Peter S. Williams studied philosophy at Cardiff University (BA), Sheffield University (MA) and at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (MPhil). He then spent three years as a student pastor at Holy Trinity church Leicester before moving to Southampton to work alongside the Christian educational charity Damaris Trust. Through his work with Damaris, he leads over 30 Philosophy and Ethics conferences for sixth form students each year, as well as undertaking various writing projects and speaking and broadcasting engagements. Peter is also Assistant Professor in Communication and Worldviews at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication in Norway. His publications include A Sceptic’s Guide to Atheism: God Is Not Dead (Paternoster, 2009) and Understanding Jesus: Five Ways to Spiritual Enlightenment (Paternoster, 2011).

PROGRAMME

The programme includes Pre- and Post-Forum seminars:

CW103 The Christian Worldview in an Apologetic Perspective (10 ECTS*) will be held as a Pre-Forum Conference on Friday, 18th May, beginning with dinner at 17.45. It will conclude on Saturday, 19th May, at 17.30.

The seminars will introduce the distance learning programme, its Web-based lessons, as well as resources and the assignments. The teaching will give an introduction to and an overview of the course material.

Course attendees must attend the relevant Pre- and Post-Forum teaching during the Forum conference. These are part of the teaching requirements for the course. Candidates must in addition have full attendance at their Forum Network.

After the Forum, Web-based lessons and teaching material will be made available to aid students fulfilling the aims of the course. For the written assignments, input from the staff will be offered.

Course and Accommodation Fees (In Addition to Main Forum Costs)

Forum attendees are exempted from paying the ordinary course fee, and thus only pay the registration and exam fees.

Total Course Fees: 100 Euros

Fees for Friday night’s lodging: 40 Euros for Western Europeans; 20 Euros for Central- and Eastern-European scholarship recipients.

Admission Requirements and Registration

Registering for distance learning for CW103 requires candidates to be able to demonstrate general university admission status as set out by the Norwegian Ministry for Education.

An application form is available from:

siv.ragnhild.holtvind@mediehogskolen.no

The completed application form is sent the above email address or by standard mail to:

Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication c/o Admissions
Postboks 410 Lundsiden,
N-4604 Kristiansand,
Norway.

In addition to the application form, candidates must submit attested* copies of their relevant certificates. These papers must be handed in at the Forum, at the latest. Please be aware that there are different requirements** depending on the country from which you are applying.

Please note:

*All copies must be stamped and signed by either a representative from public administration (a school, local authority, police station, etc.) or a bank/official post office. The copies must be stamped, signed, and dated with the place of attestation clearly stated. Copies of copies are not acceptable. Where documentation is not in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish, a translation must also be provided. The translation must be undertaken by an officially authorised translator or translation service.

** You can find the information about this at NOKUT – the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, here:

http://www.nokut.no/en/Foreign-education/General-recognition/Applicant/N...

There is no English test required for this course. But as all teaching and material will be in English, competence in English is needed.

Key Dates

26th April: Application deadline. Application forms must be sent to GSJC by this time.

3rd May: The students will receive the reading assignment (by email).

(Note: You must bring your attested (and translated) copies of certificates to the Forum.)

18th-19th May: The course will start Friday evening with dinner and one teaching session. The teaching will continue on Saturday from 08.30 – 12.00 and 12.30 – 17.30.

19th -23rd May: European Leadership Forum. The candidates must have full attendance at their Forum Network.

6th-9th August: Four days of home exam.

CW103 - The Christian Worldview in an Apologetic Perspective

Focus

Every worldview has apologetic challenges in that it must relate to questions, challenges, and alternative viewpoints. However, some issues are considered to be more central than others when confronting different worldview perspectives. This course focuses upon outlining and understanding these challenges, and suggesting a way of responding to them from a Christian perspective. This should be very relevant in the current pluralistic diversity.

Reading requirements

The students must commit to do reading assignments in preparation for the Forum. The assigned reading will be sent as soon as the application has been received.

As is seen below, the reader for the full course is William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith (3rd edition), in addition to material on www.reasonablefaithtools.org.

The full course includes approximately 700 pages of reading, consisting of:

• Craig, William Lane: Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2008; 3rd Edition) (400 pages)
• Audio and video resources, and study guides at www.reasonablefaithtools.org, equivalent to 150 pages.
• Selected material with objections to the Christian faith (equivalent to 150 pages).
 

Suggestions for Selected Material

• Brown, Dan: The DaVinci Code (Oslo, Bazar forlag, 2003).
• Dawkins, Richard: The God Delusion (London: Bantam Press, 2006).
• Dennett, Daniel C.: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (New York: Penguin, 2006).
• Ehrman, Bart D: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (New York: Harper Collins, 2005).
• Grayling, A.C.: Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness (London: Oberon Books, 2007).
• Harris, Sam: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W.W.Norton, 2004).
• Harris, Sam: Letter to a Christian Nation (New York: Random House, Inc., 2008).
• Hitchens, Christopher: God is Not Great (London: Atlantic Books, 2007).
• Lofthus, John W.: Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity (New York: Promotheus Books, 2008).
• Onfray, Michael: In Defense of Atheism (New York: Penguin, 2007).
• Pullman, Philip: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Edinburg: Canongate, 2010).
• Russel, Bertrand: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957).
• Stenger, Victor J: The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason (New York: Promtheus Books, 2009).

If you have any questions regarding the course or materials please contact:
bjorn.hinderaker@mediehogskolen.no

Progression

• Participants must attend the Pre-Forum Conference and, in addition, have full attendance at their Forum Network.
• Participants must hand in a 1500 word (+/- 15%) written assignment.

Assessment

• A 3,000 word (+/- 15%) home exam which takes place over four days.