EVEN those who have at some stage examined the early history of the Church probably know of only one of the “second-century apologists”. Though Justin Martyr’s name is remembered, he is largely quoted because of his admittedly fascinating description of second-century baptismal and eucharistic liturgy.
Alvyn Pettersen’s book is, therefore, a welcome reminder of the earliest intellectual explication of the Christian faith, other than, perhaps, St Matthew’s Gospel, directed towards Judaism, and Luke-Acts as an apology for a tolerated faith within the Roman Empire. Neither of the latter addressed philosophical paganism.
The amount of writing of the six apologists which Pettersen presents is significant, and the work of others, fragments of which now only exist, is indicative of a substantial market for these works, which have been described as “popular Christian philosophy”. Though addressed to the Emperor or Magistrates, they were, in effect, popular tracts. In addition to Justin, Pettersen presents us with succinct summaries of the Apologies of Aristides, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilos of Antioch, and the anonymous Letter to Diognetus.
The apologists have in common a desire to present Christianity as a rational, moral, and civilly acceptable faith. This was to rebut pagan criticism that Christianity was atheistic (by denying sacrifice to the gods which upheld the civic, agricultural, and economic structures of the State, including the Emperor himself) and that it involved both incest (loving the brothers and sisters) and cannibalism (eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ). The apologists also argued against Marcion (who rejected the God of the Old Testament); Judaism (which rejected the Messiah of the New Testament) and Gnosticism (which tolerated pagan sacrifice).
Pettersen is very clear however that each apologist responded to different contexts and used different, sometimes hardly compatible, arguments. There was no single unifying theology but doctrine was developing through their intellectual defence of Christianity, doctrine which later emerged in the first Councils.
Pettersen adds questions to each chapter relevant to contemporary apologetic, making the book suitable for individuals or groups. This is in accord with the Cascade Companions series which is aimed at non-specialist readers but attempts to maintain academic rigour with readability. This study achieves such.
Reading the arguments of the apologists today, we can learn from both their strengths and weaknesses. Justin, for example, though still echoing Platonic and Stoic philosophy, pioneered a Christianity that sought to relate to the philosophy of the Hellenistic world as well as to Judaism.
Christian apologists today can either engage in a contemporary, intelligent dialogue with our culture or, rather, cultures, or simplistically denounce them. The second-century apologists, taken as a whole, encourage the former approach: what centuries later the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher attempted to do in terms of the European Enlightenment in addressing religion’s “cultured despisers”. This must be the perennial task of apologists following in the footsteps of their second-century predecessors.
The Rt Revd Christopher Hill is a former Bishop of Guildford.
The Second-Century Apologists
Alvyn Pettersen
Cascade Books £19
(978-1-7252-6535-6)
Church Times Bookshop £17.10