A history of apologetics

445 Pages·2005·22.659 MB·English

by  Avery Robert Dulles

AVERY CARDINAL DULLES
A
History of
Apologetics
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I GNATI US
AVERY CARDINAL DULLES
A History
of
Apologetics
A HISTORY OF APOLOGETICS
The Apologist’s Evening Prayer
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh:
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thv head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
— C. S. Lewis
AVERY CARDINAL DULLES
A HISTORY
OF
APOLOGETICS
MODERN APOLOGETICS LIBRARY
IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
First edition published by
Corpus Instrumentorum, 19?
Published in 1999 by
Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon
© 1999 by the Provincial of the New York Province
of the Society of Jesus
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations (except those within citations)
have been taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, Catholic
Edition. The Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible: the Old Testament,
© 1952: the Apocrypha, © 1957: the New Testament, © 194.6; Catholic Edition
of the Old Testament, incorporating the Apocrypha © 1966; The Catholic
Edition of the New Testament, © 1965, by the Division of Christian Education
of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of
America. The author has used the Oxford University Press edition of the
Revised Standard Version, © 1965, 1977 by Oxford University Press.
Epigraph: “The Apologist’s Evening Prayer”, by C.S. Lewis
in Poems, edited by Walter Hooper. London: G. Bles, 1964
K* JNIVERZiTA
V v B OEJOVICICH
>A ' v''y !‘ // Cover art:
Saint Paul Preaching at Athens. Tapestry (detail)
Raphael (1483-1520)
Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy
© Scala/Art Resource, New York
Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
© 2005 by Ignacius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-^89870-933-9
ISBN 0-89870-933-4
Library of Congress Control Numbet 2002105 233
Printed in the United States of America @
CONTENTS
FOREWORD, by Dr. Timothy George ix
ABBREVIATIONS xv
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xix
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xxv
1 APOLOGETICS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT i
Apologetical Motifs in the Early Tradition i
The Earliest Preaching 2
Apologetic Development 4
The Ascension 4
The Passion 5
The Origins of Jesus 7
The Public Life 7
The Miracles of Jesus 10
Changing Contexts: Acts, Paul, and Hebrews 11
Acts 1 r
Paul 14
Hebrews 15
The Four Evangelists as Apologists 16
Mark 16
Matthew 18
Luke-Acts 19
John 21
Conclusion 23
2 THE PATRISTIC ERA 27
Apologists of the Second Century 3°
The Alexandrians of the Third Century 38
Latin Apologists of the Third Century 47
Latin Apologists of the Fourth Century 55
Greek Apologists of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries 62
Augustine and His Disciples 73
Conclusion 87
3 THE MIDDLE AGES 91
Disputes with Saracens in Muslim Territory: 600—1000 92
Disputes with Saracens and Jews in Western Europe:
600-1100 95
Anselm 98
Twelfth Century 104
Thirteenth Century: St Thomas Aquinas in
Missionary Apologists: 1250-1320 122
Scholasticism after St. Thomas Aquinas 127
Fifteenth-Century Apologists 133
Conclusion 142
4 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY THROUGH THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 145
The Protestant Reformers 146
The Counter-Reformation and Baroque Scholasticism 150
France before 1650 156
France in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century 160
Seventeenth-Century Holland 173
England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 176
Germany in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 190
Catholic Apologetics in France and Italy 196
Eighteenth-Century Scholasticism 203
Conclusion 205
5 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 209
Protestantism: 1800-1850 210
Germany 210
Denmark 217
Great Britain 222
Catholicism: 1800-1850 226
France 226
Germany 237
Spain and Italy 240
English-Speaking Catholics: 1800—1900 244
England 244
The United States 251
Catholicism in Continental Europe: 1850-1900 254
France and Belgium: Vatican Council I 254
Germany 260
Protestantism: 1850-1900 261
Germany 261
The English-Speaking Countries 264
Conclusion 267
6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PART ONE) 271
Catholic Apologetics 271
Blondel and the Modernists 271
Credibility and Apologetics: Scholastic
Controversies in France 279
The Refutation of Rationalism 284
The Apologetics of Restoration 291
Teilhard de Chardin 297
German Apologists 302
Protestant Apologetics (1900-1950) 305
Dialectical Theology 305
Germany 313
England 316
North America 321
Conclusion 323
7 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PART TWO) 325
Catholicism 325
Vatican II 325
The Debate about Method 326
Evidentialist Apologetics 329
Dynamism of the Subject 331
Luminosity of the Object 336
Catholic Apologetics toward the Close of the
Century 338
Protestantism 345
Ambivalence about Apologetics 345
Secular Theology 34$
Historical Criticism and Evidence 349
Renewal in Anglo-American Evangelicalism 353
The Classical Method 353
The Evidential Method 35^
The “Cumulative Case” Method 356
“Presuppositional” Apologetics 357
“Reformed” Epistomology 35$
Growing Protestant-Catholic Convergences 359
Christian Faith, Philosophy, and Science 363
Conclusion 365
BIBLIOGRAPHY 369
INDEX 387