I’d rather attend class in person than online if all other factors are equal — but normally, the factors aren’t equal.
I have local obligations: dishes to clean, couples who need counseling, friends to evangelize, and always more dishes to clean. It’s difficult to study in one place and serve in another — but my commute from the kitchen to my laptop is pretty short, there’s no traffic or summer construction!
Learning Is For Everyone
I don’t know why some people believe they are too old to learn, or too young, or too this or that. You likely aren’t one of those people as you’re reading this post. So let me state what you already know: it’s always good to learn.
What you might not know is how accessible, enjoyable, and attainable the best theological education is. Don’t settle for podcasts and social media feeds—go deeper! Take a course!
In the rest of this post, I’d like to describe a bit more about who you should learn from and some options for doing so.
Serve Local, Learn Universal
God’s Spirit has written the Word of God. The best schools teach it. And the best schools also have a catholicity (small “c”) about them. Catholic means universal. Good schools teach what is true universally, at all times in all places. They teach catholic truths.
As I saw during my Religious Studies minor at the University of Waterloo, a lot of so-called “theology” courses or “Bible” courses are bad. I need to be blunt: many schools bring more death than life and more deceit than truth. They are taught by people-pleasers instead of God-fearers. They won’t necessarily destroy your soul, and it’s not like you can’t navigate through them with integrity, but for many Christians, they should avoid such schools.
They say they are more open-minded than some other Christian schools, but what they mean by that is often a closed-minded posture of reductive materialism in biblical interpretation or a no-minded posture of post-modernism.
In so many cases, including here in Canada, the best choice is remote learning. (It’s another reason why I still think podcasts are beneficial.) It’s not perfect but it frees you up to do a lot of good where you live. Keep serving locally while you learn universal truths.
Online Learning Options
I recommend taking the free and paid courses from the institutions I list below.
I choose these through my personal experience with them. For context, in the fall I begin my remote PhD program via the University of Nottingham. It’s yet another form of remote learning! I am so thankful for the technology that allows for this. In preparation for that degree, my focus has been on studying philosophy since I know I’m weak in that area. And so I’ve taken courses or listened to lectures from all of the following institutions in the last year or two and I can personally vouch for them. There are many other good schools and institutions which I do not list here, simply because I can’t personally vouch for them.
Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS)
RTS is a highly regarded seminary which offers certificates, masters’ degrees, and doctoral programs.
I have benefited from their free lectures via their free app. Seriously, you should add the RTS app. So good!
Most first- and second-year course lectures are available for free! This is wild! These lectures include The Origin and Authority of the New Testament with Michael Kruger, Systematic Theology with Scott Swain, and Christian Thought and Philosophy with James Anderson. So good!
Tip: Often, the first lecture will include an audible description of the textbooks for the course. Then you can buy them and follow along. You can also try Google searching to find the textbooks so you can follow along. It’s okay to skip the readings too.
Link: https://rts.edu/
The Davenant Institute
Davenant is a new-ish institution that combines the best of classical and Christian traditions. If you want catholic teaching, you want Davenant.
I took one course for credit and audited one course. As an aside, there’s a benefit in paying extra to take the course for credit, even if you don’t know if you need it for some accreditation path. It adds the accountability and feedback mechanism, forcing you to learn through writing, (and it doesn’t hurt the school or the professor either, as Christian profs are often underpaid relative to their non-Christian peers).
Davenant has some free lectures on YouTube, like these ones by Alastair Roberts on Gender: Beyond Rules and Roles. Mostly though, the main offering at Davenant is their small weekly lectures and discussions guided by a prof. The classes I took each had around ten people in them and we met together over ten weeks. There was a lot of great discussion from varied backgrounds (from homeschooling parents looking to be more equipped to masters students to PhD candidates).
The Gospel Coalition (TGC) | The Keller Centre for Cultural Apologetics
While they are known for their website, which is where they also have great theological essays and free online courses, TGC also has scheduled course content with live professors, in a very similar model as Davenant.
I took “Introduction to Cultural Apologetics” and it exceeded my expectations. I was worried that the lectures would be too introductory because it is not a “classroom” with work assigned or even required readings. But actually, each teacher/lecturer brought an incredible amount of material in a short time. My class was huge, with 200+ other students. But all the questions I asked through the Q&A feature were answered. Each lecturer gave a bunch of recommended reading material, and honestly, that went a long way for me in justifying the cost. I don’t want to waste my time with bad books, so having those recommendations from trusted teachers was great.
TGC has also launched The Cason Center for Theological Renewal. It looks really good too.
For The Church Institute
This is an initiative out of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to offer free or low-price modules (mini-courses).
I took intro to theology with Matthew Barrett and was very pleased. It was free. No “classroom” but self-serve modules. Each lecture was very succinct and filled with insight. A good recap of each lecture is built into the module. Barrett taught solid doctrine based on Scripture which accorded with church history. He’s small “c” catholic.
Heritage College and Seminary
This is where I went to seminary! I love Heritage. They offer fully online, partially online (e.g. two visits to Cambridge, Ontario in a semester), and in-person courses. These are full traditional courses at, in my opinion, Canada’s best seminary.
I normally take a course once per year (in part because alumni get a free course per year). I took a course on C.S. Lewis with Steve West and it was great.
For online courses, I highly recommend taking classes with Dr. Ian Vaillancourt or Dr. Rick Reed. I have nothing against the other professors. It’s just that during the pandemic, I took most of my final classes with these two, and they were both great. If you’re hoping to grow in preaching, Reed offers straightforward advice that will keep your sermons biblical, meaningful, and practical. With Vaillancourt, you can learn Hebrew and enjoy it. Seriously. Take anything Old Testament with him because he puts a lot of care into his teaching and it shows.
There will be no Christianity if there is no church, and there will be no church if no one is equipped to teach. Each Christian is responsible for instructing other Christians (Colossians 3:16, Romans 15:14). Given the accessibility of so many great learns options, consider taking a course yourself.
Finally, please consider sharing this post with someone who you think would benefit from it. Perhaps you’ll help inspire them to take a course this Fall.