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Reliably faithful
Biblically faithful theology and a perspective on all of life, not a slice of it.
Rooted in the Reformed heritage
Reformed Christian learning for every season of life.
Join us as we prepare online learning, conferences, and immersive study experiences shaped by Scripture and the Reformed confessions.
Registration for 2026 Fall courses is
now open.
Space is limited.
Fall 2026 Begins September 8th
Who we are
Our Heritage Defined
At Reformed Heritage Study Center, we stand firmly in the stream of the church confessing the biblical, Christ-centered faith down through the centuries. Thus, we look to the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit through the early church, its creeds, and the medieval theologians, writers, and poets, including their appropriation of classical learning, all discerned through the theological perspective of the 16th century Reformation. The Reformers’ teaching was preserved and refined by Puritans, post-Reformation scholastics, and 19th century Princetonian and Dutch theologians and leaders. Finally, this heritage was conveyed to us by 20th century teachers, who also articulated a firm stance against modern rationalisms, theological liberalisms, and secularisms. This biblical faith has been summarized and continually confessed in the church’s creeds and Reformation confessions and catechisms (Three Forms of Unity and Westminster Standards), represented today in the NAPARC* churches, to which we belong.
*National Association of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches (such as URCNA, CanRC, OPC, RCUS, RPCNA, PCA, etc.) so identified because they subscribe to one or the other sets of Reformational confessional standards.
A World Perspective
This perspective is not a narrow, factional, or limiting one which withdraws from the world. Rather, our Reformed heritage has repeatedly affirmed the goodness of God’s creation in spite of its fallenness, and recognized the high dignity of fallen human beings in the image of God, and the necessity of our learning from the contributions of the ungodly through common grace, even while we critique their worldviews. Hence our heritage grounds for us a secure stance that is open to and engaged with every sector of life, learning, and creativity, and we celebrate the good, the true, and the beautiful, wherever it is found, because it is from our God. Our heritage and faith perspective is thus as big as the whole world and its wonders, and as Paul says (1 Cor. 3.22), the world is yours in Christ!
Who are we for
Any thinking Christian who is curious and inquiring, and who recognizes we need a faithful biblical and theological formation to flourish in all our various callings, activities, and creative endeavors. This includes
- High school students contemplating college or university, whether secular, where Christian faith is maligned and misrepresented, or “Christian,” where the biblical faith once for all delivered to the saints is forgotten or even contradicted.
- High school students pursuing a gap year, or otherwise forgoing traditional college for now, not least because of its high costs.
- Students in college, who are having to confront secular ideologies or questionable or vague Christian teachings.
- College graduates and other inquiring adults who have discovered their own need for better and fuller answers in their desire to live out their Christian faith in an increasingly hostile world.
For all of the above, we are your source for trustworthy high-level Christian instruction for every area of life rooted in the Reformed heritage.
How it works
Study with us
Signup on the platform is free, and grants access to publicly available content and open events like meetups and book clubs. Study courses require enrollment in that course, and meet one or two times a week depending on the course. A schedule is available before signup on the class page, and on the class calendar when purchased. Live participation is encouraged; however, all classes are recorded and available to students enrolled in the course through our site.
Summary Advantages
Why study here
Five reasons students choose the Study Center over the alternatives.
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Without the tuition
Circumvents the high cost of a regular college degree program.
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A complement, not a replacement
Supplements secular degree programs with a hard-to-find Christian perspective.
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Live or on your own hours
Every course meets live and is archived for enrolled students to rewatch.
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In person in Southern California
One-on-one meetings, class excursions, and periodic conferences.
Courses
Learning for every season
Each of our courses includes a syllabus, schedule, online readings, and required and recommended books. Featured classes for the coming terms, with more offerings on the horizon. Most courses are priced based on a college semester equivalent, depending on cadence and length—approximately two 90-minute sessions per week for 16 weeks, or one 90-minute session spread over 32 weeks; typically around $499 USD. Individual course prices are shown below.
Registration for 2026 Fall courses is now open. Space is limited.
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Future classes
Explore future course offerings.
Events
Gatherings that deepen faith
We are preparing conferences, workshops, and immersive study trips— opportunities to learn together in person and in the places where Scripture unfolds.
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Instructors
Teachers Meeting the Needs of Today
As teachers who have been nurtured and trained in the Reformed heritage and perspective, we are passionate about bringing others along to discover for themselves the same firm biblical and historical grounding, with all its holistic relevance for faith and life today. Yet we recognize that this is not just a matter of conveying information; it requires discerning thinking and judgments, always in the context of our faith formation and sanctification. In our age of instant AI summaries of anything, and YouTube how-tos for every interest, we can mistake all this information for learning. But the algorithms do not serve wisdom, and Christians of all ages are increasingly in desperate need of the wisdom of Christ through the Spirit’s provision in the rich Reformed heritage of biblical faith. Reformed Heritage Study Center thus aims to be a trusted venue for quality Christian instruction and formation, and one that is able to confront a contemporary situation that offers “wisdom,” “spiritual” and even “Christian” guidance that is often confused and dangerous. Join us, and preserve your faith and expand your world!
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Testimonials
Voices from the community
Stories from our community of students and colleagues.
“I am thrilled and honored to endorse both the Reformed Heritage Study Center and its two founders, Dr. Scott Swanson and Professor Flora Krook. Those looking to grow in wisdom and understanding of God's word and world will not find better guides, teachers, and mentors than these. Their love of God, love of learning, and love of students is evident from your first encounter with them, and becomes increasingly obvious with each subsequent interaction. May the Lord bless this endeavor and all who join in it!”
“I was blessed to study under Dr. Scott Swanson for four years as an undergraduate. Dr. Swanson will bring the Bible to life for you in a way that will change how you think about yourself, your deep, personal relationship with God, and your mindset about our culture. His passion for both the Reformed tradition and the classical liberal arts is infectious and exciting. In a similar manner, Flora Krook will open your eyes to the wonders of literature through a Reformed lense. Studying under her will show you the rich truths that have passed down through history. I firmly believe any class you take through Reformed Heritage Study Center will be worth every penny.”
“As a high school student, I struggled to find a school with solid reformed theological teaching. I had the pleasure of finding and taking a number of Dr. Scott Swanson's classes which not only gave a foundational understanding, but were balanced with some of the nuance and complexity of Scripture. It was a blessing to receive such refined teaching even while enrolled in a high school that doesn't provide it.”
“I was honored to be a colleague of Dr. Scott Swanson and Professor Flora Krook for many years at Providence Christian College. Each of them was highly effective in their discipline and provided students with a strong biblical foundation that bore good fruit in their students' lives. I can highly recommend them to anyone looking for a biblical foundation rooted in a Reformed tradition in their studies. You will not be disappointed!”
“Church and the Bible were always a central part of my life, yet the intentionality and vigor of Dr. Swanson's classes gave me a passion and depth for the Word that profoundly solidified a biblical worldview for my life and gave me the lens and beauty of seeing Christ in all Scripture (no longer was the Old Testament boring!). By walking faithfully through Scripture, he taught me to attend to all the voices from history and culture and to see and listen carefully with my heart to consider how those messages are pointing to goodness and where they have twisted truth. Prof. Krook's literature classes go hand in hand with Dr. Swanson, examining human writers as they use story, imagery, and symbolism to discern truth from error and point us toward the Great Story. So take these classes, and the treasure trove of Christ's truth, the abundant life of the Spirit, and the gift of God's sovereign goodness will grow and burn in your hearts.”
“Being a student of Dr. Swanson has been one of the greatest blessings in my Christian walk. ... I was immediately made aware of the type of teacher he was: someone who loved what he taught and wanted others to love it too. ... Dr. Swanson's mission was never simply to give us as much information as possible until class time was over. His mission has always been to form our souls and minds. I can guarantee that you will become a more discerning thinker under his teaching. As a lover of the liberal arts, Dr. Swanson lives and teaches in such a way that embodies an idea that Saint Paul, the Church Fathers, the Medieval Scholastics, and the Reformers have all held as true: all truth is God's truth. This means we do not have to fear the world and the things produced by it. Rather, we can (and must) confidently and discerningly enter into it expecting to behold truth, goodness, and beauty. This also manifests itself in the way that Dr. Swanson places great importance on understanding grammar, literary structure, the biblical languages, history, and virtually every other subject, because God both became incarnate into this context and left His Word using these many disciplines. So, becoming a student under Dr. Swanson won't just make you a better Bible student; it'll make you a better student of everything within God's creation, including yourself. ... If you, too, love God, the liberal arts, the Reformed tradition, and a great quality education, you will never regret being formed by an amazing professor like Dr. Swanson.”
“I have had the great privilege of taking several classes with both Dr. Swanson and Prof. Krook. They are both full of wisdom, insight, and love for their fields of study, and present all of their classes from a strong Reformed perspective. I learned more from Dr. Swanson's Bible classes than years of sitting in Sunday sermons. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about theology, Scripture, and biblical languages (especially Hebrew!), but he is enthusiastic and personable. I always appreciated how he applied what we were studying to our daily lives, from a song we may hear on the radio to an opportunity we may have to evangelize a friend or neighbor. Likewise, Prof. Krook's classes always extended beyond the classroom, as she taught us how to read and understand the literature of the past to understand our present, especially attuning us to any Dantean references around us. Her teaching is down-to-earth and conversational, making class feel more like a book club where we get to wrestle with big ideas than a series of long lectures that feel untethered to our reality. She is also a wonderful mentor to all of her students, giving us guidance not only on writing but life too.”
“Professor Krook teaches English in a way that impacts the whole of a person. Not only does she instruct her students with a very obvious love and care for each of them, she has personally changed how I analyze literature, how I write, and how I contemplate and analyze literary themes. To this day I meditate on some of our class discussions regarding beauty, memory, and the role of a believer. She helps her students to grow in their practical writing skills, their critical thinking skills, and in a deep spiritual way as she demonstrates how to analyze secular and Christian works of literature alike and apply those lessons to their life.”
“To say Dr. Scott Swanson is a gifted teacher, doesn't do justice to the work God is completing through his instruction. I can safely say that few people have touched my life in the myriad of ways in which Dr. Swanson has, but more, none have shown me the truest most vibrant and brilliant light and illimunated into the deepest wells, and infinite depths of the knowledge of God, His awesomeness, grace, riches, majesty, humility, and love; the infinitude buried within God's Most Holy and inerrant Word .... No one has shown me with such veracity and zeal, the Gospel, that, in thinking upon the lectures, studies, our trip to Israel; there are no words adequate enough to convey Scott's gift for teaching and love for God...”
“I am thrilled and honored to endorse both the Reformed Heritage Study Center and its two founders, Dr. Scott Swanson and Professor Flora Krook. Those looking to grow in wisdom and understanding of God's word and world will not find better guides, teachers, and mentors than these. Their love of God, love of learning, and love of students is evident from your first encounter with them, and becomes increasingly obvious with each subsequent interaction. May the Lord bless this endeavor and all who join in it!”
“I was blessed to study under Dr. Scott Swanson for four years as an undergraduate. Dr. Swanson will bring the Bible to life for you in a way that will change how you think about yourself, your deep, personal relationship with God, and your mindset about our culture. His passion for both the Reformed tradition and the classical liberal arts is infectious and exciting. In a similar manner, Flora Krook will open your eyes to the wonders of literature through a Reformed lense. Studying under her will show you the rich truths that have passed down through history. I firmly believe any class you take through Reformed Heritage Study Center will be worth every penny.”
“As a high school student, I struggled to find a school with solid reformed theological teaching. I had the pleasure of finding and taking a number of Dr. Scott Swanson's classes which not only gave a foundational understanding, but were balanced with some of the nuance and complexity of Scripture. It was a blessing to receive such refined teaching even while enrolled in a high school that doesn't provide it.”
“I was honored to be a colleague of Dr. Scott Swanson and Professor Flora Krook for many years at Providence Christian College. Each of them was highly effective in their discipline and provided students with a strong biblical foundation that bore good fruit in their students' lives. I can highly recommend them to anyone looking for a biblical foundation rooted in a Reformed tradition in their studies. You will not be disappointed!”
“Church and the Bible were always a central part of my life, yet the intentionality and vigor of Dr. Swanson's classes gave me a passion and depth for the Word that profoundly solidified a biblical worldview for my life and gave me the lens and beauty of seeing Christ in all Scripture (no longer was the Old Testament boring!). By walking faithfully through Scripture, he taught me to attend to all the voices from history and culture and to see and listen carefully with my heart to consider how those messages are pointing to goodness and where they have twisted truth. Prof. Krook's literature classes go hand in hand with Dr. Swanson, examining human writers as they use story, imagery, and symbolism to discern truth from error and point us toward the Great Story. So take these classes, and the treasure trove of Christ's truth, the abundant life of the Spirit, and the gift of God's sovereign goodness will grow and burn in your hearts.”
“Being a student of Dr. Swanson has been one of the greatest blessings in my Christian walk. ... I was immediately made aware of the type of teacher he was: someone who loved what he taught and wanted others to love it too. ... Dr. Swanson's mission was never simply to give us as much information as possible until class time was over. His mission has always been to form our souls and minds. I can guarantee that you will become a more discerning thinker under his teaching. As a lover of the liberal arts, Dr. Swanson lives and teaches in such a way that embodies an idea that Saint Paul, the Church Fathers, the Medieval Scholastics, and the Reformers have all held as true: all truth is God's truth. This means we do not have to fear the world and the things produced by it. Rather, we can (and must) confidently and discerningly enter into it expecting to behold truth, goodness, and beauty. This also manifests itself in the way that Dr. Swanson places great importance on understanding grammar, literary structure, the biblical languages, history, and virtually every other subject, because God both became incarnate into this context and left His Word using these many disciplines. So, becoming a student under Dr. Swanson won't just make you a better Bible student; it'll make you a better student of everything within God's creation, including yourself. ... If you, too, love God, the liberal arts, the Reformed tradition, and a great quality education, you will never regret being formed by an amazing professor like Dr. Swanson.”
“I have had the great privilege of taking several classes with both Dr. Swanson and Prof. Krook. They are both full of wisdom, insight, and love for their fields of study, and present all of their classes from a strong Reformed perspective. I learned more from Dr. Swanson's Bible classes than years of sitting in Sunday sermons. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about theology, Scripture, and biblical languages (especially Hebrew!), but he is enthusiastic and personable. I always appreciated how he applied what we were studying to our daily lives, from a song we may hear on the radio to an opportunity we may have to evangelize a friend or neighbor. Likewise, Prof. Krook's classes always extended beyond the classroom, as she taught us how to read and understand the literature of the past to understand our present, especially attuning us to any Dantean references around us. Her teaching is down-to-earth and conversational, making class feel more like a book club where we get to wrestle with big ideas than a series of long lectures that feel untethered to our reality. She is also a wonderful mentor to all of her students, giving us guidance not only on writing but life too.”
“Professor Krook teaches English in a way that impacts the whole of a person. Not only does she instruct her students with a very obvious love and care for each of them, she has personally changed how I analyze literature, how I write, and how I contemplate and analyze literary themes. To this day I meditate on some of our class discussions regarding beauty, memory, and the role of a believer. She helps her students to grow in their practical writing skills, their critical thinking skills, and in a deep spiritual way as she demonstrates how to analyze secular and Christian works of literature alike and apply those lessons to their life.”
“To say Dr. Scott Swanson is a gifted teacher, doesn't do justice to the work God is completing through his instruction. I can safely say that few people have touched my life in the myriad of ways in which Dr. Swanson has, but more, none have shown me the truest most vibrant and brilliant light and illimunated into the deepest wells, and infinite depths of the knowledge of God, His awesomeness, grace, riches, majesty, humility, and love; the infinitude buried within God's Most Holy and inerrant Word .... No one has shown me with such veracity and zeal, the Gospel, that, in thinking upon the lectures, studies, our trip to Israel; there are no words adequate enough to convey Scott's gift for teaching and love for God...”