Chrystologiczno-eklezjologiczne motywacje wiarygodności chrześcijaństwa w pismach apologetów greckich II wieku

Abstract

Contemporary religious studies have proved the existence of defensive feature in all religions. Their followers strive for the demonstration of the credibility, i.e. truthfulness of a given religion. Such a defensive feature is also characteristic of Christianity. For obvious reasons Christians not only try to prove the superiority of their religion but also evaluate arguments typical of apologies. The critical evaluation of the selfdefense of Christianity is dealt with by apologetics. Apologetic investigations involve first of all the classic apology made by Jesus himself. The oldest Christian reflection on classic apology is contained in canonical Gospels. However, in the course of expantion of Christianity when the Church confronted different situations, it appeard necessary to justify the truthfulness of the Christian Revelation once again. Thus apologetic literature developed, started by the writings of Christian authors living in the 2nd century. Because of their provenance and the language of their writings these authors are called Greek apologists. This paper aims at revealing the two basic theses of apologetics, i.e. the christological and ecclesiological ones, from the writings of Greek apologists. This is not to be another new theological consideration of the two questions. The author presents his own reflections and critical evaluation of arguments and methods applied by apologists for the purpose of the justification of the divine provenance of Christ and the Church. The first part of this article presents the general background of Greek apologists activity. The origin of apology resulted from persecutions of Christians, aspersions cast by pagans upon the followers of the new religion, as well as the attack of pagan intellectuals who tried to shake the articles of faith of the Church. There is also a deeper background for apology. Taking advantage of the favourable situation in the Roman Empire the Christians wanted to acquaint wider circles of pagans with the basic articles of their faith. The conditions were in a way favourable: on the one hand numerous pagans abandoned their Roman or Greek religion, on the other hand, there arose a common interest for mysterious religions of the East and for existential solutions on a philosophical level. Thus in many apologies there is a tendency to combine Greek-Roman attitudes with the new religion. Apologists undertook to reinterpret the articles of faith, thus creating a new situation in Christian theology. This also meant an influance on christology and ecclesiology. The second and third part of this paper contain reflection on these two issues. Apologists based christology on the concept of Logos known in the Greek philosophy and already by Christianity. However, the argumentation of apologists reveals two tendencies. The first tendency is represented by St. Justin. In spite of Platonic and Stoic background and obvious influence of philosophical theology of Philo of Alexandria, Justin’s christology has a biblical nature. Texts from the Bible are skilfully combined with philosophcal thought. A special sign ificance is attached to the explanation of the internal relation between Logos and God. Logos was born off God, so his relation to God the Father is different than that of things created. The procreation was primary to the actual creational activity. In the cosmic order Logos is the first-born of all creation. By this idea adopted from the biblical texts Justin conveys the concept of close relation between Logos and the Father. This entitles him to declare the divine character of the Word. Logos is the Word of God pronounced at the time of the creation of the world. Then, again basing himself on biblical texts, Justin underlines the numerical difference between Logos and God, speaking at the same time for their substantial unity. In Justin’s opinion all theophanies described in the Old Testament were manifestation of the activity of Logos, while God the Father is transcendential to such an extent that He cannot come down to thelevel of creatures. This is an evidence of an influence of Gnosticism upon Justin. At the same time Justin’s conviction was that Logos revealed himself also to pagans. Thus he formed an original idea of the Word spread among all people (logos spermatikos). Such an interpretation of the Old Testament led Justin to the conclusion that Logos is subordinate to God, so he is only the mediator between God and the world. Considerations on the preexistence of Logos and the statement of his divine provenance served Justin as a basis for the justification of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. His statements concerning the human nature of Christ are based on the Christology of evangelists. To support his idea concerning the incarnate Word Justin gives christological interpretation of Old Testamental texts. The taking of bodily form by Logos was accomplished to the purpose of redemption. Justin’s argumentation for the divine provenance of Chrismainly concentrates on the mystery of Incarnation, while relatively little attention is paid to the authentication of Christian Revelation based the fact of Resurrection. The Christology of other apologists is quite different. Their argumentation is of an entirely philosophical character, without any biblical references. Tatian, Athenagoras and Theophil of Antioch directed their efforts to explaining intratrinitarian relations. None of them identifies Logos with earthly Jesus. It is therefore difficult to notice typical christological elements in their writings. The ecclesiology of apologists also contains several new features not present in Christian literature before. The basis ecclesiological statements in the Bible, which is especially apparent in St. Justin’s works. According to St. Justin the Church is of threefold origin. The first stage of the Church’s origination can be seen in the pagan world, which, in Justin’s opinion, is also testified by biblical texts. The next stage is the people of Israel. Here Justin refers to the biblical concept of the people of God. Israel was the kingdom of God, His beloved son, “the holy people” However, the people of Israel betrayed God. Due to this desertion of Israel God called into being a new people - the Church. The Church is the new Israel, real and spiritual. This was prophesied already in the times of the Old Testament. It is in the Old Testament that typological pictures of the Church should be looked for. In Justin’s ecclesiology the christocentric nature of the Church is emphasized. There is an organic relationship between Christ and Christians. Christians are sort of miniatures of Christ, they are His particles. In this manner Justin refers to the concept of the Church as the body of Christ. This union with Christ makes Christianism something more than pagan religions. This element is emphasized first of all in the writings of other apologists, in whose opinion Christians constitute “genus tertium” That is why apologists have a preference for determining the Church in a new way as “the Christan people” The apostles, and particularly Peter, can be considered as the uniting factor of the Christian community. In addition to historical and empirical aspects the ecclesiology of apologists involves a pneumatological feature. The Holy Spirit is the reason for the holiness of Christians and the expression of their unity. According to apologists the spiritual structure of the Church can be influenced by the sacraments, especially baptism and the Eucharist. The last part of the article is an attempt to critically evaluate the justification of credibility of Christianity in the christology and ecclesiology of apologists. There are two main aspects of this evaluation of apology. Apologies referred to as literature defending Christianity against persecutions and aspersions were not as successful as it had been expected. We cannot accept without reservation the methods applied in disputes, consisting in deriding opponents and depreciating the achievements of the ancient culture. On the other hand, apology was of great significance for the Church herself in her inner dimension. The literary work of apologists obviously deserves the credit for introducing numerous phiolosophical terms to Christian terminology. By means of these conepts and only on the basis of the Bible apologists tried to justify the claims of Christianity. However, the application of philosophy not always shed proper light on specific problems and it was unlikely that pagans could become interested in them. For the Christians themselves, however, apologies were very important. They first of all justified the Christian faith highlighting differences between Christianity and pagan religions. The biblical argument had a leading role in demonstrating the truthfulness of the Christian religion. This is particulary evident in the writings of Justin. On the basis of biblical texts Justin justified both the divinity and humanity of Christ. His argumentation acquires even more value as his justification of Christ’s Divinity was supported by philosophy. Apologists were invetive in their arguments for an unusual character of the Church. Their ecclesiology is based on the Bible. They created a new concept of the Church as “the Christian people” Aithough this concept in a sense limits the range of the Church, on the other hand the concept of the threefold origin of the Church gives evidence of the apologists aspiration to initiate a dialogue with the pagan world. An attempt to determine the inner structure of the Churche and thus to explain her divine provenance is worth mentioning. Apologists emphasized the christocentric structure of the Church, her spiritual character and other factors such as faith and sacraments which contribute to the Christian community inducing its spirizual growth. To sum up, according to apologists the unusual role of the Church and the truthfulness of the Revelation conveyed are justified first of all by the Church originator as well as by the moral and religious life of her members.