Christian Apologetics

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod’s Center for Apologetics and Worldviews (CAW) works closely with the college, sponsoring events and offering resources that allow students to discover that the truth of historic and biblical Christianity is defensible. Most importantly, this includes evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the needed blessing which flow from him: forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Faith in this Christ, therefore, is not a blind faith, but reasonable, to be defended and shared. This defensible Christianity also establishes for the Christian a true worldview – what is to be believed and confessed, what is to be rejected, and how one is to walk with his Savior and with those God brings across his path in this life.

The College’s mission and vision announces a pursuit of “knowledge, truth, and discernment,” with all areas of learning to be examined through the “discerning lens of a Christian worldview.” The faculty seeks to deliver on this by mentoring each student to “demonstrate a rational defense for the historical basis of the Christian faith.”

Courses such as RELG330 Christian Social Thought and RELG340 Apologetics—deal with apologetics quite directly, while a biblical worldview permeates that entire curriculum and shapes all aspects of campus life. Bethany’s pledge to all students is “the comfort of the Gospel, the true knowledge of our world as revealed in Scripture and reflected in nature, and a personal mentoring relationship in higher education as preparation for a life of purpose and meaning.”