Apologetics, Literature

APOLOGETIC, LITERATURE. - If apologetics, considered as an autonomous science, is of recent date, the apologies that prepared the way for it go back to the origins of Christianity and accompany its entire history. The word "apology" is here taken in the strictest and currently theological sense, that is, as a defense against an attack by the unbeliever concerning, more or less directly, the rational foundations of the Catholic faith. Understood in this way, the apology is distinguished from polemics and from controversy. In technical dogmatic terminology, polemics is the defense of a truth of faith against the heretic or the dissident Christian, while controversy is properly a discussion among Catholics, professing the same faith, concerning freely disputable questions.

The apologetic literature, a special branch of Christian literature, is of great interest, making known with what method and with what arguments philosophers, men of letters, historians and eminent scientists were able, over the course of twenty centuries, to respond to attacks of every sort from unbelievers and to demonstrate the reasonableness of the Catholic religion. Following a chronological line, a rapid historical-literary synthesis is given here, dividing it into three great periods: ancient, medieval, and modern era, corresponding to the three principal phases of Christianity's struggle against the adversaries of its divine and revealed origin.

1. ANCIENT ERA

Christianity presented itself to the pagan world not as the cult of a single people, nation, or race, but as a universal religion obligatory for all, under penalty of eternal damnation; not as a cult of a new divinity, reconcilable with the other cults, but as a coordinated system of doctrines and laws, in antithesis to the beliefs and above all to the morality of paganism; not as a religious philosophy, proposed to the free discussion of every adherent, nor as an ascetic or mystical extrarational experience, but as a faith of divine authority, founded on a supernatural revelation, whose real existence had to be shown. A religion of this kind was bound to be a sign of contradiction, as its founder had predicted, and it imposed on its followers the defense and rational justification of its truth.

In the period of the great pagan persecutions, Christians were accused of horrible crimes: of cannibalism (because of the Eucharist), of incest (because of the rite of the kiss of peace), and of other wickednesses. They were called atheists, because they did not worship the gods; socially useless, for an alleged political inertia; and even enemies of the human race. But the principal accusation, which would then constitute the substance of the apologies of the first centuries, was the refusal of Christians to practice certain exterior rites of the official religion of Rome, symbols of patriotism, to whose observance the salvation, prosperity and greatness of the Roman Empire were believed to be due (see: ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS).

To the popular calumnies and the persecutions of the civil authority was added the hostility of the intellectual class: of philosophers, men of letters and historians of great renown. Some philosophers wrote systematic works against the doctrines of the Christians, their sacred books, their founder.

Another great adversary of Christianity was Judaism. The Jews denied the messiahship of Jesus Christ and considered Christianity as a schism that weakened the synagogue, and a scandal for its non-observance of the whole Mosaic law. Neither the Jews of Palestine nor those of the diaspora published, in the patristic age, important works against the Christians, but they orally spread monstrous and insulting lies against them and were their zealous denouncers, the instigators of persecutions, as Tertullian calls them.

It was necessary to respond to the pagan and Jewish accusations, to vindicate against the persecuting laws, which were to last until the edict of Constantine (313), their right to legal existence, to refute the sophisms of the philosophers and to demonstrate the falsity of paganism and of post-Christian Judaism. But this defensive and negative part was not enough. To convert pagans and Jews to Christianity, it was necessary to prove positively the truth of the new religion. This positive demonstration interests us more, inasmuch as we already find in it all the essential arguments of our apologetic theses, resistant to the logic of twenty centuries. As early as the 2nd century, the writings in defense and justification of Christianity were called by the Greek term "apologies," this name then being given to the judicial defense of an accused person before the tribunal. Their content is for the most part conditioned by the contingent needs of the defense, and the choice of argument is subordinated to this practical purpose. As for the literary form, the first apologies are commonly "discourses" in the technical sense of the word; later the "treatise" properly so called appears. In disputes with the Jews, the "dialogue" is preferred, which presupposes a common basis of discussion.

The greatest part of the apologies of the first centuries were directed against the pagans, as appeals to the emperors and statesmen, or as instruction for the people or for private individuals.

The first apologist known to us is the Athenian Quadratus, who around 125 presented to the emperor Hadrian, who had come to Athens, an apology of Christianity, of which only a few words preserved by Eusebius remain (Hist. eccl., IV, 3), but of great interest. Quadratus, in fact, attests that in his time there were still living persons healed or raised by Christ: this is already the demonstration of the truth of Christianity through the proof of miracle. Of many other apologists of the 2nd century (Ariston of Pella, Miltiades, Claudius Apollinaris, Melito of Sardis, Apollonius) the works have been entirely lost. The apology of the Athenian philosopher Aristides, directed, according to Eusebius, to Hadrian like the apology of Quadratus or, according to others, to Antoninus Pius (circa 140) was rediscovered toward the end of the last century. Aristides demonstrates, with a comparative examination of religions, that only the Christians have the true notion of God and that they know how to translate into their practical life the perfection of the truths of their religion. But the greatest apologist of the 2nd century is the philosopher and martyr St. Justin, who converted to Christianity after having long and vainly sought religious truth in the various pagan philosophical schools. He wrote the so-called First Apology (147-61) and the Second Apology, a brief appendix to the first and slightly later, both addressed to Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and then (155-61) the Dialogue with Trypho (Italian trans., Rome 1920, Turin 1929-30). The fundamental thesis of the two apologies is the demonstration that Christianity contains all the truths of philosophy, and that it is indeed the most perfect philosophy and within everyone's reach, capable of transforming morals, as is proved by the holy life of Christians. Justin therefore seeks the agreement of Christian revelation with the highest philosophical doctrines of paganism, and in this he will be followed by almost all the Greek apologists; whereas the Latin apologists will prefer to insist on the contrasts between the perfection of the revealed doctrine and the errors, absurdities and corruption of paganism. The Dialogue with Trypho is an apology against the Jews, in which Justin answers the most important Jewish objections against Christians and demonstrates that Jesus is the true Messiah, arguing especially from the prophecies of the Old Testament. Belonging to the struggle between Christianity and philosophy, but only in a broad sense to the apologies, are the Discourse to the Greeks (150-73; Italian trans., Turin 1921) of the philosopher Tatian and the Satire of the Pagan Philosophers (Italian trans., Prato 1884), of uncertain date but probably of the 2nd century, by the philosopher Hermias. They are two exaggerated and partial criticisms of the perpetual contradictions of the pagan philosophies. Another philosopher, Athenagoras of Athens, who even after his conversion continued to wear, following the example of Aristides and Justin, the philosopher's cloak, wrote (ca. 177) a Plea for the Christians (Italian trans., Turin 1913), addressed to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, which is literarily one of the most beautiful apologies of Christian antiquity. With solid, clear, methodical reasoning, Athenagoras defends the Christians from the three great pagan accusations of atheism, incest and cannibalism, gives the rational demonstration of the unity of God and illustrates the perfection of Christian morality. The apology Three Books on the Faith of the Christians to Autolycus (180-85; Italian trans., Venice 1798) by St. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, is no longer addressed to the emperors or to the people, as the previous apologies were, but to a pagan friend of the author. Theophilus, not a philosopher but an elegant and erudite man of letters, demonstrates the absurdity of paganism and the truth of Christian doctrine, resulting from its simple exposition. The very beautiful Letter to Diognetus (Italian trans., Genoa 1912), by an unknown author, probably of the 2nd century, answers the questions of a pagan about the difference between Christian worship and pagan and Jewish worship, about the new life led by Christians and about the late origin of Christianity.

Critics have debated whether the first apology in Latin is the Octavius (end of the 2nd century; Italian trans., Arezzo 1902, Genoa 1912, Florence 1918, etc.) of Minucius Felix or the Apologeticum (197; Italian trans., Asti 1913, Brescia 1936, etc.) of Tertullian. The two works resemble each other in many points. The Octavius is a most elegant and erudite dialogue between a pagan and a Christian, with the author as arbiter, in which paganism is criticized and the beauty of the faith and the purity of Christian morals are demonstrated. The Apologeticum, ticum, addressed to the governors of the provinces of the Roman empire, is a masterly juridical defense of Christianity, with a decisive confutation of the pagan accusations, concluding that the Christian doctrine is true and that the life of Christians is beyond reproach. Tertullian also left other writings of an apologetic kind: Ad Nationes (197), to denounce the crimes of the pagans and confute polytheism; De testimonio animae (after 197; Italian trans., Tortona 1887), to illustrate the famous text of the Apologeticum: "O testimonium animae naturaliter christianae!" (ch. 17); the letter Ad Scapulam (211-13), to remind this governor of Africa of the divine punishments against the persecutors of Christians; Adversus Judaeos (200-206), to demonstrate the messiahship of Jesus Christ with the proof of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the transitoriness of the Old Covenant.

Returning to the apologies in Greek, we find, at the beginning of the 3rd century, the trilogy of Clement of Alexandria: Exhortation to the Greeks, Paedagogus and Stromata (200-202). The head of the Alexandrian school does not have in view the legal situation of Christianity, nor the confutation of the pagan accusations; he wishes rather, once again, to reconcile Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine and to show that this is the best philosophy; and being an educator, he seeks to lead the pagan gradually to Christianity. In the Exhortation to the Greeks he demonstrates the errors of paganism; in the Paedagogus (Italian trans., Turin 1937) he expounds Christian ethics to the pagans; in the Stromata he illustrates the transcendence of Christianity over pagan philosophy.

His great disciple Origen wrote (244-48) the important apology Contra Celsum, against the author of the work Discourse of Truth, which was a general and systematic attack on the Christian religion and its founder. Origen methodically confutes the objections of the philosopher Celsus and positively demonstrates the divinity of Christianity, arguing from the miracles of Jesus Christ, from contemporary miracles, from the messianic prophecies and from the holiness of Christians.

St. Cyprian too, among the Latins, wrote apologies: the opuscule Quod idola di non sint (ca. 246) is a confutation of polytheism; the treatise Ad Quirinum (ca. 248) demonstrates with biblical texts that Christianity has legitimately succeeded Judaism; the treatise Ad Demetrianum (ca. 252) proves that Christianity is not the cause of public calamities.

Two other apologists, of the age of St. Cyprian, are Arnobius and his disciple Lactantius. The rhetorician Arnobius, who remained an ardent pagan until the age of 50, wrote (ca. 304) the Adversus Nationes to show the sincerity of his conversion, in which he proves the divinity of Christianity with the argument of the miracles of its founder, with the wonderful propagation of the new religion and with the admirable harmony of Christian doctrines with the highest truths of philosophy, while in the second part of the work he makes a criticism—we would say today, Voltairean—of pagan doctrine, cults and morals. Lactantius, with the work Divinarum institutionum libri VII (ca. 304), wished to make a kind of manual of apologetics, summarizing and systematically expounding what had already been written on the subject. In the first three books he confutes the errors of paganism, and in the following books he demonstrates that true wisdom and true religion are found only in the divine revelation, communicated to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as is proved by the fulfillment in him of the messianic prophecies and by his miracles. This work had great success, especially for its literary merits, for which Lactantius was called the Christian Cicero.

Barely deserving of mention, given their scant apologetic value, are the Instructiones and the Carmen apologeticum of the poet Commodian, who some suppose lived in Africa during the persecution of Decius (249-51), in which case he would be the first Latin Christian poet, while others believe him to be of the 4th or 5th century.

The father of ecclesiastical history, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote many important apologetic works: the Preparation for the Gospel (313-25), addressed to the pagans to answer their objections against Christianity and to demonstrate its transcendence over paganism; the Demonstration of the Gospel, of which only the first ten books survive, written in the same period as the preceding work, to prove that Judaism was the prophetic preparation for Christianity; the Theophany (ca. 333), a summary of the Demonstration of the Gospel, preserved for us in a Syriac version; the General Elementary Introduction (before 311), in ten books, of which we have only four books and some fragments of the others, concerning the messianic prophecies; the Against Hierocles (ca. 312), a vigorous confutation of the magistrate Hierocles, who sought to set against the miracles of Christ the legendary prodigies attributed in Philostratus' novel to Apollonius of Tyana. Other apologetic writings of Eusebius have been lost, among them the great work Against Porphyry, in 25 books. Eusebius wished not only to repel the adversaries' attacks, but to prove positively the divinity of Christianity, basing his demonstration on the now traditional motives of credibility: the messianic prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Gospel miracles, and the wondrous history of the Christian religion.

Also belonging to the apologies of the 4th century are: the Discourse against the Greeks (ca. 320) of St. Athanasius, which demonstrates the falsity of polytheism and the truth of monotheism; the treatise On St. Babylas, Against Julian and the Pagans (ca. 387) and the opuscule That Christ Is God, against the Jews and the Pagans (ca. 387) of St. John Chrysostom, which prove the divinity of Jesus Christ with the arguments of miracles and prophecies. The greatest Christian poet of the 4th century, Prudentius, wrote the poem Contra Symmachum (402-403), to confute the defense of paganism made, in 383, by the prefect of Rome Symmachus. The allegorical poem Psychomachia, in which Prudentius described the soul's struggle between the Christian virtues and the pagan vices, is of a more moral than apologetic genre.

The greatest of the Fathers of the Church, St. Augustine, also brought a contribution of the highest value to apologetics. Precious apologetic elements are found in many of his works, and especially in the following: De vera religione; De fide rerum quae non videntur; De utilitate credendi; De divinatione daemonum; Adversus Iudaeos. But his grandiose work De civitate Dei (413-26; Italian trans., Florence 1927-30; ibid. 1938; Turin 1939, etc.) is considered the most important apology of the patristic age, transformed into a philosophy of history. The first part, defensive, repels the pagans' accusations against Christianity and makes a keen critique of paganism. The second part, positive, demonstrates that the only religion destined by providence to lead humanity, from the beginning to the end of the world, to its salvation is Christianity.

The Historiae adversus paganos (417-18; Italian trans., Florence 1849) of Paulus Orosius, a disciple of Augustine, develop the thesis of the De civitate Dei, that Christianity was not the cause of the evils that then afflicted the Roman empire. Of the work For the Holy Religion of the Christians against Julian the Atheist (ca. 433) of St. Cyril of Alexandria we no longer possess more than the first ten books and some scattered citations of the other twenty. It is a confutation of the writing Against the Galileans of Julian the Apostate, who asserted that the Christian religion was a degeneration of Judaism with some pagan additions. The last great apology of Christian antiquity is the Cure of the Pagan Maladies (429-37; Italian trans., Florence 1931) of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus in Syria. With much erudition, Theodoret, after having protested together with Eusebius of Caesarea against the calumny of those who accused the Christians of instilling in their followers only a supine credulity, in order to cure the ignorance of the pagans, the cause of all their spiritual evils, demonstrates the absurdity of the philosophical and religious doctrines of paganism and the transcendence of the dogmatic and moral truths of Christianity.

2. MIDDLE AGES

In this long period of victorious faith the defenses of the rational credibility of Christianity are not very numerous nor, generally, of great value. The principal adversaries continue to be the Jews, to whom are added the Muslims. Arab philosophers of great name (Avicenna, Averroes) deny Christian revelation, proclaim the absolute autonomy of reason, make use of Aristotle's philosophy to combat Catholic doctrine and, indeed, the very foundations of natural religion.

Against the Jews the Christian apologists demonstrate the messiahship of Jesus Christ with the proofs of prophecies and miracles, the abrogation of the Mosaic law, replaced by the law of the Gospel, the divinity of Christianity, proved especially with the argument drawn from its miraculous triumph over paganism and Judaism. Analogous arguments are adduced against Islam, with the counterproof that Muhammad did not prove his prophetic mission with any historical supernatural fact and that his doctrine and above all his morality are irreconcilable with the teaching of the Old Testament and in perfect antagonism with the Gospel. Many apologies against the Jews and the Muslims have remained unpublished and of unknown author. The greatest part of the apologies of this period have been collected in Migne's Patrologies (PG and PL). A disdainful contempt for the adversary, often accompanied by insult and sometimes by calumny, and scant knowledge of the doctrines of Judaism and especially of Islam dominate a great part of this apologetic literature, which however in the last centuries of the Middle Ages demonstrates greater competence in the problems treated. This progress was due to two facts: the conversion to Christianity of Jews and Muslims, who became defenders of their new faith against the errors, well known to them, of their former coreligionists, and the institution in Spain, through the work of St. Raymond of Peñafort, of a center of studies for the linguistic and doctrinal formation of apologists against the Muslims and the Jews. The field of defense was also broadened and there were apologies of a more general character against every sort of adversary of the divinity of Christianity. In the period of the rebirth of ancient Greco-Roman ideals, the humanist apologists present Christianity as the perfection of all ancient truth.

Among the many apologists against Judaism let us recall: St. Isidore of Seville (d. 636), De Fide catholica ex Vetere et Novo Testamento contra Iudaeos (PL 83, 449-538); St. Fulbert (d. 1028), Tractatus contra Iudaeos (PL 141, 305-18); St. Peter Damian (d. 1072), Antilogus contra Iudaeos and Dialogus inter Iudaeum requirentem et christianum e contrario respondentem (PL 145, 41-68); Petrus Alfonsi (d. around 1140), Dialogus Petri cognomento Alphonsi ex iudaeo christiani, et Moysi iudaei (PL 157, 535-672); Peter the Venerable (d. 1156), Tractatus adversus Iudaeorum inveteratam duritiem (PL 189, 507-660). Numerous also are the apologists against the Muslims, among whom: St. John Damascene (d. 789), Disputa tra un saraceno e un cristiano (PL 96, 1336-48); the already mentioned Peter the Venerable, Summula quaedam brevis contra haereses et sectam diabolicae fraudis Saracenorum sive Ismaëlitarum and Adversus nefariam sectam Saracenorum (PL 189, 651-58; 661-720); card. Nicholas of Cusa, Cibratio Alcorani (1459); card. Juan de Torquemada (d. 1468), Tractatus contra principales errores perfidi Mahometi. The Confutazione della setta maometana (Italian trans. 1540) of the Spanish Muslim Giovanni Andrea 'Abdallah, converted in 1487, enjoyed great success and was translated into many languages.

But the work that made an epoch was: Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos, written in Latin and Hebrew in 1270 (Paris 1642 and 1651, Leipzig 1687) by the converted rabbi who became a Dominican, Raymond Martini, a product of the school of St. Raymond of Peñafort. The work consists of three parts: in the first, the errors of the philosophers who deny divine revelation are refuted; in the second, an erudite critique of Judaism is made with arguments taken not only from Sacred Scripture, but also from Talmudic tradition and rabbinic theology, and the Messiahship of Jesus Christ is demonstrated by the proof of the prophecies of the Old Testament; in the third part, the principal Christian dogmas are defended against the attacks of unbelievers.

For the use of those who devoted themselves to the conversion of Muslims, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa catholicae fidei contra gentiles (1261-64), having in view above all the errors of the Arab philosophers. St. Thomas refutes these errors indirectly, by demonstrating that the Catholic doctrines of a philosophical order are proved true by reason, and that those of a dogmatic order are not contrary to reason. The work, which is properly a philosophy of revealed doctrine, consists of two parts. The first part (II. I-III) treats questions of natural theology, demonstrated directly as true by reason alone; the second part (I. IV) sets forth the mysteries of the faith, founded on divine revelation, whose credibility is proved by the prophecies of the Old Testament, by the miracles of Jesus Christ and by the conversion of the world to Christianity, a miracle that sums up and perpetuates all the other miracles.

Among the last apologies of the Middle Ages, special mention is deserved by the Triumphus crucis sive de veritate fidei libri IV (1497), by G. Savonarola (edition of the texts, Latin and vernacular, edited by L. Ferretti, Siena 1899). Book I treats of the existence of God and his attributes and of the immortality of the soul; Book II demonstrates the divinity of Christianity, arguing above all from its moral fruits; Book III examines the principal mysteries of the Catholic faith in relation to reason; Book IV answers the objections of philosophers, astrologers, idolaters, Jews, and Muslims against Christianity.

In the period of the Renaissance the principal apology was the work of the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives: De veritate fidei christianae libri V (Basel 1544, London 1639). It is a dogmatic-apologetic demonstration of Catholic doctrine, with the confutation of Judaism and of Islam. The last book treats of the transcendence of Christianity from the ethical and social point of view.

3. MODERN TIMES

A) APOLOGIES. — Among the innumerable apologies of modern times it is necessary here to limit ourselves to the principal ones, of a general character and of particular interest for the history of apologetics. Works that have as their object only special apologetic questions (revelation, miracle, prophecy, Jesus Christ, the Church, Protestantism, etc.) are referred to their respective entries. Still less can consideration be given to works that belong directly to philosophy (theodicy), to the history of religions, to biblical sciences, to ecclesiastical history, etc., even if they bear the title of apology.

The much-discussed work Pensées sur la religion by B. Pascal (d. 1662) is generally considered the greatest apology of the 17th century. They are fragments of a great apologetic work left unfinished, insufficient for a definitive judgment on Pascal's apologetic method. He recognizes the traditional proofs of miracle and prophecy, but they do not seem to him apodictic. The "reasons of the heart" supply the deficiency, inasmuch as man, living the Christian life, can experience its truth. And as a margin of proof and last resort there remains his famous "Argumentum a pari", a mathematical calculation of probabilities, of decisive value for Pascal, but really a calculation of self-interest, devoid of apologetic value. More faithful to the traditional method is, in this same 17th century, the apology L'incredulo senza scusa (Florence 1690) by P. Segneri. The unbeliever, the celebrated orator demonstrates, is unreasonable, because the miracles, especially the miracle of the conversion of the world to Christianity, prophecy, Christian martyrdom, the unity and holiness of the Church demonstrate the divinity of Christianity.

French philosophism of the 18th century encountered a valiant defender of revealed religion in N. S. Bergier, author of the Traité historique et dogmatique de la vraie religion (Paris 1780, 1820) and of other apologetic writings: Le déisme réfuté par lui-même (Paris 1765, 2nd ed. 1822), against Rousseau; La certitude des preuves du christianisme (Paris 1767), against the insidious work Examen critique des apologistes de la religion chrétienne, attributed to N. Fréret; Apologie de la religion chrétienne (Paris 1769), against the errors of D'Holbach and of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique. In Germany a learned confutation of the errors of the unbelievers of the 18th century, pantheists, deists, rationalists, was made by S. Storchenau in the works: Die Philosophie der Religion, Augsburg 1775-81, and Zugaben zur Philosophie der Religion (ibid. 1785-88, 3rd ed. Cologne 1810), in which the moral necessity of revelation and its historical certainty are demonstrated by the light of reason alone. In Italy too we have in the 18th century valuable apologies against deist and rationalist errors. Important are those of A. Valsecchi, Dei fondamenti della religione e delle fonti dell'empietà (Padua 1765, Treviso 1770); La religione vincitrice (ibid. 1776); La verità della Chiesa cattolica romana (ibid. 1787). To St. Alphonsus de' Liguori we owe the following apologetic writings: Verità della fede fatta evidente per li contrassegni della sua credibilità (Naples 1762); Verità della fede contro i materialisti... i settari... i deisti (Naples 1767); Riflessioni sulla verità della divina rivelazione (Naples 1773). The apology of A. Tassoni, La religione dimostrata e difesa (Rome 1800, Pisa 1817), also deserves to be remembered. All these apologies follow the traditional method of demonstration with the proofs of miraculous facts in the physical, intellectual and moral order.

A new path was followed by Fr. R. de Chateaubriand in his celebrated work Le Génie du christianisme (1st ed., Paris 1802; Italian trans., 8th ed., Milan 1879). Against the calumnies of the encyclopedists, who regarded Christianity as an absurd and ridiculous cult, enemy of reason and beauty, of letters and the arts, concluding with Voltaire that only an imbecile or a knave could be a Christian, Chateaubriand sought to demonstrate that Christianity is the most humane, most beneficent, most beautiful, most poetic, most favorable to letters and the arts of all other religions, in order to conclude that such a religion cannot be a human creation. But a demonstration founded exclusively on the beauty and utility of Christianity, on aesthetic and sentimental arguments, cannot prove the divine, and still less the revealed, origin of the Catholic religion.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Germany offers us the most powerful apologies for Christianity. The Apologie des Christentums of F. Hettinger (5 vols., Freiburg im Breisgau 1863-67, 10th ed. 1907-18, edited by E. Müller; Italian trans., Pistoia 1906) demonstrates, in the first part, the rational foundations of Christianity, and defends, in the second part, the fundamental truths of the Catholic faith. The Apologie des Christentums of P. Schanz (3 vols., 3rd ed., Freiburg im Breisgau 1903-1906, 4th ed. of vol. I, ibid. 1901, edited by W. Rock; Italian trans., Florence 1907) treats, in vol. I, of God and nature; in vol. II, of revealed religion; in vol. III, of the Catholic Church. The Apologie des Christentums of A. M. Weiss (5 vols., 4th ed., Freiburg im Breisgau 1905-1908; Italian trans., Trent 1902-1908) follows a method different from that of the two preceding apologies; considering the value of Christianity in its relations with morals and civilization, it sets out to demonstrate that only the Catholic religion corresponds admirably to all the individual and social needs and aspirations of man. Highly valuable for its doctrine and modern erudition is the work Religion, Christentum, Kirche (3 vols., Kempten 1911; 5th ed. 1923) by G. Esser, J. Mausbach and other collaborators. Vol. I has as its subject God and the religion of the Old Testament; vol. II treats of Jesus Christ as teacher of humanity and founder of the Church; vol. III sets forth the wonderful life of the Church as proof of its divine origin.

Contemporary French apologetic literature is extremely abundant. Suffice it here to recall the great apologetic encyclopedia Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique, published under the direction of A. D'Alès (4 vols., 4th ed., Paris 1924-28), an edition entirely recast from the Dictionnaire apologétique (1888) of J. B. Jaugey, and the small encyclopedia entitled Apologétique, directed by M. Brillant and M. Nédoncelle (2nd ed. Paris 1948). In this last work all problems directly or indirectly apologetic are treated systematically, and answers are given to the principal contemporary objections against the Bible, Catholic dogma and morals, and against the Church. To apologetics in the broadest sense France has also devoted a special journal, the Revue pratique d'apologétique, later Revue apologétique, founded in 1905.

In Spain, the philosopher G. Balmes published the Cartas d'un esceptico (Barcelona 1845; Italian trans., Imola 1850). They are twenty-five letters written with depth of thought and close logic in defense of the Catholic religion. The work Jesucristo y la Iglesia Romana (Madrid 1899-1902) by L. Murillo demonstrates the divinity of Jesus Christ and the divine institution of the Roman Church and defends the Catholic doctrines most attacked by contemporary unbelief.

Among the apologies in the English language we recall: J.

Poynter, Christianity or the evidences and character of the christian religion (London 1827, French trans. in Migne's collection, Démostrations évangéliques, XIII, 1221-1314); Th. Moore, Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a religion (London 1833; Italian trans., Venice 1835, Florence 1850); M. J. Spalding, Evidences of catholicity (6th ed., Baltimore 1866); Cardinal H. E. Manning, The grounds of Faith (London 1853, 6th ed. 1890; Italian trans., Rome 1906).

In Italy the Breve apologia pei giovani studenti (6th ed., Florence 1920) by G. Ballerini has enjoyed a well-merited success; its four little volumes have as their respective subjects: God, man, the soul; religion; Christianity; the Church.
B) APOLOGETICS. — The most splendid product of apologetic progress has been the evolution of apologies into apologetics properly so called, which has become a science in its own right, having as its proper and exclusive object the positive, methodical, systematic demonstration of the rational foundations of the Catholic faith.

The creation of this science was brought about by the attacks of modern unbelief, no longer directed against this or that Catholic truth, but systematically concentrated against the very bases of Catholicism. Protestantism, by proclaiming the principle of "sola et sufficiens Scriptura," made necessary the apologetic treatise on the divine institution of the Roman Catholic Church; and by adulterating the concept of our intellectual assent to the revealed word, it obliged Catholic theologians to a more thorough examination of the act of faith and of its relations with reason. German rationalism, English deism and French philosophism, by denying any revealed religion, indeed the possibility, usefulness and knowability of any supernatural revelation, imposed upon Christian apologists a systematic treatment of the historical fact of divine revelation, with a prior discussion of the thesis on the possibility, necessity and discernibility of revelation itself.

Already from the 18th century onward, the scholastic study of dogmatic theology was customarily preceded by the two treatises then commonly called "Christian Demonstration" and "Catholic Demonstration," in order to prove the historical existence of revelation and its preservation by means of the Roman Catholic Church. A great impulse to systematic and scientific apologetics was given by the Vatican Council with its definitions on divine revelation, on the relations between faith and reason, and on the Church. The increasingly common establishment in theological faculties, and after the constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus (24 May 1931) the obligatory establishment, of special chairs of fundamental theology has led to the publication of many manuals of this science. But for educated laypeople too a treatment of apologetic problems was necessary that was less polemical and more positive, that is, more concerned with establishing the truth than with refuting error, and therefore more competent and above all conducted according to the norms and requirements of today's scientific method, that is, coordinating its theses under a single formal object, critically demonstrated and with certain proofs, independently of the adversary's attack, which is always presupposed by the apology. Concerning the scope of the specific subject matter of apologetics, considered as an autonomous science, there has been lengthy discussion; and many apologists have preferred to sacrifice scientific unity to the needs of a practical and didactic order. The various apologetic works therefore present a variety of content. They do, however, treat in a systematic and scientific manner all the problems essential to the demonstration of the historical fact of Christian revelation and to the demonstration of the divine institution of the Roman Catholic Church. To these historical demonstrations there is customarily prefixed, for the sake of connection of subject matter, the philosophical treatment of natural religion.

II. For the first five centuries: a) Texts: Collizione degli scritti patriatici (v. PATROLOGIA); Th. v. Otto, Corpus Apologetorum christianorum succ. II, 2nd ed., Jena 1847-72; C. J. Goosepe, Die ältesten Apologeten, Göttingen 1914; b) Studies: Manuals of the history of ancient ecclesiastical literature (Bardenhewer, Cayré, Steidle, Altaner, Mannucci and Casamassa); E. Freppel, Les apologistes chrétiens du IIe siècle, Paris 1860; J. Donaldson, The Apologists, London 1866; J. Rivière, S. Justin et les apologistes du second siècle, Paris 1907; A. Pucchi, Les apologistes grecs du IIe siècle de notre vie, Paris 1912; I. Giordani, La prima polemica cristiana, 2nd ed., Brescia 1943; M. Pellegrino, Gli apologeti greci del II secolo, Rome 1947; id., Studi sull'antica apologetica, ibid. 1947.

III. For the Middle Ages: M. Steinschneider, Polemische und apologetische Literatur in arabischer Sprache zwischen Muslimen, Christen und Juden, Leipzig 1877; A. Lukyn Williams, Adversus Iudacus, Cambridge 1935. Giuseppe Monti