And there is perhaps a reason of a deeper kind for holding Apologetics to the defensive.
Any single effort in apologetics may be termed " an apology."
Apart from apologetics or single doctrines like that of the Atonement, the task of rethinking Christian theology upon the great scale has been left chiefly to German science, philosophical and historical.
Apologetics -- from the Greek word apologia, meaning to give a defense.
As a theologian his outlook was that of the 16th rather than the 9th century; and, reading his Bampton Lectures now, it is difficult to realize how they can ever have been hailed as a great contribution to Christian apologetics.
As we might expect, Protestant lands are more busily occupied with apologetics.
At St Andrews, where he held also the post of professor of systematic theology and apologetics, his work as a teacher was distinguished by several features which at that time were new.
Because of the school's physical roots, there are numerous PhD offerings from the school online including a PhD in Theology and Apologetics.
British and American divines, on the other hand, are slow to suspect that a new apologetic principle may mean a new system of apologetics, to say nothing of a new dogmatic. Among the evangelicals, for the most part, natural theology, far from being rejected, is not even modified, and certain doctrines continue to be described as incomprehensible mysteries.
Bruce feels this so strongly that the natural theology section of his Apologetics entirely omits the question " Does God exist?"
Bruce, Chief End of Revelation (1881), The Miraculous Element in the Gospels (1886), Apologetics (1892), and other works; Bruce's posthumous article, " Jesus " in Encyc. Bib., was understood by some as exchanging Christian orthodoxy for bare theism, but probably its tone of aloofness is due to the attempt to keep well within the limits of what the author considered pure scientific history.
But the introduction of the adjective " apologetic " and of the substantive " apologetics " is recent.
But, generally speaking, there was no heart in preaching, sermons were unimpassioned, stilted and formal presentations of ethics and apologetics, seldom delivered extempore.
But, if not, then apologetics is a mere auxiliary, and is only " a science" in so far as it presents a conscious and systematic plea.
Catholic apologetics must further give a central position to Church authority, which Roman Catholics explicitly define as infallible; but this position too is debated in a late section of their system.
Having said that, the book is still solid, and a good book to read for someone interested in general apologetics.
He lectured on the Old and New Testaments, theology, apologetics and the history of the church in the 18th century.
Hippolytus's voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of exegesis, homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical law.
Huet (1630-1721) - within the conditions of his age a prodigy of learning (in apologetics see his Demonstratio Evangelica) - is not uninfluenced by Pascal (Traite de la faiblesse de l'esprit humaine).
If so, apologetics is literally a science, and it is pedantry to claim the defensive and pretend to throw the onus probandi upon objectors.
If Socinianism had challenged natural theology - Christ, according to it, was the prophet who first revealed the way to eternal life - it had glorified the natural powers of man; and the learning of the Arminian divines (friends of Grotius and Locke) had helped to modernize Christian apologetics upon rational lines.
In 1874 he delivered his Cunningham Lectures, afterwards published as The Humiliation of Christ, and in the following year was appointed to the chair of Apologetics and New Testament exegesis at the Free Church College, Glasgow.
In a sense (see Apologetics) this was done in the middle ages, and possibly repeated by Pascal after the Reformation.
In apologetics his principal master was Justin, and in theology proper and in the controversy with the Gnostics, Irenaeus.
In fact this is the first book of humanist apologetics that I would not feel embarrassed to give to a friend to read.
In May 1876, he was appointed joint professor of systematic theology and apologetics with James Harper, principal of the United Presbyterian Theological College, whom he succeeded as principal in 1879.
In reply to Rudolf Hospinian's Concordia discors (1607), he wrote a work, rich in historical material but one-sided in its apologetics, Concordia concors (1614), defending the formula of Concord, which he regarded as inspired.
In spite of some waverings towards what has lately been called " conditional immortality " (see Apologetics) the doctrine of " natural immortality " championed by Augustine became dominant in the church; an instalment of what was afterwards to be called Natural Theology; and a postulate or presupposition to-day - like free will - in Roman Catholic apologetics.
It became the classical manual of apologetics in Protestant colleges, and was translated for missionary purposes into Arabic (by Pococke, 1660), Persian, Chinese, &c. His Via et votum ad pacem ecclesiasticam (1642) was a detailed proposal of a scheme of accommodation.
It should also be noted that Schleiermacher's place for Apologetics is by no means undisputed.
Many of the principal medieval attempts in apologetics are directed chiefly against him, e.g.
Michaelis Villanovani in quendam medicum apologetics disceptatio pro astrologia (Paris, 1538; reprinted, Berlin, 1880); the medicus is Jean Tagault, who interrupted Servetus's lectures on astronomy, including meteorology.
One critic labeled my arguments as " traditional atheistic apologetics.
Positively it may be affirmed that the recovered figure of the historical Jesus is the greatest asset in the possession of modern Christian theology and apologetics.
Roman Catholic apologetics - of necessity, Thomist - is well represented by Professor Schanz of Tubingen.
The Church as a whole took but little interest in apologetics and polemics, nay, had at times even an instinctive feeling that in these controversies that which she held holy might easily suffer loss.
The Church of England, certainly in terms of its leadership, is marked by " craven apologetics and moral and cultural relativism.
The earlier apologists dispute the natural immortality of the soul; Athanasius himself, in De Incarnatione Dei, §§ 4, 5, tones down the teaching of Wisdom; and the somewhat eccentric writer Arnobius, a layman - from Justin Martyr downwards apologetics has always been largely in the hands of laymen - stands for what has recently been called " conditional immortality " - eternal life for the righteous, the children of God, alone.
The earliest work of Christian apologetics is the Octavius or Minucius Felix, a contemporary of Fronto.
The importance of studying classical apologetics stems from the fact that most secular philosophy courses only dialog with the classical arguments.
Their defense of property is connected to the catholic apologetics for which they are better known.
This way of solving, or passing over, the ultimate problems of thought has had many followers in cultured circles imbued with the new physical science of the day, and with disgust for the dogmatic creeds of contemporary orthodoxy; and its outspoken and even aggressive vindication by physicists of the eminence of Huxley had a potent influence upon the attitude taken towards metaphysics, and upon the form which subsequent Christian apologetics adopted.
Under such conditions there is little scope for apologetics.
We believe in preaching the Gospel and preaching also includes apologetics.
When we leave the New Testament, apologetics becomes conspicuous until the political triumph of Christianity, and even somewhat later.