Introduction

1. Name

The word apologetics is derived from the Greek word apologeisthai, which means “to defend oneself.” The words apology and apologia derive from the same source. Thus, the basic meaning of apology, apologia and apologetics, is the same, viz., “self-defence” or “justification of one’s position, conduct, or belief.” The vulgar meaning of the word apology, which makes it synonymous with excuse, is excluded from our use of the term. To make an apology, or to present an apologetic is not, therefore, to admit being in the wrong; on the contrary, it is to explain that one is in the right. Apologetics means a justification, a vindication, a satisfactory explanation.

2. Definition

Apologetics is the science which explains and justifies the Catholic religion as the true religion. Apologetics is a science, that is to say, it is a body of certainly known facts, set forth in a manner that is systematic, logical, and complete; and it presents the reasons which show these facts to be true and certain. Apologetics is a human science- for it draws its xiii facts from history and philosophy (i.e., human sources) and develops its proofs by unaided human reason. Apologetics does not call upon Divine Revelation (as the divine science of theology does) for its fundamental proofs; but it regards the records of Revelation as historical documents until they have been proved by reason to be the teachings of the infinite and infallible God. Apologetics explains and justifies the Catholic religion as the true religion. That is to say, Apologetics shows that the Catholic religion in its essentials, and in such individual doctrines as may be investigated by the unaided mind of man, is reasonable, right, and true; and it shows that the arguments used against the claims of the Catholic religion are unwarranted, unreasonable, and fallacious.

3. Importance

You may say: “I am a Catholic. I know perfectly well that my religion is the one true religion. I have no need of a scientific study to convince me of its unique truth. I possess the infused gift of faith, and I realize, moreover, that my religion is thoroughly reasonable. What care I for the attacks and slurs directed against it by ignorance and prejudice? I need no Apologetics to show me that such attacks and slurs are utterly unreasonable and unjust. Therefore, the study of Apologetics does not appear important to me.”

Your objection misses the point. Apologetics is not meant to convince you of the truth of your religion, but to equip you for the task of convincing others. Apologetics is not meant to rationalize your faith; for faith is a divine gift far surpassing mere intellectual conviction. But faith and intellect are gifts of the one God, and between them there is a perfect and beautiful harmony. To discover this harmony, and to indicate it in a scientific manner for the benefit of others, is the opportunity offered you in the study of Apologetics. This opportunity you must embrace. For, as an educated Catholic, you are required to do more than possess your faith in security, and to bear with patience the slights cast upon it by unreason and prejudice; you must be able to banish prejudice from minds that entertain it. Those who misunderstand your religion, and hate it, and speak all manner of evil things against it, are human beings with souls that God wants saved, and He expects you to do your part in saving them. Now, you may do very much for the saving of such souls by disposing them intellectually to receive the divine gift of faith. Apologetics seeks to fit you for this service, and it is, therefore, a very important study—in fact, it is the most important study you could possibly undertake. Again, although you rightly say that you need no argument or scientific proof to convince you of the truth of your religion, you may be placed in circumstances in which you will find a knowledge of Apoloxvi getics a strong bulwark against the weakening or even the loss of your faith. Many Catholic parents, in spite of the clearly defined wishes of the Church, send their sons and daughters to colleges and universities in which little is heard of God or the dignity and destiny of man, and much is made of the pseudo-science which rules all religion out of account. Suppose you are sent to such a school. Professors will smile tolerantly or scoff openly at your religion; your fellows will sneer at your piety; lax and lapsed Catholics on the campus will urge you by example, and probably also by word, to abate the ardent practice of your religion and to conform yourself to the pattern approved by the school. Day after day, week after week, month after month, you will live in an atmosphere of contemptuous opposition to all that you love and revere. You will breathe perforce the contagion of that atmosphere. And what then? Unless you are a thorough apologist for your faith, unless you have a ready and adequate answer for the cleverly worded arguments used against it, you may feel that perhaps, after all, your position is not altogether safe and certain. You may find yourself thinking, “Lurely these learned professors cannot be altogether wrong; there must be some grain of truth in what all these others are saying?’ And thus you will stand in danger of a horrible degradation, namely, of withdrawing your faith from God and reposing it in man. Faith you will have in any case; man simply must have faith. But what an unspeakable thing it is to transfer one’s faith from the All-Wise and the Infinitely True to a sneering professor, a picayune and priggish pedagogue. Now, a thorough knowledge of Apologetics is a strong defence against this sort of spiritual putrefaction. You perceive, then, that this study is important—for yourself as well as for others. Even if the future does not hold out to you the prospect (and the menace) of secular university life, you have still a real need for the study of Apologetics. In the office, in the club, in social contacts with friends and acquaintances, you are sure to find much hatred of your religion, hatred that comes largely of misinformation. There are too many Catholics, even educated Catholics, who meet that hatred with an excise instead of a true apologetic. Do not swell the ranks of these shrinking and unworthy soldiers of Christ. Realize the importance of Apologetics, and give this science your most earnest study. Where you fail to encounter hatred against your religion, you will find indifference towards it. You will find people interested in the things they eat, in the garments they wear, in the amusements with which they are diverted, in the matters of business to which they attend, in the journeys they plan to make, in the fortunes they hope to build up, in the careers they aspire to achieve, and in all manner of things that have no value passing this life. Here again is an atmosphere hostile to your religion, an atmosphere that spiritual writers call “the world.” Now a true apologist can do much to purify the worldly atmosphere; he can win the attention of worldly minds and make them less worldly; he can gain a respectful hearing when such minds are made to realize that he has sound reasons to offer in defence of his faith, and not mere emotional or sentimental argument. Once more you perceive that Apologetics is a science of supreme importance. Finally, what science could be more important than that which brings man’s noblest faculties to bear upon the most excellent object of study, viz., God and the things of God? What culture is there to compare with the culture of soul which comes of the recognition and appreciation of infinite truth ? Is there any true culture possible in minds that regard religion as futile or as a mere agglomeration of tender sentiments ? Certainly, there is no cultured Catholic who is not an able and ardent apologist for his faith. Therefore, you dare not call the study of Apologetics unimportant; on the contrary, you must acknowledge it as incomparably the greatest and most important study in your entire programme.

4. Division

The truths that Apologetics establishes are these: That God exists, one, infinite, all-perfect; the creator and conserver of the universe; the ruler of all things. That man is bound to recognize his utter dependence upon God by acknowledging Him and serving Him in the practice of the true religion. That the true religion is that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is true God and true Man. That the true religion of Christ is that of the Catholic Church. These truths indicate the four departments of Apologetics, which may be named as follows: God, Religion, Christ, The Church. Under these four heads we shall develop our study of Apologetics. The present treatise is accordingly divided into four Books, with Chapters as follows:

Book First

God Chap. I. The Existence of God Chap. II. The Nature and Attributes of God Chap. III. The Action of God upon the World Book Second

Religion Chap. I. The Nature of Religion Chap. II. Supernatural Revelation in Religion Book Third

Christ Chap. I. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer Chap. II. Jesus Christ, True God Chap. III. Jesus Christ, True Man Book Fourth

The Church Chap. I. The Church of Jesus Christ Chap. II. The Marks and Attributes of the Church of Jesus Christ Chap. III. The Identification of the Church of Jesus Christ

This Book offers rational proofs for the existence of God, and reasons out the truth about His nature and attributes. It then studies the action of God on the world, and shows that God is the creator, conserver, and ruler of the universe. The Book is accordingly divided into thre e Chapters, as follows: Chapter I. The Existence of God Chapter II. The Nature and Attributes of God Chapter III. The Action of God upon the World

This Chapter offers rational proofs for the existence of God. That God exists, we already know by the divine gift of faith, by revelation, by grace, by training, and by our own direct thought upon the realities and requirements of life. We know that God exists, not because something proves it, but because everything proves it; not because a certain syllogism demonstrates it, but because our rational nature absolutely requires it.

When we analyze a few of the proofs that wise men have formulated for the tremendous truth of God”s existence, we undertake a task of some delicacy and even danger. We may find ourselves thinking, as the reasoning process of proof is tediously developed, and as argument is marshaled after argument, that there may be room for questioning what requires such an elaborate process of evidence. On the other hand—so variable is the human viewpoint—we may come to think that the arguments here presented are very few, and make but a sorry basis for the intellectual conviction of so grand a truth as that of God’s existence. Let us keep our common sense. Let us remember that this elaborate process of evidence is not requisite, but possible, and that our whole purpose is to show that it is possible. We do not need proofs to convince ourselves of the existence of God; we develop them so that reason may attain its highest function, and so that those who demand rational proof of God’s existence may be forced to admit that such proof is avfailable. And if the thought strikes us that these arguments ;are few, let us recognize the obvious fact that our task is 1|]ike that of men who dig down to find and study some few of the roots of a giant tree. We do not think that these few roots are all that hold the tree in its place, erect in storm and wind; we know that there are a hundred other roots, each with a hundred sturdy radicels, all firmly grounded and secure, which are not the object of our present study. In a word, while the arguments offered are conclusive and incontrovertible, we do not seek to rationalize faith, but merely to record some of the compelling reasons which show that faith is justified by the natural power of the human mind. Meanwhile we hold fast to the divinely given belief which needs no argument, and to the natural conviction of mind which is the result in us of the converging evidence of all the experiences of rational and practical life. This Chapter presents five proofs for the existence of God. Each proof is studied in a special Article. The Chapter is accordingly divided into five Articles, as follows:

Article 1. The Argument from Cause
Article 2. The Argument from Motion
Article 3. The Argument from Design
Article 4. The Argument from the Moral Order
Article 5. The Argument from History