Beyond Facts: A Christian Approach to Epistemology and Apologetics
Abouts this Course (WRF-ACA-#02)
This mini-course explores how a Christian epistemology provides a framework to understand facts, truth, and reason coram Deo—before the face of God. Each lesson builds upon the previous, tracing a Birdseye view of the historical trajectory of secular epistemology and culminating in a Gospel-centered approach to knowledge. Based upon a seminal article, published in Portuguese by Dr. Davi Charles Gomes almost thirty years ago, the author has now developed it as a mini-course. Many students have expressed how the article was crucial for their entrance in the field of epistemology with an apologetics orientation, so, if that sounds interesting to you, welcome and let us get rolling together!
Instructor: Davi Charles Gomes
International Director & CEO of the World Reformed Felloship.
Course Support Materials
- The Original article that inspired the mini-course: GOMES, Davi Charles. “Fides et Scientia: Indo Além da Discussão de “Fatos.” In Fides Reformata II: 2 (Jul.-Dec. 1997), 129-146. Available (in Portuguese) at https://academia.logos-a.com.br/libacademy/files/20230726155755.pdf
- PODCAST - NOTEBOOKLM AI Generated Podcast on the original article:
About Davi Charles Gomes
Dr. Davi Charles Gomes was installed as International Director of WRF in October 2017, at the Wittenberg meeting of the Board. Before transitioning full-time into his role at WRF in the beginning of 2020, he was Chancellor of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, a 50k student educational institution, present in 6 locations of Brazil, and one of the foremost private universities in this country.
Davi Gomes also presided the Andrew Jumper Presbyterian Graduate School of Theology (CPAJ) of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil from 2004 through 2013 and still teaches some modules in their graduate programs. He holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Boston (B.A.), The Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church (Dip.Th. and M.Div.), Westminster Theological Seminary (Ph.D.) and courses at the Philadelphia Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of Geneva.
Dr. Gomes was ordained and spent the first ten years of his ministry in the PCA, serving in the Boston area, where he was also the Operations Manager and later a member of the Board of Directors of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, as well as a founding board member of the Boston Christian Economic Coalition. He is also the president of the Commission on Inter-Ecclesiastical Relations of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (CRIE-IPB) and a representative of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil at WRF, as well as an individual member of WRF. Dr. Gomes has participated on the Edwards Project Committee, served as Co-Chairman of the Theological Education Commission, has represented WRF at the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) and has been on the Executive Committee of the WRF since 2010.
He has pastored and planted churches in the USA (Boston and Philadelphia) and in Brazil, and is presently the senior minister of the Igreja Presbiteriana Paulistana, a church in downtown Sao Paulo that was planted under his Leadership. He has published several books, articles and contributions to books in English as well as Portuguese. Besides having taught at institutions in the USA (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary) and Brazil, Dr. Gomes has also lectured in countries throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. He lives in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, with his wife, Adriana Heringer Gomes.
Davi Gomes also presided the Andrew Jumper Presbyterian Graduate School of Theology (CPAJ) of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil from 2004 through 2013 and still teaches some modules in their graduate programs. He holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Boston (B.A.), The Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church (Dip.Th. and M.Div.), Westminster Theological Seminary (Ph.D.) and courses at the Philadelphia Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of Geneva.
Dr. Gomes was ordained and spent the first ten years of his ministry in the PCA, serving in the Boston area, where he was also the Operations Manager and later a member of the Board of Directors of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, as well as a founding board member of the Boston Christian Economic Coalition. He is also the president of the Commission on Inter-Ecclesiastical Relations of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (CRIE-IPB) and a representative of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil at WRF, as well as an individual member of WRF. Dr. Gomes has participated on the Edwards Project Committee, served as Co-Chairman of the Theological Education Commission, has represented WRF at the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) and has been on the Executive Committee of the WRF since 2010.
He has pastored and planted churches in the USA (Boston and Philadelphia) and in Brazil, and is presently the senior minister of the Igreja Presbiteriana Paulistana, a church in downtown Sao Paulo that was planted under his Leadership. He has published several books, articles and contributions to books in English as well as Portuguese. Besides having taught at institutions in the USA (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary) and Brazil, Dr. Gomes has also lectured in countries throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. He lives in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, with his wife, Adriana Heringer Gomes.
Lesson 1: Introduction to the Problem of Facts
Objective: This first introductory lesson aims to identify the limitations of focusing solely on facts in apologetics. It explores the need to engage with presuppositions that shape worldviews and to be mindful of their religious nature.
Recommended reading
- CLEMENT. “The Letter of the Church in Rome to the Church in Corinth, Commonly Called Clement’s First Letter,” em Cyril C. Richardson, Early Christian Fathers (New York: Collier Books, 1970), 55-56.
- GOMES, Davi Charles. “Fides et Scientia: Indo Além da Discussão de “Fatos.” In Fides Reformata II: 2 (Jul.-Dec. 1997), 129-131. Available (in Portuguese) at https://academia.logos-a.com.br/libacademy/files/20230726155755.pdf
- MARINO, Matt. Van Til’s Epistemology. In “Reformed Classicalist” https://www.reformedclassicalist.com/home/van-tils-epistemology (access May 19, 2025)