Course curriculum

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. Setting the Stage Part 1

      FREE PREVIEW
    3. Setting the Stage Part 2

    4. Setting the Stage Part 3

    5. Lesson 1 Quiz

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. Descartes and Mechanism Part 1

    3. Descartes and Mechanism Part 2

    4. Lesson 2 Quiz

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. Hume and Empiricism Part 1

    3. Hume and Empiricism Part 2

    4. Lesson 3 Quiz

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. Kant and Constructivism Part 1

    3. Kant and Constructivism Part 2

    4. Lesson 4 Quiz

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. Nietzsche and Postmodernism Part 1

    3. Nietzsche and Postmodernism Part 2

    4. Nietzsche and Postmodernism Part 3

    5. Lesson 5 Quiz

    1. Lesson Overview

    2. The Gospel as Good News Part 1

    3. The Gospel as Good News Part 2

    4. Lesson 6 Quiz

    5. Summary: A Method for Engaging with Different Worldviews

    6. Recommended Resources

    7. Course Evaluation

About this course

  • $14.99
  • 29 lessons
  • 2.5 hours of video content
Gain perspective on the intellectual influences on the modern worldview.

It is common to describe the recent intellectual landscape as involving a major shift from Modernism to Postmodernism. This description is overly simplistic. In this course we will investigate four intellectual currents that make up the contemporary mind.

Featuring teaching from Dr. Greg Ganssle, Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, this course provides video lectures, quizzes, and reflection questions that will help you see the origins of our current intellectual climate more clearly.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How long will it take for me to complete this course?

    Each lesson is designed to take approximately 1-2 hours, depending on how deeply you engage the reflection and discussion questions. Since this is a self-paced course, the time it will take you to complete it will depend on the speed with which you want to progress through the course.

  • Will I be able to interact with the professor(s) during the course?

    Since this course is designed as a self-paced experience, you will not have any interaction with the professor during the course.

  • Will I need to purchase any additional materials?

    No. The course contains everything you need to successfully complete the course.

Course Author

Professor of Philosophy, Biola University Greg Ganssle

Dr. Greg Ganssle has been thinking about the intersection of Christian faith and contemporary scholarship for over thirty years. He began as an undergraduate by skipping his classes and reading C.S. Lewis. After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1978, he worked in campus ministry on a variety of campuses. Hundreds of conversations with students from a wide variety of religious and philosophical perspectives drove him to a sustained self-study program. Eventually, it occurred to him that he was reading philosophy. Since he had escaped college without taking a philosophy course, he decided to begin with Philosophy 101 at the age of 25. Within weeks he was hooked. Continuing to juggle his full-time campus ministry responsibilities, he earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Rhode Island in 1990. He then went full time and earned his doctorate in philosophy from Syracuse University in 1995, where his dissertation on God's relation to time won a Syracuse University Dissertation Award. In addition to publishing nearly three dozen articles, chapters and reviews, Greg has edited two books, God and Time: Four Views (IVP, 2001) and God and Time: Essays on the Divine Nature (Oxford, 2002 – with David M. Woodruff). Greg is also the author of Our Deepest Desires: How the Christian Story Fulfills Human Aspirations (IVP, 2017), Thinking about God: First Steps in Philosophy (IVP, 2004) and A Reasonable God: Engaging the New Face of Atheism (Baylor University Press, 2009). Greg was a part-time lecturer in the philosophy department at Yale for nine years and a senior fellow at the Rivendell Institute at Yale. Greg's research interests lie in contemporary philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. Greg has been married to Jeanie since 1985. They have three children, none of whom are philosophers. Although happily married, Greg has a secret crush on Jane Austen.

About the Provider

Talbot School of Theology |
Biola University

Talbot School of Theology is a theologically conservative, evangelical seminary in Southern California near Los Angeles. With over a 60-year heritage of biblical fidelity, the seminary couples solid evangelical scholarship with spiritual formation to prepare students for a lifetime of relevant, effective ministry. The seminary's master's degree programs and doctoral degree programs are led by a faculty of nationally renowned, widely-published, and actively engaged ministry leaders.
The side of Talbot East in Biola University

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