Apologetics (to defend oneself) is the science concerned with the defense of Christianity. It establishes the divine character of the Christian religion and refutes the arguments of its opponents.
Dogmatics is concerned with the various dogmas of faith and shows that they are based upon Holy Scripture and Tradition, the sources of our faith. Apologetics deals with the foundations and sources of faith itself and derives its arguments chiefly from reason and history. Where reference is made to Holy Scripture, it is primarily as to a historical record.
The aim of apologetics is to prove the reasonableness of our faith. Faith takes for granted the existence and veracity of God and is based upon the fact of a divine revelation and of its preservation by the Church. To establish these preliminary truths is the principal aim of apologetics. Its further and secondary object is to defend the individual truths of faith against doubt and error.
Whoever has received by baptism the Christian faith is rendered by grace perfectly certain of it and experiences its truth and power in the course of his life. Apologetics supplies him with positive proofs and with a scientific knowledge of the natural grounds of his belief.
The need for apologetics arises from the fact that man reflects and inquires. Every thoughtful Christian ought to be able to give an account of the convictions bearing on his eternal destiny.
St. Peter exhorted the Christians to be “ready always to satisfy everyone that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15.)
The attacks to which Christianity is exposed constitute another reason for the existence of apologetics. Early enemies, Jews, pagans, and heretics, as a rule, challenged only isolated doctrines, but modern unbelievers often assail the very foundations of Christianity. . . .
The Ultimate End of Man
Man recognizes that he is a wanderer on earth; his last aim is not this world, nor anything that it can offer, but God. His intellect strives after infinite truth; his heart yearns after infinite goodness; his imagination longs for infinite beauty; and his whole being tends toward everlasting life. Now God alone is infinite. . . .
God might have given himself to us in a manner that would correspond to the exigencies of our nature and thus have satisfied our instinctive craving for happiness. In this case he would have been our natural last end. But he holds out to us the prospect of good things far surpassing the needs of our nature. We are to behold him face to face and in this contemplation enjoy eternal bliss. We have a supernatural final end.
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9). “This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
The good things of this world cannot be man’s final end, because they are imperfect and perishable; they possess a value only in virtue of being means toward his final end. Hence we should value and use them only in so far as they help us to attain our final end.
The dignity of the Christian view of life lies in its regarding all earthly things sub specie aeternitatis. It teaches men to know, love, and serve God and to regard this as the main object of their life. “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
Philosophers in every age have busied themselves with the question of man’s ultimate destiny, but no satisfactory solution has been discovered except in Christianity. Marcus Varro, a Roman writer, showed that if philosophers were classified according to their answer to this question, there were no fewer than 288 schools of thought (Augustine, City of God, 1. XIX, c. I, n. I).
1. The theories of antiquity. The Stoics, who were followers of Zeno, taught that man’s highest aim and duty in life was to live conformably to nature. The Epicureans taught men to balance pleasure and pain and to regulate their lives so as to have the maximum of enjoyment and the minimum of suffering. Pythagoras maintained that the highest aim of life was to secure inward harmony in the soul and thus to attain to a resemblance with God. Socrates considered the happiness resulting from knowledge and virtue to be the highest good. Aristippus regarded pleasure as the supreme aim of life (hedonism). The Cynic philosophers, following Diogenes, thought that the highest life was one free from all needs and, as far as possible, independent of accidental circumstances. In Plato the ethical teaching of the ancient world reached a higher level, for he insisted upon justice based on fear of God and obedience to law, while Aristotle regarded virtue as the indispensable means of obtaining happiness. Pagan ethical teaching, generally, does nothing more than inculcate wisdom and virtue without reference to a supreme end.
2. Modern theories. The doctrine of evolution represents a progress in civilization that eventually will usher in an era of moral and social perfection and of complete happiness, as the goal of existence (e.g., John Stuart Mill, Darwin, H. Spencer). Materialism and pantheism deny all moral responsibility and the existence of any higher aim for the individual. Kant regarded the “categorical imperative” of duty as the rule governing human action, without, however, giving it any foundation, since his moral teaching is not based upon the unchanging will of God. Nietzsche preached the “morality of the beast of prey,” for he declared it to be the duty of mankind to produce the superman by ruthlessly crushing the weak and the unfit. Pessimism, as represented by Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, considers human existence as utterly aimless and worthless and looks upon the cessation of all being as the only thing desirable. Pragmatism makes success and expediency the criterion of goodness and destroys all ethical values.
3. Many great poets have recorded their opinions regarding the aim of human life. Dante taught that it consists in being cleansed from sin and drawing near to God. In his Faust, Goethe renounces all hope of attaining to any certainty capable of satisfying the intellect and seeks happiness in a temperate enjoyment of life ennobled by the contemplation of nature and art. Shakespeare expresses the misery of a theory of life that has not God as its final aim in the words:
“Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth, V, 5).
The Nature of Religion
Religion is the union of man with God, arising from faith, love, and grace and manifesting itself in the service of God. Religion has its origin in man’s dependence upon God as his Creator and final end.
By his revelation God enlightens the mind of man (faith); by his commandments he directs the will (love); by grace he bestows the beginning and preliminary condition of eternal life (hope). Religion has its outward manifestation in the liturgical and practical service of God (worship and morality). . . .
Religion in the subjective sense is the habitual disposition of man to render to God the honor that is due to him. In the objective sense it signifies a system of truths, laws, and practices that regulate divine worship. Hence the teaching of faith and morals, as well as public worship, belongs to the essence of religion. . . .
As God is the supernatural, final end of man, and religion is the means designed by him for the attainment of this end, religion itself must also be supernatural. It is not enough for man to know, love, and serve God with his natural powers, but he needs a superior knowledge of God, such as is supplied by revelation, and a higher power, such as is imparted by grace.
1. Neither rationalism nor deism rise to an adequate conception of religion. The former denies that God has come into contact with man by revelation; the latter overlooks the possibility of a supernatural elevation of man by faith and love.
As samples of narrow and erroneous opinions regarding the nature of religion we may quote the following definitions. Kant identified religion with morality, while Fichte thought that it was merely knowledge, having no connection with morality. Hegel considered that religion consisted in perfect liberty, in the “self-consciousness of the absolute in the human mind.” Schleiermacher regarded it as the feeling of dependence, Auguste Comte as devotion to humanity in general, Feuerbach as selfishness and the gratification of human desires, Matthew Arnold as “morality touched by emotion.” According to Fr. Steudel, religious sentiment is a matter of the imagination. E. von Hartmann calls it a mystical emotion, and John Stuart Mill described it as “the earnest direction of the emotions and desires toward an ideal object.” Fr. Paulsen called it the feeling of reverence for the universal, and Th. Ziegler the sense of infinite desire.
2. Revealed or positive religion embraces most of the truths of natural religion (the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the freedom of the will). But no purely natural religion has ever of itself existed, because God’s revelation has influenced the religions of all nations. The systems of natural religion elaborated by some philosophers have never become popular but have always been confined to a small circle of their adherents.
The Value of Religion
Religion is of the utmost importance to the individual.
1. It connects man with God, his origin and final end.
2. It satisfies the noblest cravings of man’s nature, viz., his desire for truth, goodness, and happiness.
3. It supplies him with a firm foundation for moral action.
True religion teaches that God is the source of truth, that his will is the rule of all moral action, and that peace in and with God is true happiness. It directs man in his efforts to attain what is good and preserves him from doubt and error. Religion raises man above irrational creatures and perfects and completes his nature.
Religion is of the greatest importance to human society.
1. It ennobles the relations between man and man by teaching that all men are brothers, the children of the same Father.
2. It elevates family life.
The family is the foundation of society and of the state. Without religion men would not endure the trials and sacrifices required by a permanent and well-regulated family life. Where religion is discarded, family life decays.
3. It secures respect for duty and law.
Religion represents laws as the expression of a higher will and makes them binding on the conscience. In every age legislators and philosophers have borne witness to this fact. Cicero writes: “It seems probable that, when fear of God vanishes, all good faith and social order among the human race perish.” St. Augustine: “If justice is destroyed, what are kingdoms but great robberies?”
“Authorities might be piled up indefinitely to illustrate the consensus that prevails as to the necessity of religion for a practical observance of morality” (Fox, Religion and Morality). George Washington uttered the following beautiful words: “Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government” (Farewell Address).
4. It promotes the temporal welfare of nations.
All industrial progress depends upon security of life and property, which only religion can declare sacred and thus effectively protect. The higher the standard of civilization, the greater are the demands made upon each individual for a conscientious discharge of his obligations. This is obvious, for instance, in the case of factories and railways. A workman’s personal interest is not enough to secure the performance of difficult and arduous tasks unless his sense of duty is reinforced by religious motives.
5. It encourages intellectual progress.
All the early literary productions and legends of civilized nations bear the impress of religion, which was the chief inspiration of science, literature, and art. The history of the nations of antiquity is to a great extent religious history, and religion has never ceased to exert a great influence on national life as a whole, Goethe remarks that the chief and most profound theme of history, to which all others are subordinate, is the conflict between unbelief and belief. All epochs in which faith prevailed were brilliant, full of inspiration, and fruitful in lasting works. But, on the other hand, all epochs in which unbelief triumphed, though they may have possessed a temporary luster, vanished and made no permanent mark upon posterity.
According to the evidence of history, whenever religion has been at a low ebb, social, political, and economic decay has resulted invariably, though not always immediately (e.g., the downfall of the civilized nations of antiquity, the French Revolution, modern anarchism).
The Universality of Religion
Religion is a primitive, universal, and constant phenomenon in the life of nations.
1. Philology proves that the most important groups of languages have one common name for the supreme God, and therefore the primitive races using these languages must all have worshiped that God. We can trace this identity in the name of God among the languages belonging to the Indo-European; the Semitic; and the Ugrian-Finnish families, as well as among the South Sea Islanders. The Indo-European languages carry us back to the cradle of humanity.
2. Recent excavations and literary discoveries have thrown some light on the primitive history of the human race, and the modes of burial (with weapons, ornaments, and tools) as well as the position of the dead (in the attitude of sleep and facing the east) point to a belief in the continuance of life after death and the connection between mankind and the world of departed spirits.
3. Both in ancient and modern times it has been alleged that savage races existed destitute of all religious notions. But much of the testimony relied upon has been found deceptive and in some cases self-contradictory. Professor Flint has conclusively shown that no value attaches to many of the instances adduced by Sir John Lubbock and other allegations of travelers put forward in proof that atheistic races do exist. Many tribes conceal their religion from strangers; in others the religious sense is so faint that a very thorough acquaintance is necessary before it can be discovered. All nations living in a state of nature regard their religion as having come down to them from a remote past. It is a mistake to suppose that the nations professing Buddhism have no real religion, for popular Buddhism is the worship of Buddha, and theoretical Buddhism is still a religion, though of a low order, since it connects the life of man on earth with an end to be attained after death. . . .
The Origin of Religion
According to the testimony of Holy Scripture, the fundamental truths of religion were divinely revealed to man at the beginning, and this testimony is confirmed by history.
The monotheistic worship of one supreme Lord of heaven is common to the earliest traditions of all the Indo-European nations, the Chinese, the Turanian and Finnish races, the Sumerians and Akkadians (ancient Babylonians), the Semitic nations, and the Egyptians. A monotheistic idea can be traced in the traditions of the Slavs, Mexicans, and Peruvians. A monotheistic conception of the Deity underlies likewise the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans (Zeus, Jupiter).
The Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar, father of heaven, is . . . in Latin Jupiter, Diespiter, in Scandinavian Zio, and in Gothic Tius. The various names for God—deva, deus, Lithuanian diewas, Old Prussian diews, etc.—may all be derived from the root dyu, to shine. Before the Indo-European nations were scattered they had one God, or at least one supreme deity; it was only after they had separated that their conception of God was altered, and instead of Dyu the Hindus worshiped Varuna and Indra, the Persians Ahura Mazdao (Ormuzd = wise Lord) and Angro-Mainzus (Ahriman), whilst the Germanic peoples adored Wodin or Wuotan and his companions, besides Dyu, whose name appears under the forms of Tye, Zio, Tiw, Tius, etc. That the Homeric mythology replaced among the Greeks a purer conception of God is quite evident, since mythology recorded the previous supremacy of Kronos and his dethronement by Zeus. The primitive idea of the gods was very simple. There was one God of heaven and earth, whose consort was Rhea; their offspring were the Titans, whose overthrow by Jupiter marked the introduction of a fresh dynasty. Among the Romans, Jupiter (Optimus Maximus) and Juno succeeded an earlier pair of Gods, viz., Janus (Dianus) and Diana. It is impossible to prove that this primitive monotheism was the outgrowth of any earlier and lower form of religion.
The assertion that religion originated in the imagination and mind of man, and that monotheism was only a transition stage between fetishism or animism on the one hand and atheistic monism on the other, is contrary to reason and to the facts of history. . . .
It is impossible to derive the primitive religion of mankind from psychological factors such as fear, dreams, fever, or ecstasy.
1. Fear is a depressed attitude of mind toward some impending evil and bears in itself no relation to any supramundane force. It may be evoked by a wild beast, a natural phenomenon, or a human being of superior strength. A religious element is present only when there is a thought of some higher being controlling these forces, but this thought is produced not by the sentiment of fear but by the perception that the impending evils are finite and limited. The feeling of fear gives rise to thoughts of religion only in as far as it impels men to pray. Fear could never be a satisfactory explanation of the worship offered to beneficent deities.
2. Even savages of a low type know that there is no reality in things seen in dreams or under morbid conditions of mind. Such visions can be called up by the imagination at any time.
3. The old theory that religion originated in a system of deception on the part of priests or legislators is now no longer maintained; where there is no religion there can be no priests, and where there is no religious reverence an appeal to the gods would have no meaning.
4. It is a mistake to regard fetishism or animism as a primitive form of religion. Fetishism (from the Portuguese fejticio, facticius, magic) presupposes the use of reason, of which no beast is capable. The fetish worshiper believes in a personal being able to grant his prayers, although it resides in the fetish. The idea that this spirit is necessarily connected with the fetish has been superimposed upon the correct opinion that it is possible for the deity to come into contact with man only under some sensible form, since man cannot take direct cognizance of anything outside the scope of his senses. Animism, the worship of ancestors, is based upon belief in the immortality of the soul and some conception of God. An animist believes that the soul after death passes into a higher sphere and possesses greater power than during life. Such a belief cannot have originated in death itself, which is to the outward eye an extinction of all faculties. It arose from the fact that participation in the power of some higher being was ascribed to the departed soul. Fetishism and animism are not primitive stages in the evolution of religion but degenerate forms of an originally purer faith. Religion came into existence at the same moment as human intelligence. . . .
The atheistic view of religion is wrong regarding the early stages, the successive developments, and the end of religion. The transition from monotheism to monism, whether materialistic or pantheistic, is not a step forward, but a retrograde movement, marking the decay of all true religion.
By a special providence the Jewish nation preserved the religion originally revealed, and it was brought to perfection by Jesus Christ and kept alive in the Catholic Church; therefore the Catholic religion is the only true religion.