Unveiling Early Church Apologetics: Tackling Heresies & Religious Challenges

1. Chapter 3 Apologetics within the Great Tradition: Part 1

2. Poring over the traditions of Christian practice and reflection is not ‘an impossible return to the past’ but an opportunity to see the present situation of theology for what it is: as a moment in the history of redemption. John Webster

3. The Builders That Went Before Us • In the chapters one and two we began our “apologetic house” with a biblical foundation. In this chapter and the next, we will complete that foundation with a survey of how apologetics has developed since the early church. • In this chapter we will discover some good news: we do not have to completely rebuild our apologetic house from the ground up. Many bricks in the foundation have already been laid.

4. The Early Church • The early, formative years of the church, which scholars refer to as the Patristic Period, were not easy. The very survival of the church was threatened. As converts joyfully turned to the way of Christ, they found themselves facing serious challenges—especially from heretics, religious Jews, and Greeks. Forced to defend the church from such challenges and to establish the church’s viability, the early church fathers carved out a place in the world for the church.

5. The Early Church Heretical Challenges • The following were some of the most threatening heretical beliefs propagated in the early church: • Gnosticism: Only those with secret, insider knowledge may reach God, and only through a series of lesser gods called Aeons. Jesus is not God, he is merely an Aeon. • Marcionism: • Some of the Bible is good, some of it is bad. • Spirit is good, material is bad. • Jesus is good, loving, and peaceful; the Creator God of the Old Testament is bad, mean, and angry. • Gospel is good, Law is bad. • Christians are good, Jews are bad. • Jesus is not actually human, he is only divine.

6. The Early Church Heretical Challenges • Manicheism: Combines Christianity with other religions to create one great world religion. Jesus was not really born, he did not suffer, and he did not rise from the dead. His sufferings were merely symbolic. Some accepted Manicheism because it explained suffering as a conflict between good and evil; God is good but is impeded by evil forces. • Arianism: There was a time when Christ did not exist; Jesus was created by God the Father before the world began. And although he is like God, he is not of the same substance as the Father. Arianism offered a simple solution for those struggling with how Jesus could be human and divine.

7. The Early Church How did the Church respond? • In the second century, Irenaeus (c. 140–c. 198), the bishop of Lyons in Gaul, wrote Against Heresies. In it he claims that knowledge of the truth is no secret, because a Rule of Faith has been handed down publicly to the entire church by the Apostles. • Tertullian (c.160/70–c. 220), the earliest of the Latin church fathers, wrote Against Marcion in direct response to heresy. Like Irenaeus, Tertullian uses Scripture and the Rule of Faith in order to make his point, demonstrating that the Old and New Testaments testify to one true Creator God who, while he is perfectly good, is also just and must therefore punish sin.

8. The Early Church How did the Church respond? • Augustine (354–430), one of the great theologians in church history, practiced Manicheanism for ten years before he converted to Christianity. Augustine titled his response to the heresy he had denounced Against Faustus the Manichaean. In it he explains that Christ’s physicality is real; Jesus proved it by inviting Thomas to touch him and put his hand in his side.

9. The Early Church How did the Church respond? Athanasius (c. 296–373), a bishop of Alexandria who encountered many enemies, combated the heretical teaching that Jesus is not fully God with three decisive and enduring arguments: • Only God can save humanity. Jesus saves humanity. Therefore, Jesus is God. • God himself taking on human flesh and dying for the sins of humankind is the only way God could satisfy both his justice and his mercy. Thus, Jesus had to be God to be our Savior. • In the church’s liturgy Jesus is worshipped as God. It is blasphemy to worship a mere creature. Thus, in its worship the church confesses that Jesus is God.

10. The Early Church Jewish Religious Challenges We can imagine the sort of questions a practicing Jew might have had for Christians in the early church: “Why don’t Christians practice the Mosaic Law?” “Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the Old Testament Messiah?” “Why do Christians worship Jesus as God?”

11. The Early Church Jewish Religious Challenges • Many apologists dealt with these questions, but perhaps the most noteworthy is Justin Martyr (c. 100–c. 165), a converted pagan philosopher who responded to them out of his own personal experience. • He wrote Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. In a narrated conversation with Trypho, Justin attempts to answer a number of Jewish objections to Christianity.

12. The Early Church Jewish Religious Challenges • With a respectful tone, Justin argues that: • Old Testament prophecies affirm that Jesus is divine and that he is the Messiah; • Since the New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant, Christians are in a better position to interpret the Old Testament; and • The Christian church is the New Israel.

13. The Early Church Greek and Roman Challenges The early church faced two types of challenges from the Hellenistic culture: • Political/Cultural • Philosophical

14. The Early Church Political and Cultural Challenges • The accusations the Greeks leveled against early church Christians were some of the most damning and encompassed many of the most pressing apologetic issues that existed during the Patristic Period. These accusations were based mostly on misunderstandings and misperceptions of Christian practice and doctrine. How do you think the following stereotypical allegations might have developed? • Christians are immoral. • Christians are incestuous. • Christians are cannibals. • Christians practice infanticide. • Christians are atheists. • Christianity undermines civic loyalty and national stability. • Christianity is new.

15. The Early Church Christian responses to the Political and Cultural Challenges • The Christian God is superior and Christians are virtuous. The Apology of Aristides on Behalf of Christians (c. 125) was perhaps the first formal Christian apology written after the composition of the New Testament books. • Plurality should make room for Christian beliefs. In his work Embassy for the Christians (c. 177), Athenagoras of Athens eloquently addresses Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus in order to counter the charge of atheism that was being leveled against Christians.

16. The Early Church Christian responses to the Political and Cultural Challenges • Christianity’s roots are ancient. More than any other apologist of the second century, Theophilus (d.c. 183–185), the Syrian bishop of Antioch, developed the argument for Christianity from its antiquity. • Christianity is good for the Empire. Tertullian argues in Apology that Rome made its greatest progress and achievements before it turned to the worship of the many false gods of its defeated foes. Worshipping the one true God would not undermine the empire; in fact, Christian prayer and charity would be beneficial to both Rome and its Emperor.

17. The Early Church Philosophical Challenges • The list below is representative of the kinds of philosophical challenges that Christians faced from Greek opposition in the Patristic Period. • Jesus concocted the story of his virgin birth to avoid the shame of illegitimacy. • Certain events in the Bible cannot be verified as truly historical. • Jesus’ disciples invented the account of the resurrection of Jesus. • The miracles Jesus and his disciples performed are inauthentic. • Mosaic descriptions of God are immoral and childish. • God loves only the Jews, not all people. • Greek philosophers discovered truth without special revelation. • Christians reject reason and rely on blind faith. • Pagan religion is necessary for people to flourish.

18. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • Metaphor • Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215), a teacher at the catechetical school in Alexandria, Egypt took a positive view of Greek philosophy and sought to make Christian appeals based on the aesthetic sensibilities and thought forms of his day. • Exposition • Clement explains that the Old and New Testament Scriptures present an exalted view of God, especially in their report of God’s transcendent power manifested among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

19. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • Point-by-point Refutation • In his work Contra Celsus, Origen (c. 185–254), a radically devoted Christian and enormously influential intellectual, counters an anti-Christian tract titled True Doctrine. • Cumulative Case • Cumulative case arguments combine several different pieces of evidence to argue for Christianity. There are many important examples of works that use this apologetic approach, but we will mention just one: The Proof of the Gospel by Eusebius.

20. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • Sarcasm • Eusebius made an argument for the historical truthfulness of the Apostle’s testimony using sarcasm. • Dialogue • Marcus Minucius Felix was a Roman, likely from Africa, who converted to Christianity and became one of the earliest Latin apologists. His work Octavius depicts an imaginary conversation between three people: the pagan Caecilius, the Christian Octavius, and the author himself functioning as a pagan judge.

21. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • Paradox • To Tertullian, paradox is a strong example of how human reason often must bow the knee to the unfathomable mystery of God. For this reason, he actually sees the absurdity of the crucifixion as an argument for the validity of the Christian faith. • Desire • Central to Augustine’s apologetic is an appeal to the intrinsic human desire for happiness. According to Augustine, the inescapable drive that all people have to obtain happiness can only be satisfied in God.

22. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • Faith and Reason • While Augustine’s approach to apologetics is often “subjective and psychological,” he also uses rational arguments to establish the existence of God and to clear the way for faith. • Christological Coherence  • In answer to the question, “Why four Gospels instead of just one?” Chrysostom explains first that the agreement in the essential content of all four Gospels establishes the veracity of their witness, and second that any disagreement in details proves that there was no deceptive collusion involved in writing them.

23. The Early Church Christian Response to Philosophical Challenges • The Logos • In Greek philosophy, Logos referred to either the rationality that governs the universe or the principle of intelligence or rationality within the universe. The early church fathers took different positions as to how the Logos of Greek philosophy related to Christianity—in particular, how it related to the Word (Logos) of John 1:1.

24. The Middle Ages The church of the Middle Ages (476–1500) faced not only some of the same challenges as the Patristic Period, but also challenges unlike any they had seen before. In particular, among the challenges for Christian theology and apologetics was the need, with the expansion and growing strength of Christianity, to synthesize by uniting, filtering, and categorizing the wide range of existing thought.

25. The Middle Ages Heretical Challenges • Nestorianism – Nestorius (c. 386–451), the Patriarch of Constantinople, asserted that in the incarnation, Jesus maintained not only two natures, but alsotwo persons. Nestorius split Jesus into a human person and a divine person and insisted that though the human Jesus suffered, the divine Jesus did not. • Eutychianism – Eutychianism, named after Eutyches, an elderly monk in Constantinople who was actually for the most part a figurehead used by others, was the belief that Christ had only one nature. The divine nature and human nature of Christ were so comingled that they produced a new or third kind of nature—almost in the same way that yellow and blue make green.

26. The Middle Ages Heretical Challenges • Jewish and Muslim Challenges During this period, Christians began to feel a greater responsibility to evangelize the Jews, especially since Christians were being asked to take up arms against Muslims. As Islam, which was founded in 610, rapidly grew in power, Christian apologists directed much energy toward engaging its basic tenets. Thus, to the West was the missionary challenge of reaching unconverted Jews and to the East was the cultural, military, and religious threat of Islam.

27. The Middle Ages Heretical Challenges • Synthesis Challenge • During the Middle Ages, Christian theologians and apologists continued to answer questions of synthesis and integration such as “How do faith and reason relate?” and “What is the connection between theology and philosophy?”

28. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Speak the language, define the terms. Boethius (c. 480–524), a Roman consul in the administration of Theodoric the Great who was accused of treason, imprisoned, and ultimately executed, courageously tackled the problem of Synthesis. Boethuis suggested that the difference between philosophy and theology is found in the difference between their methodologies.

29. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Condemn and defend. Some Christian apologists were very direct and pointed in their response to Islam. John Damascene (c. 675–749), a Syrian monk and priest, took such an approach. In On Heresies and Dialogue between a Saracen (Muslim) and a Christian, he points out the problems with Islamic faith and practice and responds to Islamic criticisms of Christian beliefs.

30. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Use an allegory. Theodore AbūQurrah (c. 740–c. 820), a disciple of John Damascene, offered an allegory in answer to such questions as “When there are so many religions—including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—how can one judge which is true?” • Demonstrate the rationality of the Christian faith. Following Augustine’s maxim “First believe, then understand,” Anselm (1033–1109), an archbishop of Canterbury, stated the relationship between faith and reason in this way: “For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.”

31. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Prove that the greatest being must exist. Though Anselm never referred to it as such, the ontological argument is his best-known and most enduring contribution to apologetics. Anselm’s basic argument for the existence of a perfect being is as follows: • God is by definition that than which nothing greater can be conceived. • It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind. • Therefore, God must exist in reality. If he didn’t exist, he wouldn’t be the greatest possible being.

32. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Reason your way to faith.Peter Abelard (1079–1142), a brilliant French theologian, philosopher, ethicist, and logician, emphasized the value of reason in bringing an unbeliever to an incipient faith. Through an analysis of Christian evidences, a person can attain a rudimentary faith which then paves the way for a supernatural faith produced by God’s grace.

33. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Reason your way to faith.Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the most famous and influential medieval theologian-apologist, did not begin his apology with scriptural authority. Rather, because of his missionary aim and because some of his adversaries denied the authority of Scripture, he started with reason and natural revelation. In the first three volumes of Aquinas’ great apologetic work, Summa Contra Gentiles, he claims to prove certain theological truths that we can know empirically and rationally without the aid of special revelation—for example, the existence of God and certain of God’s attributes.

34. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Aquinas’ Five Ways to Demonstrate God’s Existence • Movement or change has a mover. Since there is not an infinite regress, an Unmoved Mover is necessary. God is the Unmoved Mover. • Nonbeing cannot cause being. Since there cannot be an infinite regress of causal beings, a first cause must exist. God is the First Cause. • Beings in this world exist necessarily, but appear contingent. Therefore, a non-contingent, necessary being must exist. God is the Necessary Being. • Limited beings depend on an unlimited being. God is the Unlimited Being. • Design in nature must have a designer. God is the Ultimate Designer.

35. The Middle Ages Christian Responses • Respect those you disagree with. Through an allegorical disputation in The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men, Raymond Lull (c. 1232-1316), an intriguing and exceptional individual who had many personal gifts, respectfully acknowledges the humanity of a Gentile philosopher, a Jew, a Christian, and a Saracen (Muslim). • Use an eclectic approach.In The Triumph of the Cross, Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), a Dominican monk and preacher, demonstrates an eclectic methodology in which he uses art, experience, reason, and argument—all centered around a focus on the Cross of Christ.

36. Turning to the Reformation As we will see as we turn to the next chapter, the coming of the Reformation ushered in a much more complicated time. The church in the West would split into two camps: Catholic and Protestant. Disputes over church doctrine would occupy much of the apologetic efforts of the church for centuries. And while the church turned inward wrangling over issues of salvation, church, and authority, the world was moving on toward the Enlightenment and modernity, which would come to present vast philosophical, scientific, and moral challenges to the Christian faith. Sadly, the major figures of the Reformation period hardly addressed the primary task of apologetics at all.