic of arguments, and to equip you with the Scriptural and doctrinal knowledge to make them.
Christian Apologetics Degrees Build a Case for Your Beliefs
Apologetics reaches beyond belief and faith to create arguments for God’s existence and Christ’s love that rest on historical, logical, and factual foundations. Your coursework gives you all the building blocks to put these justifications together, in the same way a lawyer might build a convincing case before a judge.
That involves classes from both religious and secular perspectives, including:
Theology - Theology, or the study of spirituality and religion, is the framework that apologetics is built on. In order to make arguments in favor of Christianity, you need a core understanding of the beliefs of the religion. It’s also useful to study comparative religions, learning what makes Christianity unique and true by comparison. Theology courses give you the structure within which you will make your arguments.
Scripture - Christianity comes with an instruction manual, and apologetics is a field that refers to Scriptural passages constantly. You’ll study the Bible both to find the truth in the inerrant Word that it records, as well as a source of verifiable historical knowledge to be proven through outside records.
Apologetics - Apologetics has a long history itself and a dozen systematic forms. You aren’t starting from scratch as a Christian apologist. Classes in apologetics walk you through what has already been argued and proven to give you a basis for your own evangelizing and justifications.
Rhetoric - Rhetoric is the art of making convincing arguments in speech or writing. Although rhetoric is a set of tools that do not always rely on logic, they are also useful in making effective arguments that also are logical. This coursework teaches you techniques for being an effective messenger for His truth.
History and Archaeology - Building sustainable evidence for the truth of Christian faith often rests on unimpeachable historical evidence. Secular study of history has turned up plenty of hard evidence for the stories told in the Bible, from sedimentary layers showing the traces of the Great Flood to the Miriam ossuary documenting the conviction of Jesus for blasphemy.
Philosophy and logic - Apologetics is about faith, but it makes its stand in logic. You’ll study the philosophy of reason and learn about formal applications of logic to help you construct air-tight arguments for Christian beliefs.
Theology and apologetics are closely related. You can think of apologetics as a sort of applied theology, taking a general understanding of the beliefs and doctrines of Christianity and turning them into persuasive arguments.
Adding a Focus to Your Christian Apologetics Degree Can Build Persuasion Skills in Specific Areas
Some degrees in Christian apologetics also allow you to specialize in certain areas of the field. Those concentration options can include:
- Evangelism - Developing and using apologetics as a method of converting non-believers
- Systematic Theology - Apologetics are explored in their theoretical sense to build academic arguments for Christianity compared to other religions
- Cultural Engagement - Exploring uses of apologetics in the church’s engagement with broader or multicultural populations
You can also look at degrees that offer specializations in apologetics itself as a sort of concentration. A Master of Pastoral Studies program with a concentration in apologetics, for instance, is also really a kind of degree in applied apologetics for use in a pastoral ministry.
Degrees in Christian Apologetics Are Most Commonly Offered at the Graduate Level
Most apologetics degrees are found at the master's level and above. It's an advanced skill, and not one that you can learn entirely as an undergraduate. But there are also undergraduate studies in apologetics that you can use to prepare your path toward more advanced degrees, in any number of Christian studies subjects.
Degree programs in apologetics can be found in two forms:
- Majors in Christian Apologetics - These degrees focus exclusively on the art and form of apologetics. Like other Christian degrees, they start by building your understanding of Christian doctrines and Scripture. They build on that, however, with extensive philosophical and logic instruction to help you use that knowledge to make arguments in favor of Christian beliefs.
- Concentrations in Christian Apologetics - Many related Christian ministry or theology degrees offer specialization areas in Christian apologetics. While these degrees have their own main focus in other areas, they will include courses of instruction in making strong and persuasive arguments in favor of Christian faith.
The degree you decide to pursue will depend on your calling and interests. In general, it's more common to earn degrees in other major areas, but to boost your evangelical skills with an apologetics concentration. But other people earn a full degree in apologetics at one level or another as support for studies they pursue in other areas with a separate degree… for example, someone who has earned a Bachelor in Pastoral Studies may go on to a Master's in Christian Apologetics to boost their evangelical skills specifically.
At some schools, you will also find degrees in apologetics and evangelism, a natural fit for anyone pursuing a career in practical ministry applications rather than academics.
Bachelor’s Degrees in Christian Apologetics
For the most part, apologetics degrees first become available at the four-year level of bachelor’s studies. These programs combine a lot of training in apologetics with a more general course of study in the liberal arts. You also get a lot of leeway for taking elective courses, either to get some basic exposure to other interests or to tailor your studies to a specific focus.
The bachelor’s degree is an essential education for many employers, both faith-based and secular. That’s because of those liberal arts courses, offering a well-rounded education in:
- History
- Social studies and culture
- English and literature
- Math and sciences
The combination is designed to build your critical-thinking and communication skills. Those also happen to be pretty important talents to have in apologetics, so you’ll find that degrees at this level are well-suited to preparing you for the advocacy of Christianity.
Master’s Degrees in Christian Apologetics
A master’s in apologetics typically takes only two years to complete. But make no mistake, even at half the length, these advanced degrees offer more than twice the depth you get in the subject at the bachelor’s level.
That’s because you are past the general liberal studies training at this point, and free to dive into the technicalities of theology and logic. Your coursework will revolve around the specifics in Scripture, doctrine, and morality that best justify Christian beliefs, and then build your logical reasoning and communication skills to help deliver the message.
Both thesis and non-thesis programs are available in these degrees, often depending on whether you intend to pursue an academic career (thesis required) or a ministerial one (capstone project required). Either way, you’ll graduate with some sort of unique example of your reasoning and abilities in apologetics to further your calling.
Doctoral Degrees in Christian Apologetics
PhD programs in Christian apologetics are almost entirely aimed at creating academic professionals for research or teaching purposes.
Apologetics degrees at this level are a part of seriously advancing the state of Christian theology. Doctoral students fully engage with some of the thorniest problems of faith and belief, undertaking original research and coming up with new ideas in the field. Your doctoral dissertation can take as much as half of your four-year program to write and hone. You’ll practice your defense of Christianity through a defense of your dissertation in front of a committee of experts.
Since you get to choose your dissertation topic, you also get a lot of leeway in creating the focus of your doctoral degree. Every course of study at this level is unique, and usually a near partnership with your professors, who are guides and sounding boards rather than lecturers.
Certificates or Associate Degrees in Christian Apologetics
There are very few colleges that offer a two-year associate’s degree in Christian apologetics. It’s a field that simply requires more intensive study in order to really get a foothold. Most students are better served with a different associate’s major, followed by further graduate or undergraduate studies in apologetics.
But you will find quite a few certificate programs, which have a similar kind of exposure to apologetics as an associate’s degree.
Each of these offers basic instruction in the standard arguments made for the existence of God and justification for Christian beliefs.
While the associate’s program will include basic liberal arts instruction as part of the package, certificate programs only offer up the dedicated coursework in apologetics. That makes certificates much shorter, typically only a few months or less. And in both cases, you’ll usually have to rely on other sources of knowledge to build your background of understanding of doctrine and Scripture.
That’s why most of these certificates are post-baccalaureate or post-graduate programs, designed for people who have already earned a degree in some form of Christian studies.
Selecting the Right School for Your Christian Apologetics Degree Program
Christian schools are your only option for earning a degree in Christian apologetics. But they are a great option, because only at a Christian college are you immersed in an environment where your studies are supported on all sides by scholars and academics who understand the details of faith better than anyone.
Any university worth its salt should be accredited by an organization that is recognized by either the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the Department of Education. There are two agencies that specifically focus on Christian colleges; Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). But any relevant accreditation is okay, particularly for undergraduate programs.
Online Options Make Apologetics Degrees Accessible for Everyone
Apologetics is an important type of Christian degree, but they are not the most common. You will find that schools that do offer degrees in apologetics may not be as close to home as some other programs.
But with remote learning options, you no longer have to face the choice of either relocating a great distance or picking from a limited number of nearby options. Online studies open up a broad number of lifestyle choices for your apologetics studies.
Beyond that, online college degrees may also just fit better in your own life than traditional programs. Since many apologetics degrees are offered at an advanced level, most students are older and non-traditional. That means people who have to get the kids to soccer practice on time, and who don’t always have the option of leaving the workforce for a couple years just to get a degree.
Online Christian apologetics degrees bring flexibility to your studies. With asynchronous coursework and the ability to study anywhere you have internet access, you can shift your class time around to when and where works best for you… on lunch break at work one day, before breakfast on another.
What Can You Do With a Degree in Christian Apologetics?
Apologetics offers great comfort to many Christians, offering substance and rationality to support their beliefs. But as satisfying as that knowledge is, the expense and time that you put into a degree usually means that you need to find some way to turn that into a job that fits with your calling.
For Christian apologetics degree graduates, there are quite a few different ways to put your training to work. You may become:
Theologists - Theologists study and describe religion. In practice, most Christian theologians work as professors or teachers, engaging in academic research as part of their job. There are some theology positions working directly for different Christian denominations, but in practice the work of theology in the church is conducted by bishops and elders in the hierarchy.
Evangelists - Christian apologetics gets its greatest workout in the role of evangelizing. Christ’s final words in Mark makes it clear that preaching the Gospel is his last commandment. But if testimony is sometimes effective, blind faith is never an easy ask. With arguments from a Christian apologetics degree, evangelists can make reasoned and supported arguments to help save souls.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15
Pastors - Pastors probably represent the number one consumer of practical Christian apologetics skills. Every week their sermons have to appeal to congregants and new attendees; they are always helping people in the community who are wrestling with their faith. So a Christian apologetics degree offers real tools to help in their daily jobs.
Any Christian may be an apologist, and most of us are at some point in our lives. Even if we don’t have cause to defend our faith to others, surely we will do so in the cloister of our own minds. And we can rely on the formal work of those with Christian apologist degrees when we are doing so.
