A Mum’s Perspective On The Best Apologetics Books for Christian Home Education
My favorite and most prized time as a home educating mum is dinner time. I feel like this time around the table is actually where our most important learning takes place. When I plan for dinner, I often plan for discussion by looking up a juicy topic for conversation or finding a short video, article, or chapter from some of the best books on apologetics to discuss.
I have to confess that I usually choose something controversial!! These topics seem to make for the most interesting (and animated!) conversations because where there is controversy there is a lot of emotion, nuance and complexity to think through, and an opportunity to look at something from different angles.
Often it doesn’t really matter what the topic is, what matters is learning how to think about different issues logically and biblically. It is developing the thinking tools that we are most concerned about. Even though we have raised our kids to know the Bible well, it is interesting to see how sometimes it isn’t always easy or intuitive to apply biblical principles to complex topics. Sometimes it takes a lot of discussion and teasing things out to really figure out where the rubber hits the road, where our faith must inform how we live and think. To form a biblical worldview.
Listen to the Podcast
Introducing Logic & Debate for High Schoolers with Emma Cummings & Agnes Mitchell
Why Choose The Best Books On Apologetics For Your Teens
One of the main predictors of whether a child will keep their faith into adulthood is whether they have been exposed to Christian apologetics and worldview. When kids become teenagers it is normal and healthy for them to start asking tough questions about their faith. This is part of the process of them embracing their faith as their own. Sometimes even the common questions can get pretty deep and it can be intimidating for us as parents when we are not sure how to answer those questions. Going through an apologetics course can provide some comprehensive answers for the types of questions that naturally arise in teens’ minds as they mature into adults and decide whether or not to make their parents’ faith their own.
As they enter university or the workplace, their faith will inevitably be challenged. Having the foundation of answers to common challenges and hard questions about their Christian worldview and their own faith can help teens stand firm in whatever they face. Choosing faith-based courses is key to the process.
Our youth today live in a confused culture. Having some apologetics under their belt also equips your teen to speak about the truth of Christianity and help others to overcome their own barriers to accepting the Christian faith, and to be ready with an answer.
Logic & Debate With The Best Books on Apologetics
Logic and debate are skills that we focus on in our home, probably mainly because we have always been attracted to the classical model of home education. We definitely weren’t purists about classical education, but we followed the broad brush strokes of the trivium – the three main stages of education that correspond to different stages of brain development in the child. Grammar – up to about age 9 the stage where kids have incredible memories and so we cram them with facts.
The Classical Stages of Learning
The dialectic or logic stage – often starts about the age of 9 and you will notice it, because kids start to become more argumentative as they start to think more critically and evaluate if things are really true. This is the stage of learning to argue well, with logic and critical thinking. And finally the Rhetoric stage – this is the stage in the teenage years where we teach how to express well, to persuade and to be creative in how to engage with culture.
It is amazing to see how kids, by intelligent design, are naturally wired to learn in these three stages. The amazing memories of youngsters, the argumentativeness or pre-pubescents – yes it’s really a good thing, despite how annoying it can be!! And the creative expression of teenagers. God has made kids to learn, and classical education is really just harnessing and honing those powers at the right time, to maximize the abilities God has given them.
Teaching Logic & Debate in the teen years allows kids to take their desire to argue (hopefully with grace and love) and make it very useful and powerful – by teaching them how to really think and argue in a clear and persuasive way. This not only allows them to be winsome in carrying a message of truth in a world full of lies, but it also protects them against falling for lies and propaganda themselves. To be able to think critically is a gift and useful in every sphere of life. Our kids have been born into a time in history where they will be exposed to an onslaught of messages, some of which are highly destructive and persuasive. The mind is a battleground. We must give them tools and weapons to fight.
The Best Books On Apologetics for Live Online Logic & Debate for Teens
In the Logic & Debate: Apologetics for High Schoolers course being taught at Arise Home Education we will do more than just ask the question, ‘Does God Exist?’. We will be reading through one of the best books on apologetics for teens. In my opinion – I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Athiest by Frank Turek is the best book for pre-teens to young adults. The reason I chose this particular book, is because we listened to the audio version of this book as a family while driving in the car several years ago. At the time our kids were 18, 15, 13, and 10. I was worried it might be too much for the younger ones, but they all were really gripped by it and kept asking for more (ok so my kids are pretty nerdy, but still…).
The Conversation Continues
What’s more, after we finished the book, they kept coming out with the concepts that were contained in the book in conversations with us and with people who they were sharing their faith with, so I saw how they had really retained and internalised the information and it had really equipped them to share their faith in a more effective way. This book I feel is quite thorough in its approach to showing why Atheism is a tenuous position and gives lots of strategies for dismantling common attacks on Christianity.
The other book we will be using which I also think is an amazing critical thinking book for teens is called The Unaborted Socrates by the Christian Philosopher Pete Kreeft and is actually written in the format of a drama, which makes it easy to read. It really illustrates the Socratic method, as Socrates appears in our modern culture and starts questioning various people of the logic behind their stance on abortion. He clearly breaks apart pro-abortion arguments from every angle. Both my younger boys read through this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the format and were really impressed by the way logic was put to practical use in the setting of this important social issue.
These books are challenging and packed with content, but we will be breaking them down into manageable chunks and discussing them along the way. The kids will also be doing weekly writing assignments based on the books to make sure the concepts get digested and internalized.
To be able to think critically is a gift and useful in every sphere of life. Our kids have been born into a time in history where they will be exposed to an onslaught of messages, some of which are highly destructive and persuasive. The mind is a battleground. We must give them tools and weapons to fight.
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A Few More Of The Best Books For Apologetics Your Teens Will Love
Some teens enjoy good, deep discussions and philosophical arguments at this stage of learning. Here are a few more books to inspire their learning and dinner table discussions with your family.
- Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (discussed in our British Literature Year 2 live online course)
- The Reason for God by Tim Keller
- The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel
- Apologetics For A New Generation, by Sean McDowell
This post was written by Agnes Mitchell, our tutor for Scottish Gaelic and Logic & Debate: Apologetics for High Schoolers
