First, a confession: I am not a philosopher. Rather, I taught philosophy in high school, set it aside for two decades, then came back to it when I realized how important it was for Christian students today.
Of course it has always been important. Paul warned the Colossians nearly two thousand years ago: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
Paul wrote that from a Roman prison, having faced every opponent the ancient world had to offer. He knew that overt physical persecution, however painful, often strengthened the church. False intellectual ideas were different. They acted like a slow poison: quiet, patient, and far more corrosive over time.
Your student is living in the poison of those ideas right now. The arguments he hears about human nature, about gender, about political authority, about whether truth can be known at all: they all came from different philosophies. They all have a history, some good and some very bad. A student who knows their histories is prepared to evaluate their consequences in the real world.
R.C. Sproul, the brilliant Christian apologist and primary teacher in this course, liked to talk about an old radio show called Truth or Consequences. Contestants had to answer a question correctly or face a penalty. Sproul thought that was a fair description of the history of ideas. Every philosopher was trying to answer a question. But like Pandora’s box, the answers that Plato, Descartes, Kant, and Nietzsche wrote down did not stay in their books.
Most of those ideas are still with us and they are still doing damage. Christian students need to be prepared to face them; that preparation takes real mental work. As Paul explained to the Corinthians: “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
I designed this course so that Christian students would have the weapons they need to do the mission God has prepared for them. It is the sort of course I wish I had before I went to college.
Table of Contents
- What Philosophy Does for a Student
- What Students Will Study
- Two Teachers Worth Meeting
- Philosophy as Preparation for Apologetics
- How the Course Is Structured
- How This Course Compares to Other Options
- Philosophy on Your Homeschool Transcript
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Learn the History of Ideas Now, not Later
Sproul opens his very first lecture by explaining the importance of studying the history of philosophy. It is worth watching before you read anything else on this page..
1. What Philosophy Does for a Student
If you haven’t studied philosophy, you may picture it as abstract, inaccessible, and not particularly useful for everyday life. I understand that instinct. I took only one philosophy course in college; everything else I learned through books.
Here is what philosophy actually does for a student: it teaches her to recognize where ideas come from and to evaluate whether they hold together. When you look at philosophy from a Christian perspective, it transforms how you see the world.
R.C. Sproul explains how this works in his opening lecture: “Just about everything that happens in this world is preceded by some idea. The whole concept of political theory, by which nations rise and by which they fall, is related in the final analysis to ideas, to concepts.”
Developing a biblical worldview means more than knowing what the Bible says. It means understanding the competing worldviews that Scripture is often being measured against. Students who have never studied the history of Western philosophy are perpetually at a disadvantage: they encounter secular humanism, Marxism, and relativism as though these were natural conditions of the modern world rather than ideas that men developed in antagonism to God. Philosophy puts names and histories to these intellectual gangsters. It also teaches students the tools to overcome them.
John Frame, the brilliant philosopher who wrote the textbook for this class, outlines the purpose of this course: “My whole idea is to expose the fact that the history of philosophy and theology is nothing less than spiritual warfare in the life of the mind. I want to prepare students for the spiritual warfare as it exists in their own time, without neglecting the background of this battle in earlier times.”
That is the goal of this class. A student who finishes it should be able to walk comfortably into any conversation about almost any idea.
“We consider this course to be essential to a complete high school education for our children. We host an in-home co-op, and all of our grads have appreciated later having been through it.”
Stephanie F.
Whether you realize it or not, you’ve already placed a bet on God’s existence. R.C. Sproul walks through Pascal’s idea of Coram Deo — living every moment before the face of God — and explains why nobody actually sits out this bet.
2. What Students Will Study
The course follows the history of Western philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the twentieth century: 16 lessons organized around the major thinkers and the movements they launched.
The Greeks come first: Thales and the pre-Socratics, then Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. From there the course moves into the medieval Christian philosophers, Plotinus, Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas, before turning to the early modern period with the rationalist-empiricist debate: Descartes, Leibniz, Pascal, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. The final section covers the modern philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Heidegger, and Russell.
That is a long list of names. The course requires no prior knowledge. Sproul designed his lectures for a general audience, explaining each thinker from scratch in plain language, with the humor and clarity that made him one of the most trusted Christian teachers of the twentieth century.
Each lesson is built around three things working together: Sproul’s video lectures, original source readings from the philosophers themselves, and John Frame’s textbook analysis.
Sproul’s role is to introduce each philosopher. Because he is teaching on video, his time is limited, but his gift is making difficult thinkers accessible and showing why they matter. He explains that he is simply sharing his own experience as a younger student: “The study of the history of philosophy exposed me to virtually every serious alternative to Christianity the world has brought forth. I began to see the bankruptcy of secular worldviews. The philosophers themselves were their own best critics. Hume critiqued Locke; Kant critiqued Hume; Hegel critiqued Kant, and so on it went. The more I studied philosophy the more intellectually credible and satisfying Christianity became.”
Primary source readings from the philosophers come next. I included these because the gap of centuries collapses quickly when students read Socrates, Augustine, or Descartes on their own. Reading Plato is very different from reading about Plato. Some philosophers are easier than others (I won’t pretend Kant is easy), but a direct encounter with the original texts is worth more than any summary.
Finally, students read John Frame’s important book. This is where the course becomes much more than a survey. Frame takes each philosopher, works through his system in depth, then evaluates it from a consistently Christian perspective. Frame describes his own intention this way: “What mainly provides the continuity of the story is my attempt to analyze and evaluate this whole history from a Christian point of view. I believe that the Bible should govern our philosophical thinking, as indeed it must govern every other area of human life.”
Sproul’s lectures and Frame’s textbook are the two columns supporting this course. They compliment each other perfectly.
Socrates is one of the first philosophers students encounter in the course. Here is Sproul on why he was called the gadfly of Athens, and what his challenge to examine assumptions rather than inherit them means for Christian students today.
3. Two Teachers Worth Meeting
So who are R.C. Sproul and John Frame? And why did I choose these two men?
Both were among the most important Christian thinkers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Both took philosophy seriously as a discipline essential to the defense of the faith. And they both approached that defense from different angles, which is part of what makes the course valuable.
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) studied philosophy at Westminster College, earned his doctorate at the Free University of Amsterdam under G.C. Berkouwer, and spent decades teaching philosophical theology at the seminary level before founding Ligonier Ministries. He was a classical apologist, meaning he argued for the existence of God and the authority of Scripture using reason and evidence available to any honest inquirer.
His thirty-five video lectures on the history of philosophy are the foundation of this course. Sproul once described his ambition this way: “I dream of a new reformation, a reformation that is not simply a renewal of life but a new vision of life: a vision that yields new forms and structures in society and culture. As long as Christians restrict their Christianity to a religion, a faith that is compartmentalized and isolated from life, they can have revival but never, ever reformation.”
Dr. John Frame (b. 1939) studied philosophy at Princeton, earned graduate degrees at Westminster Theological Seminary and Yale, and taught for decades at Westminster and Reformed Theological Seminary. He was shaped by Cornelius Van Til’s presuppositional apologetics, which holds that every philosophical system rests on prior commitments about God and reality. The Christian’s task is to expose those commitments and show that only the Christian worldview makes coherent sense of the world. His book A History of Western Philosophy and Theology is the required textbook for this course and the best Christian analysis of the philosophical tradition currently in print.
The two men knew each other slightly, disagreed on apologetic method, and never became close. When Sproul died in 2017, Frame wrote: “We could have been good friends, I think. We were the same age, Pittsburghers, Calvinists, and most of all disciples of Jesus Christ. But alas, we belonged to different clubs. I always felt his heart and mine were in the same place… I greatly admired dear RC, and I ranked him as the best communicator of Reformed truth in my time. For our love far transcends the boundaries of our clubs.”
That is the spirit in which this course is taught.
Here is Sproul from the Aquinas lesson, making a distinction that runs through the entire course: there is a difference between distinguishing two things and separating them. (He makes the point in about ninety seconds…pretty amazing.)
4. Philosophy as Preparation for Apologetics
Many parents searching for a worldview or apologetics curriculum discover this course in the process. That’s because the history of Western philosophy is not separate from apologetics preparation; it is the foundation of it.
Apologetics is the practice of defending the Christian faith against intellectual challenges. Sproul practiced classical apologetics, building the case for God’s existence from reason and evidence available to any honest inquirer. Frame practiced presuppositional apologetics, exposing the assumptions underlying secular thought and showing that only a Christian framework makes coherent sense of the world.
Both approaches depend on knowing the history of the ideas being challenged. You cannot answer a materialist, a relativist, or a secular humanist with any precision if you cannot trace where those ideas came from and where their arguments break down.
That is what this course provides. Sproul puts it plainly: “It is a fool that does not know his enemy. It has been [my goal] for nearly 40 years to prepare Christians to soundly defeat various philosophical challenges to the Christian faith that exist today. This series will help prepare you to do that.”
Whether your student goes on to study apologetics formally or not, this course equips her to think clearly about the ideas that will challenge her throughout her life.
Here is Sproul on Augustine, who confronted the same skeptical argument students encounter today: the claim that there are no absolutes. Augustine showed why that argument defeats itself the moment you state it.
5. How the Course Is Structured
Each of the sixteen lessons follows the same four-step pattern.
First, students watch two or three of Sproul’s video lectures, which run about twenty-three minutes each. Transcripts are available for students who prefer to read rather than watch.
Second, students read selections from the philosophers themselves — complete works or carefully chosen excerpts. These are classic texts included in the course as readable PDFs, which students can also download to a tablet or device, or print and read.
Third, students read the corresponding section of Frame’s textbook. This is where the Christian analysis happens: Frame situates each thinker in his historical context, identifies where his reasoning departs from biblical ground, and draws out why it matters. It is the most rigorous part of the course, and probably the most lasting.
Fourth, students complete an open-book quiz and write a short paper. Occasionally a lesson includes a research project. The assignments are designed to help students think through what they’ve encountered, not just record it.
The course is designed to run one semester at one lesson per week: sixteen weeks from start to finish. Some families, however, find the material dense enough to merit slowing down. Spreading the course over a full year, taking two weeks per lesson, is a reasonable approach and allows more time for the papers and research projects to develop. Either way, the course earns one full high school elective credit. At the slower pace, some families have documented it as a full credit in philosophy plus a half credit in intellectual history or the history of ideas. I designed it for students sixteen and older, though I’ve heard regularly from parents who worked through it alongside their students and from adults who took it entirely for themselves.
“It was equal to an intro to philosophy course I took in college. Excellent.”
Mary L.
Here is a short video where I briefly explain how the course works.
6. How This Course Compares to Other Options
Cathy Duffy, whose curriculum reviews are among the most trusted in the homeschool community, calls this “an excellent though academically challenging course” and notes that “the online format is very convenient and easy to use.” That matches our intention exactly. Parents looking for a serious Christian worldview or apologetics elective will also find several other options worth knowing about, and a parent making a serious decision deserves an honest comparison.
7Sisters: Philosophy in Four Questions
7Sisters is a well-regarded homeschool curriculum company, and Philosophy in Four Questions was written by Dr. Micah Tillman, who holds a PhD in philosophy and teaches at Stanford University’s Online High School. That is a real credential, and the course reflects it.
The 7Sisters approach is deliberately accessible: conversational in tone, adaptable to different ability levels, and designed to avoid what they call “busywork.” The course covers philosophy through four foundational questions rather than tracing the historical narrative from Greek antiquity to the present. It is an introduction to philosophical thinking, not a survey of philosophical history. Students don’t read the philosophers in their own words, and there is no sustained Christian analysis of each thinker’s system.
Choose 7Sisters if: your student is younger or newer to philosophy and you want a gentler, more flexible entry point.
Choose Compass if: you want a full historical survey from Thales to Russell, primary source encounters with the philosophers themselves, and a serious Christian analytical framework built into every lesson.
Philosophy Adventure (Homeschool Adventure Co.)
Philosophy Adventure is a notebooking-based program focused on the pre-Socratic philosophers, Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and a handful of others. It is designed for students in grades six through twelve and is colorful, visually engaging, and built around a strong biblical worldview. Cathy Duffy has noted that it makes philosophy “very accessible, even to students as young as sixth grade.”
The limitation is scope. Philosophy Adventure covers only the pre-Socratics, which amounts to roughly one of the sixteen lessons in this course. It is an excellent introduction to ancient Greek thought, but it is not a full survey of Western philosophy. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and the other seventeen centuries of philosophical development are not included.
Choose Philosophy Adventure if: your student is in middle school and you want an engaging, thorough introduction to ancient Greek philosophy before tackling the full historical arc.
Choose Compass if: your student is ready for a complete high school elective that runs from Greek antiquity through the twentieth century.
Good Ideas from Questionable Christians and Outright Pagans (Steve Wilkens)
This book by Steve Wilkens, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Azusa Pacific University, is listed by Cathy Duffy as an accessible Christian introduction to ten key philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, and Sartre. It is engaging, readable, and genuinely useful; Cathy Duffy describes it as an “excellent starting place for those new to philosophy.” Sonlight has used it as a core text in their eleventh and twelfth grade worldview course.
As a book, it is not a curriculum. There are no video lectures, no primary source readings, no quizzes, no structured assignments, and no Christian analytical framework that works through each philosopher’s full system. It covers one idea from each philosopher rather than a sustained engagement with his thought. For a parent who wants a single readable volume to open the subject, it is a fine choice. For a student who needs a full high school elective credit, it is a starting point, not a course.
Choose Wilkens if: you want a readable, affordable book that introduces a student (or parent) to ten key thinkers from a Christian perspective, without the structure of a full course.
Choose Compass if: you need a complete high school elective with video lectures, primary sources, Christian analysis, structured assignments, and transcript documentation.
7. Philosophy on Your Homeschool Transcript
Credit: 1/2 or 1 HS Elective. May be listed as Philosophy, Worldview, Apologetics, Intellectual History, or Humanities.
Age: 16+. Mature 15-year-olds with strong reading skills might be able to take it, but you should try it out for free first.
Price: $180
Format: Streaming video, 18 months of access from purchase date.
Self-pacing: Entirely self-paced. The course runs one semester at one lesson per week, or can be spread across a full year.
What’s included: 35 video lectures by R.C. Sproul, primary source readings from the philosophers themselves, structured assignments, open-book quizzes, short papers, and occasional research projects.
Required textbook (sold separately): A History of Western Philosophy and Theology by Dr. John Frame (P&R Publishing). Available on Amazon; used copies at BookFinder.com.
The course is substantive enough to stand alongside AP coursework on a transcript. Several families have listed it there without hesitation. It works particularly well as a capstone course for upperclassmen who want to pull together everything they have studied in history, literature, science, and theology into a coherent biblical worldview before leaving home. We have heard from students who found it gave them a meaningful advantage when those same topics came up in college-level philosophy, ethics, and apologetics classes. If your student is applying to a classical college or a program that values the humanities, this course signals exactly the kind of intellectual formation those programs look for.
8. Frequently Asked Questions
Does my student need any background in philosophy before starting?
No. The course assumes no prior knowledge. Sproul’s lectures start from scratch and build from there.
Is this too hard for a typical sixteen-year-old?
It’s a demanding course. Most sixteen-year-olds who are reading at grade level and motivated can handle it, especially with parental support. However, a 17 or 18 year old will likely be able to process and understand it even better.
Do I need to buy John Frame’s textbook?
Yes. The textbook is required and sold separately. You can find it on Amazon; used copies are available at BookFinder.com.
How long does each lesson take?
Plan on roughly three to four hours per lesson, including video, primary source reading, Frame’s textbook, and the quiz or paper. At one lesson per week, the course runs one semester.
Can this count as more than one credit if we go slowly?
Spreading the course over a full year with additional reading and writing is a reasonable way to expand it. Several families have documented it as a full credit in philosophy plus a half credit in the history of ideas. Talk with your homeschool group or record-keeping advisor about what fits your situation.
Is this a good fit for a co-op?
Yes. The course works well in a co-op setting. Each family needs a separate license; group license pricing is available on the product page.
My student isn’t headed to college. Is this still worth doing?
Philosophy isn’t only for college-bound students. The arguments your student will learn to recognize in this course show up in conversations, in media, and in the broader culture. That’s true regardless of what path comes after high school.
What course pairs well with this one?
Dave Raymond’s Modernity, Antiquity, and Christendom all have overlaps with sections of Consequences of Ideas. Any of them could be paired effectively with this course.
9. Learn the History of Ideas Now, not Later
Your student doesn’t have to wait for college to be introduced to the history of ideas. He can meet these thinkers on his own terms, with two of the best Christian thinkers as his personal guides. When he eventually walks into that university classroom or that late-night conversation, he will already understand the consequences of the ideas that have transformed the world. And he will know the Christian response to them.
“Incredible ideas presented in very understandable nuggets!”
Kate B.
→ Try sample lessons for free
One last clip. If an atheist bets against God and turns out to be wrong, what exactly has he lost? Sproul’s answer from the Pascal lesson is a good place to end.
What Does An Atheist Actually Lose If God Turns Out To Be Real?
