Rise of Apologetics in the Early Church

Course Description

The course offers an introduction and selective survey of ancient apologetic literature—that is, written defenses of the Christian faith against its Greco-Roman critics—and its writers. The Church was born into a tradition of suffering and persecution that formed its earliest identity. So too, the early apologetic texts became a necessary part of the Christian inheritance.

The role of these texts, however, was not necessarily as simple as it might seem. Though typically addressed to outsiders, such texts were written not merely as responses to hostile antagonists, but as intellectual fortification for the Christians communities that produced them. Indeed, it may be that the primary purpose of apologetic writing was to benefit, enable, and strengthen Christian churches.