The Apologists

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521460835.006

5 - The Apologists

from A - LITERARY GUIDE

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Edited by

Lewis Ayres and

Assisted by

Frances Young: Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Lewis Ayres: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Andrew Louth: Affiliation:
University of Durham
Augustine Casiday: Affiliation:
University of Durham

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Summary

The term ‘Apologists’, as applied to Christian writers of the early period, denotes a series of authors who in the course of the second century composed and circulated addresses and pleas (cf. Justin, I Apol. 1.1: πρoσφώνησiν καì εντεuξiν) to emperors and others in public authority on behalf of their fellow Christians. The aim of such writings was in general to persuade the authorities that the frequent local persecutions of Christians were unjust, unnecessary, and unworthy of enlightened rulers. This aim entailed some explication of Christian beliefs, practices and morals, and of course the explication tended to grow imperceptibly into defence, the content of which might range from reassurance (e.g., that Christians did not practice cannibalism, or that they had not joined forces, whether in principle or in practice, with rebels against the Roman order) to argument (e.g., that Christianity was, despite impressions to the contrary, neither novel nor irrational by the standards of current philosophical religion). Apology in this narrow sense might of course pass over into direct refutation of critics of Christianity or attempts to establish the superiority of Christian faith to the polytheism and idolatry that characterized popular religious practice in the Roman Empire.

Keywords

Judaism Christianity Eusebius apologists Sardis Palestine The Apology of Aristides

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 36 - 44

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521460835.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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5 - The Apologists

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References

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