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II. Athens (mid 100s)

After the Apostolic Fathers, the next generation of Christian leaders were called the Apologists. Their focus was external, engaging the society around them. The word "apologist" is from the word “apologia” which means a defence in court. The apologists defended the Christian faith vis-à-vis the surrounding non-Christian world, and engaged with the culture to communicate the gospel to Jews and Gentiles.

The most prominent Apologist was Justin Martyr (100-165), a philosopher-become-Christian who grew up in Samaria (Holy Land), but was later at Rome where he was martyred. Justin's journey to faith involved various "philosophies", such as stoicism, Aristotelianism and Platonism, but it was a chance meeting with an old man on a beach that convinced Justin that the Old Testament prophets were true philosophers, and that Christianity was the true philosophy. He was also impressed by the dignity with which Christian martyrs met their death. Justin wrote two Apologies, as well as a Dialogue with Trypho (a Jewish rabbi). Justin was a Gentile Christian defending the gospel vis-à-vis Jewish religion and Greek culture. Justin's arguments vis-a-vis Judaism appear to us to be unduly stark. He insisted that it was the Christian church, and not the Jews, who are God's chosen people and owners of the name "Israel". He did not hesitate to ascribe the sufferings of the Jewish people (e.g. the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70) to their rejection of the Messiah.  

In communicating the gospel to the prevailing culture, a key concept for Justin was LOGOS. “in the beginning was the Word (logos)”. In the culture and thinking of the time, the word "logos" (from which we derive the idea of "logic") was used to describe the rational principle underlying the universe. Justin spoke about the Logos in four ways: Christ was the Logos before time began with the Father, he was the word by which all things were created, he was the logos “sown” in both and Old Testament revelation and also Greek philosophy, and he is the incarnate logos (word) become flesh in Jesus Christ. 

There were other dimensions of the Christian message which particularly resonated at the time: the message of eternal life, and the Lordship of Christ in a world seemingly dominated by uncontrollable dark forces. 

Other Apologists of the second century included Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Tatian the Assyrian, Quadratus of Athens, Aristides of Athens, Melitus of Sardis and Hegesippus the Nazarene. Later, both Tertullian and Origen, who belong to a later Christian era (see chapter III), also produced apologetic works. Unlike other Christian apologists, rather than finding common ground with the popular philosophy of the day, Tertullian saw the truth of the Christian faith as something diametrically opposed to the wisdom of the world. He asked, "What has Jerusalem got to do with Athens?" Of the Christian faith, he wrote, "It is true because it is absurd."  

Besides, communicating the gospel, the apologists also explained, for the benefit of outsiders, what "goes on" in Christian church life, such as the practices of baptism and communion, which many would not have been familiar with, and which led to misunderstandings and suspicions. 

As Christians grew in number, there were many other accusations levelled against them. Christians were labelled "atheists" because of the lack of images in Christian worship. For abstaining from full participation in pagan life, the were hated as "enemies of the human race". Since Christians refused to worship the Emperor of call him "Lord", they were suspected of being political dissidents. The language used of Communion, which was celebrated out of public view, led many to believe that children were sacrificed and eaten. Likewise the Sunday evening "love feasts" (fellowship meetings with food) held by the church, and the language of "loving brothers and sisters" led others to believe that these were orgies. To refined Greek intellectuals, the Bible appeared coarse and intellectually wanting - particularly the Old Testament, but also the notion of bodily resurrection. 

The Christians of this time commended themselves and the gospel by holy lives, works of charity, and, in many cases, noble death as martyrs. The Apologists and others helped to offer a plausible defence of the Christian faith; they "out-thought" the pagan world. 

By the mid- to late 100s, the Christian faith had spread to places such as Carthage, North Africa (180?), Lyon in what is now France (140?), and Pityus on the Black Sea (a place of refuge from persecutions). 

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