I believe I was in high school when I first heard of “apologists.” At first I was a bit confused by the term, as it sounded like these people were apologizing for being a Christian. However, it was soon explained to me that apologists were Christian writers, speakers, and thinkers who gave a defense and explanation of Christianity in the face of various challenges to the faith. The title “apologist” comes from the Greek word apologia, which is a speech in defense of one’s beliefs.  A key verse that speaks to the need and the right way to do this is found in 1 Peter 3:15: “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (ESV).

There are many prominent contemporary Christians apologists, and they stand in the footsteps of some early Christian writers and leaders who have been dubbed “The Apologists.” These individuals lived in the time after the Apostolic Fathers and played a key role in church history.

Why They Had to “Apologize”

In many ways, these apologists were fighting a two-front (or maybe even more) war, as they had to defend the Christian faith within a couple of different contexts. Christianity was an illegal religion, with emperors such as Nero blaming the Christians for problems in Rome in 64 AD (in this case, a fire) and Domitian having a plan of persecution around 95 AD. Much of the persecution of the early church was localized, with mob violence happening. This persecution arose because Christians were viewed as opposing the Roman empire and imperial religion since they would not swear allegiance to the Roman gods or to Caesar. This led to them being considered atheists and unpatriotic. Christians were also regarded as being secretive, with rumors that they were cannibals (beacuse they ate the body and blood of Christ) and practiced incest (as they called each other brother and sister). In many ways, they become scapegoats for all that is wrong with the world. 

Apologists also had to offer defenses of the Christian faith within their own faith community as there were false teachings influencing Christians that these writers had to speak to. In fact, when the church was not being threatened by outside forces, it seems these false teachings increased as people would mix elements of the Christian faith with elements of these false teachings. The most notable false teaching was Gnosticism, which affirmed the inherent evil of the created material world and that connected with God through a secret path of knowledge that involved a proper understanding of the reality of the world (this is a simplified explanation, as there were even various sects with Gnosticism). The most prominent of the Gnostic thinkers was Maricon who was the son of a Christian bishop but came to teach that one could reject the Old Testament (and even parts of the New Testament that went against his views).

Some Key Apologists

These early Christian apologists thus had to explain why some teachings found in the church were false and also why the suspicions and hostility experienced from authorities were unfounded. I will briefly highlight four of them (though there are more, and even these writers  wrote more).

Justin Martyr (c.100- c.165)

Justin Martyr was not raised in a Christian home and initially embraced the thoughts of a philosophical system called Stoicism. He became a Christian after being challenged in his beliefs by an old man and seeing Christians die for their faith. His writings included First and Second Apology that sought to defend Christianity against the charges it faced and a work called Dialogue with Tryhpho in which he handled Jewish objections to the Christian faith. He demonstrated how Christianity fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament and that many of the accusations against Christeians were based on hearsay and lack of evidence. He argued that Christians should be punished for crimes — but only true crimes, and thus should not face the persecution they were encountering.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202)
Ireaneus was raised in Smyrna and knew Polycarp (one of the Apostolic Fathers), but he eventually moved to Lyons (France) and served as a bishop there. His primary work was called Against Heresies (185) and sought to counter Gnostic thought. He noted that the God of the Old Testament and God of the New Testament is the same God (Gnostics claimed they were different) and showed how the Old Testament prepared for the New Testament. While Gnostics claimed “secret knowledge” and special revelations of truth, Irenaeus pointed back to the written traditions (noting the reality of four gospels) and also the truth that had been taught in the church. 

Tertullian (c.150-c.240)
Tertullian was really the first key writer in early Christianity who wrote in Latin (others had written in Greek). He converted to Christianity as an adult and then became an elder in Carthage. Included among his many writings were apologetic works that refuted false teachings in the church (for example, Against Praxaes is a key work in the articulation of the doctrine of the Trinity as Praxaes denied the existence of three persons in the Godhead) and false accusations from outside the church. Perhaps his most famous work is his Apology which was written to Roman authorities to defend Christians from charges against them (i.e.incest, adultery, and murder, including infants) and the need to be tried fairly when they were accused of something. In Apology, Tertullian also defends Christians against charges of sacrilege by discussing how the Roman gods are false gods and shows that Christians are moral, not immoral, people.

Origen of Alexandria (c.184-253)
Origen was a prolific writer in the early church…and one who was very controversial. In addition to his writings on theology, biblical interpretation, and books of the Bible, he also wrote a book called Against Celsus (written around 248 AD) that was a defense of the Christian faith against accusations of the time. Celsus attacked the rationality of the Christian faith and Jesus himself, claiming that Jesus’s miracles were through magic. In this work, Origen refutes the claims of Celsus and shows the strength of Christianity in the process, as Christian thinkers can debate the philosophers of the time; this work gave Christianity more respect among academic thinkers of the time.

Apologists Today
Reviewing the works of the early Christian apologists made me realize that there is much similarity between their work and that of apologists today. Some of the objections seem to be the same — unfounded accusations against Christians or diminishing the role of the Old Testament in the life of Christians. While people don’t call themselves Gnostics today, their teachings on the spiritual world and even claim for ideas that go against or beyond what we find in the Bible continue today. Therefore, there continues to be great value in their writings as well as their examples. We are wise to look to them as part of our family heritage as Christians.

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