Christian Apologists

1. Christian Apologists By: Matthew Franceschini

2. Christianity ≠ Judaism • As Christianity began to become its own religion separate from Judaism, it faced many attacks and criticisms from those of other religions. • In face of these oppositions, those who followed Christianity became well-aware of a need of some explanations offsetting the accusations against it. • Fortunately, many learned, educated men converted to Christianity, and their study of truth, they found, greatly benefitted them in their defense of Christian principles. • This led to the rise of Christian apologetic writing, in defense against the groups attacking Christianity, including Jews, Roman emperors, and Pagan Philosophers.

3. Wait…What? • Misunderstanding Pagans would falsely accuse Christians of atrocities such as Cannibalism, atheism, and incest (ew). • Scholars generally believe that the earliest Apologists took action by presenting emperors with petitions, but after petitions such as these lead to a rise of martyrs… which is BAD, Apologists turned away from petitioning to emperors, and started to write to Non-Christian groups in order to explicate Christian truths to them.

4. This was NOT the official preaching of the Church!!!

5. Fighting fiyah wit fiyah • Christian Apologists used philosophical reason against the very philosophers who attacked them. • This not only served its purpose as defense against pagans, but also gave the not as highly educated Christians the opportunity to use these kind of arguments when they were persecuted.

6. So… who were these guys? • The Apologists were Christian writers who concerned themselves primarily with convincing outsiders about the truths of Christianity. • They had three primary tasks: • 1) Challenge the false rumors circulating about Christianity. • 2) Emphasize important elements of Christianity, such as Christ’s divine nature, and claiming that only Christians truly understand the universe, while also exposing the problems with paganism. • 3) Explain to the public, including emperors, that philosophy focused only on human reason, which holds humans back from attaining truth, which could only be truly attained through the Divine Reason. (That means God, folks!) Right? WRONG! • Divine reason refers to the complementary nature of human reason and divine belief. Both kinds of belief come ultimately from God. If you want me to explain further, just ask.

7. Damn it Chini, give us names! • Quadratusis the oldest known Christian Apologist. We only know of him through the writings of Eusebius. • Eusebius writes that Quadratus wrote to the Roman emperor by the name of Hadrian in around 124 A.D. • Actual writings of apologies began with the Christian Apologist named Aristides, who specifically vouched for the eternity of God, and the great extent to which only Christians understand God’s true nature.

8. St. Justin the martyr • St. Justin the martyr was the son of two Pagans. • He traveled the Greek world to further his education, and he tried to do so in the schools of a Stoic, a Peripatetic, and a Pythagorean. • Finding comfort in none of these schools, St. Justin followed Platonism for a period of time, until he met a man who turned St. Justin’s favor to the prophets. • He was impressed by the Christian lack of fear of death, and found that Christianity would be the only religion/ following to satisfy his quest for truth. • He then devoted his life to defending Christian teachings, and after he founded a school in Rome, he was martyred around 165 A.D.