Greg Bahnsen (1948-1995) was the scholar in residence at The Southern California Center for Christian Studies where he taught Apologetics from a distinctly Reformed perspective. Bahnsen followed the lead of his mentor Cornelius Van Til and reasoned that, apart from the Christian faith, the unbeliever cannot account for his knowledge. Bahnsen earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Westmont College, his M.Div and ThM from Westminster Theological Seminary (1973), and a PhD in epistemology (the theory of knowledge) from the University of Southern California (1978).
Bahnsen was a pillar of the Christian Reconstruction movement associated with Rousas John Rushdoony. As such, Bahnsen was a leading proponent of theonomy, postmillennialism, and presuppositional apologetics. He lectured to a broad range of evangelical Christian groups at many colleges and conferences, in the United States and abroad. His 1985 debate with atheist scholar, the late Gordon Stein, was dubbed The Great Debate, and remains a classic as well as a benchmark in Christian apologetics.
His early death came as a result of complications following his third heart surgery in December of 1995.
