By Bart D. Ehrman, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
It was in the middle of the 2nd century, after the persecution of Pliny the Younger, that Christian intellectuals started writing defenses of their faith, arguing against the widespread perceptions held about them among the Roman populace at large. The term for this kind of defense is apology. When used in the ancient context, an apology does not involve saying sorry for something. The term literally just means ‘defense’.
Apology of Socrates
Probably Plato’s most famous and widely read work is his Apology of Socrates. This is an account of the court trial of Plato’s teacher, the great Socrates himself, in which he was condemned of crimes against the state and ordered to commit suicide by drinking hemlock.
The book is called the Apology because it reports Socrates’ trial defense. In his inimitable style, he refutes the charges leveled against him by his political and personal enemies, showing that they are totally unfounded and that his accusers themselves are completely clueless. It’s a real tour de force.
Readers of the work who virtually always take Socrates side in the case, find it overwhelmingly convincing and can’t imagine that anyone could think otherwise. That’s how apologies always work. They’re designed to convince the sympathetic audience for whom they’re written, even if those who take the other side in the dispute find them hopelessly one-sided.
Ancient Christian Apologies
Ancient Christian apologies were similar to the Socratic one. They, too, were overwhelmingly persuasive for sympathetic readers, but we have no record of them making any real impact on either antagonistic pagans or state officials.
It’s easy to understand why Christian literary apologies began to appear when they did in the middle of the 2nd century. Christians increasingly faced outsider attacks, not only in the form of actual persecution, but also in the arena of public opinion. Rumors were flying around about their peculiar views, non-traditional practices, and secret meetings. And so, Christians had to defend themselves.
Christians Were Atheists?
The pagans viewed Christians as dangerous to the well-being of society, for two reasons that will sound quite surprising to modern ears. They were known to be atheists and they were morally reprobate, engaging in wild and illicit activities that threatened decent society.
The charge of atheism seems especially odd to people today. Aren’t Christians precisely people who are not atheists? Isn’t their faith directly opposed to atheism? That certainly is the case in the modern age. But to understand the charge, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of ancient pagans.
Christians Denied Other Gods
It is important to remember that all the pagan religions, indeed, the entire pagan culture supported the worship of numerous gods who resided in different places and had different functions. These gods made life possible and potentially even happy. Christians denied these gods.
Some Christians said they didn’t exist at all and that when pagans prayed, they were speaking to the air. Others claimed the pagan gods were actually evil demons who were leading people astray and creating disasters for them. Either way, Christians were known to reject the gods that had made Rome great, and that helped cities, families, and people everywhere live good and happy lives. The Christians were without the gods. And that’s what the term atheist means, without the gods.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Triumph of Christianity. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
The Roman Tradition
In pagan eyes, it would have been absolutely fine for Christians to have their own god. Lots of people had their preferred god. And it would have been no problem for Christians to declare that the founder of the religion had become a god.
Others within the Roman tradition did that as well, including those millions who worshiped Romulus who had been made a god at his death and was revered as the god, Quirinus. And yet, everyone else who had a favorite god or who worshiped a human who had become divine, had no qualms about worshiping the traditional gods as well. Christians refused to do so.
Jews Versus Christians
Jews, on the other hand, were always treated as the great exception to the need to worship the gods because they had such ancient traditions. Their religious practices had been around for centuries, long before Rome itself came on the scene. The worshipers of Yahweh were, therefore, more or less grandfathered in as an exception within the Roman Empire.
For the pagans, Christians remained a different story. They were almost entirely former pagans who had given up their ancestral religions for a bizarre cult that had just appeared. These were people worshiping a crucified criminal from just 100 years or so ago. Their traditions were not rooted in antiquity, and they were directly opposed to the gods of the empire.
The Pagan Gods
And yet, why would pagans care if a weird religious group was in their midst? Weren’t there lots of weird religious groups? Yes, indeed. But again, all of them involved pagan divinities and none of them forbade their followers from worshiping all the gods they wanted, only the Christians did.
This was problematic because the one thing the pagan gods want is to be recognized and worshiped. If they are not, they can get angry. And when they do, very bad things can happen. Thus, pagans sometimes considered Christians to be a problem.
Addressing the Charges
Christian apologies often tried to address these very charges and perceptions and typically dedicated their books to the emperors and other official. And yet, none of them actually read them which, against this antagonistic background, is easy to understand why.
The Christian apologies were in reality not even designed to be read by their attackers. They were instead meant for their own communities, for the Christians who agreed with the authors. They were more about weaponizing arguments and providing their fellow Christians with much needed intelligent responses to their opponents.
Common Questions about Christian Apologies
When used in the ancient context, an apology does not involve saying sorry for something. The term literally just means ‘defense’.
Probably Plato’s most famous and widely read work is his Apology of Socrates.
The pagans viewed Christians as dangerous to the well-being of society, for two reasons that will sound quite surprising to modern ears. They were known to be atheists and they were morally reprobate, engaging in wild and illicit activities that threatened decent society.
