APOLOGETICS, LITERATURE. – If apologetics, considered as an autonomous science, is of recent origin, the apologies that prepared the way for it go back to the origins of Christianity and accompany its entire history. The word “apology” is used here in its strictest and current 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. Thus understood, an apology is distinct from polemics and controversy. In technical dogmatic terminology, polemics is the defense of a truth of faith against the heretic or dissident Christian; whereas controversy is properly a discussion among Catholics, professing the same faith, concerning freely disputable questions.
Apologetic literature, a special branch of Christian literature, is of great interest, since it shows by what method and with what arguments eminent philosophers, men of letters, historians, and scientists, over the course of twenty centuries, have known how to respond to attacks of every kind from unbelievers and to demonstrate the reasonableness of the Catholic religion. Following a chronological line, a rapid historical-literary synthesis is presented here, divided into three great periods: the ancient, medieval, and modern ages, corresponding to the three principal phases of Christianity’s struggle against the opponents of its divine and revealed origin.
1. ANCIENT AGE
Christianity presented itself to the pagan world not as the worship of a single people, nation, or race, but as a universal religion, obligatory for all under penalty of eternal damnation; not as the worship of a new divinity, capable of being reconciled with other cults, but as a coordinated system of doctrines and laws, in opposition to the beliefs and above all to the morality of paganism; not as a religious philosophy, proposed for the free discussion of every adherent, nor as an extrarational ascetic or mystical experience, but as a faith in divine authority, founded upon a supernatural revelation whose real existence had to be demonstrated. Such a religion was bound to be a sign of contradiction, as its founder had foretold, and imposed upon its followers the rational defense and justification of its truth.During the period of the great pagan persecutions, Christians were accused of horrible crimes: cannibalism (because of the Eucharist), incest (because of the rite of the kiss of peace), and other abominations. They were called atheists because they did not worship the gods; socially useless, because of an alleged political inertia; and even ene-
mies of the human race. But the principal accusation, which would later constitute the substance of the apologies of the early centuries, was the Christians’ refusal to practice certain external rites of Rome’s official religion, symbols of patriotism, whose observance was believed to ensure the salvation, prosperity, and greatness of the Roman Empire (vedi: ACCUSE CONTRO I CRISTIANI).
The hostility of the intellectual class was added to popular calumnies and the persecutions of the civil authorities: that of philosophers, men of letters, and historians of great renown. Some philosophers wrote systematic works against the doctrines of the Christians, their sacred books, and their founder.
Another great adversary of Christianity was Judaism. The Jews denied the messiahship of Jesus Christ and regarded Christianity as a schism that weakened the synagogue, and as a scandal because of its failure to observe the whole Mosaic law. Neither the Jews of Palestine nor those of the diaspora published, during the patristic age, important works against the Christians; but they spread monstrous and insulting lies about them orally and were their zealous accusers and instigators of the persecutions, as Tertullian calls them.
It was necessary to respond to pagan and Jewish accusations, to assert, against the persecutory laws that were to remain in force until Constantine’s edict (313), their right to legal existence, to refute the sophistries of the philosophers, and to demonstrate the falsity of paganism and post-Christian Judaism. But this defensive and negative aspect 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 is of greater interest to us, since in it we already find all the essential arguments of our apologetic theses, which have withstood the logic of twenty centuries. From as early as the second century, writings in defense and justification of Christianity were called, in the Greek term, “apologies”; at that time this name denoted the judicial defense of an accused person before a tribunal. Their content is largely conditioned by the immediate needs of the defense, and the choice of subject is subordinated to this practical purpose. As regards literary form, the earliest 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, presupposing a common basis for discussion.
The great majority of the apologies of the early centuries were directed against the pagans, either as appeals to emperors and statesmen, or as instruction addressed to the people or to 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 for Christianity, of which only a few words survive, preserved by Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, 3), but they are of great interest. Quadratus, in fact, attests that in his own time there were still living persons who had been healed or raised from the dead by Christ: this is already a demonstration of the truth of Christianity through the proof of the miracle. The works of many other apologists of the second century—Aristo of Pella, Miltiades, Claudius Apollinaris, Melito of Sardis, and Apollonius—have been entirely lost. The apology of the Athenian philosopher Aristides, addressed, according to Eusebius, to Hadrian, like Quadratus’s apology, or, according to others, to Antoninus Pius (around 140), was rediscovered toward the end of the last century. Aristides demonstrates, through a comparative examination of religions, that only Christians ly un.
have the true notion of God and know how to translate into their practical lives the perfection of the truths of their religion. But the greatest apologist of the second century is the philosopher and martyr St. Justin, who converted to Christianity after having long and fruitlessly sought religious truth in the various pagan philosophical schools. He wrote the Apologia so-called First (147–61) and the Second Apologia, 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 one accessible to all, capable of transforming morals, as is proved by the holy life of Christians. Justin thus seeks agreement between Christian revelation and the loftiest philosophical doctrines of paganism, and in this he will be followed by nearly all the Greek apologists; whereas the Latin apologists will prefer to insist on the contrasts between the perfection of revealed doctrine and the errors, absurdities, and corruption of paganism. The Dialogue with Trypho is an apology against the Jews, in which Justin responds to the most important Jewish objections against Christians and demonstrates that Jesus is the true Messiah, arguing above all 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) by the philosopher Tatian and the Satire of the Pagan Philosophers (Italian trans., Prato 1884), of uncertain date but probably from the second century, by the philosopher Hermias. They are two exaggerated and partial critiques of the perpetual contradictions of pagan philosophies. Another philosopher, Athenagoras of Athens, who even after his conversion continued, following the example of Aristides and Justin, to wear the philosopher’s cloak, wrote (ca. 177) a Supplication for the Christians (Italian trans., Turin 1913), addressed to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, which is, from a literary standpoint, one of the finest apologies of Christian antiquity. With solid, clear, methodical reasoning, Athenagoras defends Christians against the three great pagan accusations of atheism, incest, and cannibalism, offers a 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 emperors or to the people, like the preceding apologies, but to a pagan friend of the author. Theophilus, not a philosopher but an elegant and learned man of letters, demonstrates the absurdity of paganism and the truth of Christian doctrine, as shown by its simple exposition. The beautiful Letter to Diognetus (Italian trans., Genoa 1912), by an unknown author, probably from the second century, responds to a pagan’s questions 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 the Latin language was the Octavius (end of the second 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 respects. The Octavius is an extremely elegant and learned 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 refutation of the pagan accusations, concluding that Christian doctrine is true and that the life of Christians is beyond reproach. Tertullian also left other writings of an apologetic nature: Ad Nationes (197), to denounce the crimes of the pagans and refute polytheism; De testimonio animae (after 197; Italian trans., Tortona 1887), to illustrate the famous passage of the Apologeticum: «O testimonium animae naturaliter christianae!» (chap. 17); the letter Ad Scapulam (211–13), to remind this governor of Africa of the divine punishments inflicted upon the persecutors of Christians; Adversus Judaeos (200–206), to demonstrate the messiahship of Jesus Christ through the proof of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the transience of the Old Covenant.
Returning to the apologies in the Greek language, at the beginning of the third century we find the trilogy of Clement of Alexandria: Exhortation to the Greeks, Pedagogue, and Stromata (200–202). The head of the Alexandrian school is not concerned with the legal status of Christianity, nor with refuting pagan accusations; rather, once again, he wishes to reconcile Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine and to show that the latter is the better philosophy; and, being an educator, he seeks gradually to lead the pagan to Christianity. In the Exhortation to the Greeks he demonstrates the errors of paganism; in the Pedagogue (Italian trans., Turin 1937) he sets forth Christian ethics for the pagans; in the Stromata he illustrates Christianity’s transcendence 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 refutes the objections of the philosopher Celsus and positively demonstrates the divinity of Christianity, arguing from the miracles of Jesus Christ, contemporary miracles, the messianic prophecies, and the holiness of Christians.
St. Cyprian, too, among the Latins, wrote apologies: the short work Quod idola di non sint (ca. 246) is a refutation of polytheism; the treatise Ad Quirinum (ca. 248) demonstrates through biblical texts that Christianity legitimately succeeded Judaism; the treatise Ad Demetrianum (ca. 252) proves that Christianity is not the cause of public calamities.
Two other apologists of St. Cyprian’s century are Arnobius and his disciple Lactantius. The rhetorician Arnobius, who remained an ardent pagan until the age of fifty, wrote (ca. 304), to demonstrate the sincerity of his conversion, the Adversus Nationes, in which he proves the divinity of Christianity by the miracles of its founder, the marvelous propagation of the new religion, and the remarkable harmony between Christian doctrines and the highest truths of philosophy, while in the second part of the work he offers what we would today call a Voltairian critique of pagan doctrine, worship, and morals. Lactantius, in his work Divinarum institutionum libri VII (ca. 304), wished to produce a kind of handbook of a., summarizing and systematically presenting what had already been written on the subject. In the first three books he refutes the errors of paganism, and in the following books demonstrates that true wisdom and true religion are found only in 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 enjoyed great success, especially because of its literary merits, on account of which Lactantius was called the Christian Cicero.
The Instructiones and the Carmen apologeticum of the poet Commodian deserve scarcely to be mentioned, given their slight apologetic value. Some suppose that he lived in Africa during the persecution of Decius (249–51), in which case he would be the first Christian Latin poet, while others place him in the fourth or fifth century.
The father of ecclesiastical history, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote many important apologetic works: the Preparation for the Gospel (313–25), addressed to pagans in order to answer their objections to Christianity and demonstrate its superiority over paganism; the Demonstration of the Gospel, of which only the first ten books remain, 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 possess only four and some fragments of the others, concerning the messianic prophecies; and the Against Hierocles (ca. 312), a vigorous refutation of the magistrate Hierocles, who attempted to set against the miracles of Christ the legendary wonders attributed to Apollonius of Tyana in the romance of Philostratus. Other apologetic writings of Eusebius have been lost, among them the great work Against Porphyry, in twenty-five books. Eusebius wished not only to repel his opponents’ attacks, but also positively to prove the divinity of Christianity, grounding 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.
The following also belong to the apologias of the fourth century: the Discourse against the Greeks (ca. 320) by 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 short work That Christ is God, against the Jews and the Pagans (ca. 387) by St. John Chrysostom, which prove the divinity of Jesus Christ through the arguments from miracles and prophecies. The greatest Christian poet of the fourth century, Prudentius, wrote the poem Contra Symmachum (402–403), to refute 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 Christian virtues and pagan vices, is more moral than apologetic in character.
The greatest of the Fathers of the Church, St. Augustine, also made 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 magnificent work De civitate Dei (413–26; Italian translation, Florence 1927–30; there 1938; Turin 1939, etc.) is considered the most important apology of the patristic age, transformed into a philosophy of history. The first, defensive part rejects the pagans’ accusations against Christianity and offers a penetrating critique of paganism. The second, positive part demonstrates that the only religion destined by providence to lead humanity to salvation, from the beginning to the end of the world, is Christianity.
The Historiae adversus paganos (417–18; Italian translation, Florence 1849) of Paul Orosius, Augustine’s disciple, develops the thesis of De civitate Dei that Christianity was not the cause of the evils then afflicting the Roman Empire. Of the work For the Holy Religion of the Christians against Julian the Apostate (ca. 433) by St. Cyril of Alexandria, we possess only the first ten books and a few scattered quotations from the other twenty. It is a refutation of Julian the Apostate’s work Against the Galileans, in which he asserted that the Christian religion was a degeneration of Judaism with certain pagan additions. The last great apology of Christian antiquity is The Cure of Pagan Diseases (429–37; Italian translation, Florence 1931) by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus in Syria. With great erudition, Theodoret, after joining Eusebius of Caesarea in protesting against the slander of those who accused Christians of instilling in their followers nothing but a supine credulity, in order to remedy the ignorance of the pagans, the cause of all their spiritual ills, demonstrates the absurdity of pagan philosophical and religious doctrines and the superiority of the dogmatic and moral truths of Christianity.
2. THE MIDDLE AGES. — During this long period of victorious faith, defenses of the rational credibility of Christianity are neither very numerous nor, generally, of great value. The principal adversaries continue to be the Jews, to whom the Muslims are added. Arab philosophers of great renown (Avicenna, Averroes) deny Christian revelation, proclaim the absolute autonomy of reason, employ the philosophy of Aristotle to combat Catholic doctrine and, indeed, the very foundations of natural religion.
Against the Jews, Christian apologists demonstrate the messiahship of Jesus Christ through the proofs of the prophecies and miracles, the abrogation of the Mosaic law, replaced by the law of the Gospel, and the divinity of Christianity, proved especially by the argument drawn from its miraculous triumph over paganism and Judaism. Analogous arguments are brought against Islam, together with the counterproof that Muhammad did not demonstrate his prophetic mission through any historical supernatural event, and that his doctrine, and above all his morality, are irreconcilable with the teaching of the Old Testament and in perfect opposition to the Gospel. Many apologies against the Jews and Muslims have remained unpublished and their authors unknown. Most of the apologies of this period were collected in Migne’s Patrologies (PG and PL). An indignant contempt for the adversary, often accompanied by insult and sometimes by slander, and a poor knowledge of the doctrines of Judaism and especially of Islam dominate a large part of this apologetic literature, which nevertheless demonstrates greater competence in the problems treated during the final centuries of the Middle Ages. 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 fellow believers; and the establishment in Spain, through the work of St. Raymond of Peñafort, of a center of study for the linguistic and doctrinal training of apologists against Muslims and Jews. The field of defense was also broadened, and more general apologies appeared against every kind of opponent of the divinity of Christianity. During the Renaissance of ancient Greco-Roman ideals, humanist apologists presented Christianity as the perfection of all ancient truth.
Among the many apologists against Judaism, we 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); Peter Alfonso (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). There were also numerous apologists against Muslims, among them: St. John Damascene (d. 789), Dispute between a Saracen and a Christian (PL 96, 1336–48); the aforementioned 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); Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Cibratio Alcorani (1459); Cardinal Giovanni de Torquemada (d. 1468), Tractatus contra principales errores perfidi Mahometi. The Refutation of the Muhammadan Sect (Italian translation, 1540) by the Spanish Muslim Giovanni Andrea 'Abdallah, who converted in 1487, achieved 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, Raimondo Martini, a product of the school of St. Raimondo di 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 presented, with arguments drawn not only from Sacred Scripture but also from the Talmudic tradition and rabbinic theology, and the messiahship of Jesus Christ is demonstrated through 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 engaged in the conversion of Muslims, St. Tommaso d'Aquino wrote the Summa catholicae fidei contra gentiles (1261–64), directing his attention above all to the errors of the Arab philosophers. St. Tommaso refutes these errors indirectly, demonstrating that Catholic doctrines of a philosophical nature are proven true by reason, and that those of a dogmatic nature 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) deals with questions of natural theology, directly demonstrated to be true by reason alone; the second part (I. IV) expounds the mysteries of faith, founded on divine revelation, whose credibility is proven 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 summarizes and perpetuates all the other miracles.
Among the last apologies of the Middle Ages, special mention should be made of 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 especially 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.
During 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 a refutation of Judaism and Islam. The final book treats 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 deal only with special apologetic questions (revelation, miracle, prophecy, Jesus Christ, the Church, Protestantism, etc.) are referred to the respective entries. Still less can works be considered that belong directly to philosophy (theodicy), the history of religions, the biblical sciences, 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 seventeenth century. These are fragments of a great apologetic work that remained 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 apodictic to him. They are supplemented by the «reasons of the heart», inasmuch as, by living the Christian life, man can experience their truth. And as a margin of proof and final recourse there remains his famous «Argumentum a pari», a mathematical calculation of probabilities, decisive in Pascal’s view, but in reality a calculation of interest, devoid of apologetic value. More faithful to the traditional method in this same seventeenth century is the apology L'incredulo senza scusa (Florence 1690) by P. Segneri. The unbeliever, the celebrated orator demonstrates, is unreasonable, because miracles—especially the miracle of the conversion of the world to Christianity—prophecy, Christian martyrdom, and the unity and holiness of the Church demonstrate the divinity of Christianity.
Eighteenth-century French philosophism found a courageous 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 Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique. In Germany, a learned refutation of the errors of eighteenth-century unbelievers—pantheists, deists, and rationalists—was undertaken 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, during the eighteenth century, there were noteworthy apologies against deist and rationalist errors. Particularly important were 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. Alfonso 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 by A. Tassoni, La religione dimostrata e difesa (Rome 1800, Pisa 1817), also deserves mention. All these apologies follow the traditional method of demonstration through proofs drawn from miraculous facts in the physical, intellectual, and moral orders.
A new path was followed by Fr. R. de Chateaubriand in his celebrated work Le Génie du christianisme (1st ed., Paris 1802; Italian translation, 8th ed., Milan 1879). Against the calumnies of the encyclopedists, who regarded Christianity as an absurd and ridiculous cult, hostile to reason and beauty, to literature and the arts, concluding with Voltaire that only an imbecile or a rogue could be a Christian, Chateaubriand sought to demonstrate that Christianity is the most human, most beneficial, most beautiful, most poetic, and most favorable to literature and the arts of all religions, and concluded that such a religion could not be a human creation. But a demonstration founded exclusively on the beauty and usefulness 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. F. Hettinger’s Apologie des Christentums (5 vols., Freiburg im Breisgau 1863–67, 10th ed. 1907–18, edited by E. Müller; Italian translation, 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. P. Schanz’s Apologie des Christentums (3 vols., 3rd ed., Freiburg im Breisgau 1903–1906, 4th ed. of vol. I, ibid. 1901, edited by W. Rock; Italian translation, Florence 1907) deals, in vol. I, with God and nature; in II, with revealed religion; in III, with the Catholic Church. A. M. Weiss’s Apologie des Christentums (5 vols., 4th ed., Freiburg im Breisgau 1905–1908; Italian translation, 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 aims to demonstrate that only the Catholic religion admirably corresponds to all the individual and social needs and aspirations of man. Particularly 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. Volume I concerns God and the religion of the Old Testament; II deals with Jesus Christ as teacher of humanity and founder of the Church; III presents the Church’s marvelous life as proof of its divine origin.
Contemporary French apologetic literature is exceedingly abundant. Here it will suffice 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), a completely revised edition of J. B. Jaugey’s Dictionnaire apologétique (1888), and the small encyclopedia entitled Apologétique, directed by M. Brillant and M. Nédoncelle (2nd ed., Paris 1948). In this latter work, all problems directly or indirectly related to apologetics are treated systematically, and responses are given to the principal contemporary objections against the Bible, Catholic dogma and morality, and the Church. In the broader sense of the term, France also devoted a special periodical to apologetics, the Revue pratique d’apologétique, later Revue apologétique, founded in 1905.
In Spain, the philosopher G. Balmes published Cartas d’un esceptico (Barcelona 1845; Italian translation, Imola 1850). These are twenty-five letters written with depth of thought and rigorous logic in defense of the Catholic religion. L. Murillo’s work Jesucristo y la Iglesia Romana (Madrid 1899–1902) demonstrates the divinity of Jesus Christ and the divine institution of the Roman Church, and defends the Catholic doctrines most vigorously attacked by contemporary unbelief.
Among the apologies in English, we may recall: J. Poynter, Christianity or the evidences and character of the christian religion (London 1827, French translation in Migne’s collection, Démostrations évangéliques, XIII, 1221–1314); Th. Moore, Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a religion (London 1833; Italian translation, 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 translation, Rome 1906).
In Italy, Breve apologia pei giovani studenti (6th ed., Florence 1920), by G. Ballerini, achieved well-deserved success; its four small volumes deal respectively with: God, man, and the soul; religion; Christianity; the Church.
B) APOLOGETICS. — The most splendid product of apologetic progress was the evolution of the apologies into apologetics properly so called, which became 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 provoked by the attacks of modern unbelief, no longer directed against one or another Catholic truth, but systematically concentrated against the very foundations of Catholicism. Protestantism, proclaiming the principle of «sola et sufficiens Scriptura», made necessary the apologetic treatise on the divine institution of the Roman Catholic Church; and, adulterating the concept of our intellectual adherence to the revealed word, obliged Catholic theologians to undertake a more profound examination of the act of faith and of its relations with reason. German rationalism, English deism, and French philosophism, denying any revealed religion, indeed the possibility, usefulness, and knowability of every supernatural revelation, imposed upon Christian apologists a systematic treatment of the historical fact of divine revelation, preceded by a discussion of the thesis concerning the possibility, necessity, and discernibility of revelation itself.
As early as the eighteenth century, the scholastic study of dogmatic theology was commonly preceded by the two treatises then called «Christian Demonstration» and «Catholic Demonstration», intended to prove the historical existence of revelation and its preservation through the Roman Catholic Church. The First Vatican Council, with its definitions concerning divine revelation, the relations between faith and reason, and the Church, gave a great impetus to systematic and scientific apologetics. 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 led to the publication of many manuals of this science. But an account of apologetic problems was also necessary for educated laypeople, one that was less polemical and more positive—that is, more concerned to establish the truth than to refute error—and consequently more competent and, above all, conducted according to the norms and requirements of the modern scientific method: that is, coordinating its theses under a single formal object, critically demonstrated and supported by certain proofs, independently of the opponent’s attack, which is always presupposed by an apology. The scope of the specific subject matter of apologetics, considered as an autonomous science, has been the subject of lengthy discussion; and many apologists have preferred to sacrifice scientific unity to practical and didactic needs. The various apologetic works therefore display a variety of content. They do, however, treat systematically and scientifically 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. These historical demonstrations are usually preceded, because of the connection between the subjects, by a philosophical treatment of natural religion.
II. For the first five centuries: a) Texts: Collizione degli scritti patriatici (v. ASTROLOGIA); Th. V. Otto, Corpus Apologetorum christianorum succ. II, 2nd ed., Jena 1847–72; C. J. Goosepe, Die ältesten Apologeten, Gottling 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, there 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