Rev. José Mario O. Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
We are now in the Sub-apostolic age (2nd century), where we find the Greek Apologists. The first among them are Quadratus, Aristides of Athens, and Aristo of Pella (cf Quasten, I, pp 190-195).
Quadratus is the oldest apologist of Christianity but what we know about him comes through Eusebius of Caesaria who wrote Church History in the 4th century. (This is why Eusebius is called the ‘Father of Church History’).
Just like Quadratus, Aristides – a philosopher from Athens – wrote an apology addressed to the emperor Hadrian. We have seen last time that one of the concerns of the apologists was to show that Christianity was not a rival to the State.
Aristo of Pella, on the other hand, made a defense of the faith addressed to the Jews. His work is the first known apology addressed to Judaism but we only know about it through Eusebius.
Then came Justin the Martyr. He is the most important among the apologists of the second century. He was born of pagan parents around 100 AD, but he had one outstanding quality: the thirst for the truth. As Pope Benedict XVI said, Justin “spent a long time seeking the truth, moving through the various schools of the Greek philosophical tradition” (General Audience, 21 March 2007). Justin “is the first ecclesiastical writer who attempts to build a bridge between Christianity and pagan philosophy” (Quasten, I, p 198).
Justin built that bridge between faith and reason using a term that comes from the Greek philosophers: ‘Logos’ (Greek ‘word,’ ‘reason,’ or ‘plan’). In the works of Justin which survive to our day (two Apologies and Dialogue with the Hebrew, Tryphon) “Justin intends to illustrate the divine project of creation and salvation, which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Logos, that is, the eternal Word, eternal Reason, creative Reason” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 21 March 2007).
Pope Benedict goes on to explain in the same Audience cited above: “Every person as a rational being shares in the Logos, carrying within himself a ‘seed’, and can perceive glimmers of the truth. Thus, the same Logos who revealed himself as a prophetic figure to the Hebrews of the ancient Law also manifested himself partially, in ‘seeds of truth’, in Greek philosophy.” These seeds of truth, says Justin, belong therefore to Christianity (cf. Second Apology 13:4).
When Justin “is defending the faith against unbelievers, he emphasizes rather its appeal to reason. He endeavors to indicate the similarities existing between the teaching of the Church and that of the Greek thinkers and poets, in order to demonstrate that Christianity is the only safe and profitable philosophy” (Quasten, I, p 207).
Justin argued that the Old Testament and Greek Philosophy are two paths that converge in Christ. The Old Testament is a symbol of something that becomes real in the New Testament. Greek Philosophy, on the other hand, leads to Christ, in the same way that a part gives us a glimpse of the whole.
Pagan religion adhered to irrational myths, but Christianity, on the other hand, is a belief that involves reason. Without reason, pagan religion was “reduced to an artificial collection of ceremonies, conventions and customs” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 21 March 2007).
This reminds us Christians that we must use reason to explore and deepen our faith. Ours is a “fides quaerens intellectum” (“faith that seeks understanding” – St Anselm of Canterbury). If a Catholic were not to be formed intellectually in his faith, his religion will just be reduced to meaningless “ceremonies, conventions and customs.” This is a challenge to all of us, especially parents who need to raise their children in the faith taught by the Logos. We need to “always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).
Saint Justin was beheaded around the year 165 “during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor to whom Justin had actually addressed one of his Apologia” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 21 March 2007).
(Image: Aristides the Athenian. Also known as Saint Aristides or Marcianus Aristides. Source: Wikipedia)
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