The Best Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics

Even so, most religious as well as secular worldviews have their own apologetics. For instance, Richard Dawkins's book The Blind Watchmaker is an apologetics for Darwinian materialism.

Apologetics has been popular since the rise of Christianity and it has proliferated at different points in church history. Nonetheless, modern academia has largely sidelined it. That may, however, be changing. Graduate students can now find an array of master's as well as doctoral apologetics programs.

Featured Online Schools

TheBestSchools.org has researched the top apologetics graduate degrees in the United States and ranked them according to the quality of faculty, level of accreditation, diversity of degrees offered, cost, and overall accessibility.

The faculty criterion refers to whether a school cultivates a high academic standard through the professionalism and apologetic expertise of its faculty, who, preferably, are accomplished apologists themselves.

The accreditation criterion identifies the level of accreditation, namely, whether the school's credentialing will be recognized on a résumé.

The "degrees offered" criterion refers to the variety and weightiness of degrees offered. A "certificate of apologetics" is not readily marketable, even within church circles, and represents little accomplishment. But a ministry-intensive school such as a theological seminary might be expected to have a DMin, or MDiv, and a Certificate, as those would serve its ministerial purposes.

Cost figures refer to the "per-credit-hour" rate and do not include additional fees, scholarships, cost of living, travel expenses, etc. Prospective students should recheck any of those numbers, as cost is the most flexible of the statistics here. Tuition and fees routinely fluctuate every year.

"Accessibility" refers both to the convenience of the campus, and access to classes, be it through online classes, streaming, extension campuses, distance learning, hybrid, night-classes, intensive courses, etc.

Also noted in the descriptions are key distinctions that may stand out, such as location, school emphases, apologetics opportunities on campus, etc.

See also our Best Online Master of Divinity Degree Programs