Apologetics Concentration

Concentration Chair: Prof. Trent Horn

Courses provide students with the biblical basis for the key Catholic teachings and customs that non-Catholics wonder about, object to, and preach against. Topics include an introduction to apologetics, Catholic norms, nature and grace, and non-Catholic beliefs.

Concentration Goals

    1. To demonstrate that arguments given by atheists are not compelling especially: that science proves that God doesn’t exist, that there could not be a God of love since there is so much evil in the world, that reality of sins committed by Catholics in the past and present do not prove that no one should be a Catholic.
    2. That philosophical ethics can articulate with convincing reasons that what Catholics know by faith to be immoral is also immoral by reason.
    3. To demonstrate that Catholic dogma and faithful practice is a fulfillment of the yearnings of non-Christians and non-Catholic Christians.

Concentration Outcomes

  1. That students exhibit an ability to speak truth with love and respect in addressing intellectual falsehoods and historical misrepresentations.
  2. That students demonstrate an ability to articulate, in practical and popular ways, philosophical doctrines that are particularly useful or even essential to giving an account of the doctrines of Catholic faith, whether by ordinary speech and writing or via new media of social communication.

Co-requisites for All Areas of Concentration

  1. 1  PAS 602 Fundamentals of Practical Theology
  2. DTH 645 Nature and Grace

Core Courses for the Apologetics Concentration 

  1. PAS 511 Mission and Evangelization
  2. PAS 805 Trinity and the Incarnation
  3. MTH 851 Contemporary Moral Issues
  4. PAS 720 Nurturing the Domestic Church: Facilitating Authentic Marriage, Family Life and Spirituality

Apologetics Area Concentration

  1. APO 512 Apologetics  
  2. APO 535 Moral Apologetics 
  3. APO 565 Reading Science in the Light of Faith 
  4. APO 652 The New Atheism 

Apologetics Electives 

*Select any two courses from the following, or consult the MAPS Program Director to approve your alternate selection. 

  1. APO 520 Adapting Evangelization to Hispanic Cultural Contexts 
  2. APO 620 Evolution and Catholic Thought  
  3. DTH 512 Spiritual Life in the Classics 
  4. PAS 660 Thanatology 
  5. PAS 841 Catholic Social Teachings PAS 891 Methods in Teaching 

Permanent link to this article: https://catalog.holyapostles.edu/apologetics-concentration/