Возникновение христианской апологетики II века

The history of the Church shows that the most effective defense of Christianity was the life of Christians and the confession of the Christian faith; the highest proof of the deepest conviction in its truth was given in the fact that they died for it. The fact of the morally transforming power of Christianity, the amazing effects of which did not escape the observation of the pagans, aroused surprise among the most sworn enemies and persistently demanded explanation. The ancient church writers clearly understood the meaning of these facts and tirelessly drew the attention of the pagans to the serious, strict, full of humility, pure life of the confessors of the new faith. “Our Savior was silent when He was accused before the court,” says Origen. Can't our religion defend itself? Shouldn't the blameless life of Jesus' disciples turn all slander into nothing? (Contra Celsum, Prooem. 1). In the self-defense of Christianity, the palm undoubtedly belonged to the martyrs: their unyielding firmness in the Christian faith, the imprinting of their convictions with their blood produced an irresistible influence. Sanguis martyrum - semen Christianorum [the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians] 311 - this is how Tertullian briefly but powerfully expressed this thought (Apologet. 50.13). From the blood of the martyrs new confessors of Christianity arose. But in fact, one could not be content with this: the very firmness of the martyrs was interpreted as bitterness and blindness. The specific situation required not to limit ourselves to this silent apology. It was necessary to act on public opinion, to refute slanderous accusations, to dispel prejudices, to make one recognize Christianity as it really was, that is, to defend oneself not only before the tribunal of a judge, but, in order to eliminate the threatening situation in general, and in a literary way to purify Christianity before pagan consciousness and state power; At the same time, the need became clear and felt to defend the rights of Christianity and against Judaism. Christian apologetics is as ancient as Christianity itself. Attention has long been drawn to the wealth of apologetic thoughts in the New Testament writings, from which abundant apologetic material is drawn. Here we find the first, in the proper sense, apology for Christianity against paganism, which anticipated, so to speak, the main thoughts and methods of the later apology - such an apology is the speech of St. Paul in the Athenian Areopagus, in which very typical expressions are against the images of the gods, the desire to establish a connection between the new and ancient religion, the concept of God, a quotation from a Stoic poet, an assertion of the unity of all the peoples of the universe, a brief warning of the usual objection of the pagans, why God only now gave salvation (Acts 17: 16–33). From the beginning of the 2nd century, when the position of the Church in the state became clear and when educated people who knew the most pagan world with its culture began to accept Christianity, literary works appeared specifically designed to protect the faith and believers from attacks. Most of the apologists, as might be expected, were converts from paganism. They knew both sides well from personal experience and in their own lives experienced the power of both what they gave up and what they accepted. The first scientific defenders of Christianity were given by the philosophical movement of the time of the emergence of apologetic literature; The nature of this movement determined the peculiarities of the activities of apologists and the literary works they wrote. During the 1st century. In the Christian era, the nature of government and time inspired a feeling of mistrust and constant fear, made intelligent people cynical in relation to truth and goodness and disposed them to think, as far as they thought methodically, according to the Epicurean model. Individuals who valued ideals and sometimes lived in accordance with them generally adhered to the Stoic school. But as soon as we move into the second century, we immediately feel a noticeable change. With the advent of better orders in government and the appearance on the throne of noble and enlightened rulers, serious thought finds more vigor and the possibility of beneficial reaction opens up. Of course, it was not universal: witty monuments of a cynical and mocking spirit exist in the 2nd century. (in the works of Lucian). But people guided by moral goals find listeners and are themselves imbued with a consciousness of the importance of their mission; renewed efforts were made to find theories by which religious and moral life could justify its aspirations; and religious systems like the Mysteries, which aimed to purify and sanctify life, found sincere adherents. The means by which this influence was chiefly diffused was the fashionable development of interest in public speeches and competitions. Education according to the Greek method was broadly literary, and its goal was to develop the ability to write and speak effectively. It can hardly be said that books were expensive and rare, but the prevailing taste preferred public readings or debates. Since this kind of taste was developed in a large part of society, many rhetoricians appeared who, in satisfaction of it, sought fame and food for themselves. Not daring to touch politics, they found topics for their speeches in history and in the great poetic traditions of Greece; undoubtedly, the questions of human life, duties and purpose, which philosophers debated, opened up a wide field for eloquent speakers in finding subjects for conversation. Such a contact between rhetoric and philosophy was all the more possible since the 2nd century was an era when philosophy noticeably became common property. Of course, this was accompanied by obvious damage to the depth of philosophical thinking: the more education spread, the more superficial it became, and next to a select number of thinkers and serious readers stood a mass of superficially educated people. Just as today this kind of public saves itself from actually reading classical writers by reading selected passages from them, so then they used a collection of quotations in order to give philosophical shine to their education and speeches. The sarcastic Semite Lucian laughs at the wandering philosophers who compete with each other in front of the whole people and try to amaze each other with general and hackneyed maxims. Even Platonism had to pay tribute to this state of affairs: and its representatives did not always take Plato himself into their hands, but became acquainted with him from selected passages. Naturally, the solutions to philosophical problems by these wandering philosophers were not always distinguished by their depth. Contemporary social issues also served as topics for speeches. These people often combined catering to the tastes of their listeners with talkativeness, skepticism and immorality; but among them there could also be people of serious thought regarding the deep issues of life. The concepts of God, virtue and (sometimes) immortality, to which serious and inquisitive minds came, opened the way for them to the Christian gospel. Converts to Christianity from among these wandering philosophers and rhetoricians brought with them ready experience of struggle, the ability to make fiery speeches, and skill in literary processing. Having become Christians, these writers and speakers by profession did not abandon their previous title, philosophical mantle and habits and only changed the content of their speeches; they appeared as teachers and polemicists among Christians. Together with their activities in the circle of their community or an even closer circle of their closest students (Justin - Tatian, Tatian - Rodon), they were representatives of Christian thought in scientific form in public places or in their own audience in front of a wider circle of listeners, and there was no shortage of debates with other philosophers (Justin - Crescent); often a defensive speech turned into a missionary sermon, an apology into an exhortation to the pagans (cohortatio ad Graecos). The ministry of these Christian philosophers and rhetoricians represented some analogy to the original institution of the wandering apostles or evangelists and prophets. Possessing a certain degree of spiritual talents, which they brought to the service of the Church, apologists were also the first literary defenders of church-wide interests with the means of modern education. Their literary activity was broad, often focusing on issues of internal church struggle and life; but since it appears to us most clearly in its apologetic side, they are designated by the general name of “apologists,” that is, writers who devoted their energies to the defense of Christianity before a government hostile to it and the public opinion of pagans. History knows a fairly significant number of authors who are known for literary works of this kind. Unfortunately, their works shared the common fate of the monuments of this time - most of them perished completely: from the apologetic works of Codratus, Ariston, Rodon, Miltiades, Apollinaris, Melito, only names or only insignificant excerpts remained. Among those that have survived, first place in volume and importance, if not in time of origin, belongs to the works of St. Justin: his two apologies and “Conversation with Tryphon” form the main part of this literature. An apology for Aristide was written before him. After him “Speech against the Greeks” by Tatian, “Petition for Christians” by Athenagoras, “Three Books to Autolycus” by Theophilus, “Mockery of the Pagan Philosophers” by Hermias. In addition to these works, the authors of which are known, several anonymous works have come down to us, the date of which is not precisely established, but usually refers to the same era, namely: “Speech to the Hellenes”, “Admonition to the Hellenes”, “On Unity of Command”, “Epistle to Diognetus” - all of them are attributed by some manuscripts to St. Justin and were often published under his name. The listed apologies are written in Greek. By the end of the 2nd century. The first apology also appears in Latin: “Octavius” by Minucius Felix. These are only fragments of the extensive apologetic literature that developed in the Church in the 2nd century. These apologetic works of varying dates and forms, written by authors very different in position, education and character, represent in their essence a real unity, because they are subject to the same basic sentiment. For all apologists it was a matter of defending Christianity, in well-defined circumstances, against the prejudices of which it was the subject, of ways to achieve tolerant treatment on the part of the state and sympathy on the part of the intelligent classes. To achieve the same goal and means, similar, if not identical, were used. Therefore, apologists, despite individual differences, special tendencies, differences in the subjects of their writings, as well as in the tone of speech, constitute one group of church writers, one whole, with their own characteristic features. This famous phrase from Tertullian himself actually looks a little different: semen est sanguis Christianorum - “the blood of Christians is the seed.” The author gives a non-literal, although familiar in Russian-language literature, version of it in reverse translation into Latin. Below, in the chapter dedicated to Tertullian, the same phrase is quoted by the author verbatim from the text of “Apologetics”. – Ed.