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Christian apologetics ((ギリシア語:ἀπολογία), "verbal defence, speech in defence")〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G627 )〕 is a field of Christian theology which presents reasoned bases for the Christian faith, defending the faith against objections. Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism. Blaise Pascal was active before and during the Age of Enlightenment, and in the modern period Christianity was defended through the efforts of many authors such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. In contemporary times Christianity has been defended through the work of figures such as J. P. Moreland, Ravi Zacharias, Robert Hutchinson, John Lennox, Doug Wilson, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Henry M. Morris, Alister McGrath, Ken Ham, Alvin Plantinga, and William Lane Craig. Apologetics have based their defense of Christianity on historical evidence, philosophical arguments, scientific evidence,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bethinking.org/apologetics/an-introduction-to-christian-apologetics?Strongs=G627 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://orthosphere.org/resources/christian-apologetics-giving-reasons-to-believe/?Strongs=G627 )〕 and arguments from other disciplines. Christian polemics is a branch of apologetics advocating for the correctness of the Christian belief system, while discrediting a contradictory belief system. ==Terminology and origin== The Greek ''apologia'' (ἀπολογία, from ἀπολογέομαι, ''apologeomai'', "speak in return, defend oneself") was a formal defense, either in response to prosecution in a court of law or by extension as a literary mode. The defense of Socrates as presented by Plato and Xenophon was an ''apologia'' against charges of "corrupting the young, and … not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other ''daimonia'' that are novel".〔Plato, ''Apology'' 24b; compared to Christian apologetics by Anders-Christian Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies—Some Definitions," in ''Continuity and Discontinuity in Early Christian Apologetics'' (Peter Lang, 2009), p. 14.〕 The use of the literary form in early Christian discourse is an example of the integration of educated Christians into the cultural life of the Roman Empire, particularly during the "little peace" of the 3rd century,〔Kevin Butcher, ''Roman Syria and the Near East'' (Getty Publications, 2003) p. 378.〕 and of their participation in the Greek intellectual movement broadly known as the Second Sophistic.〔Graham Anderson, ''The Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire'' (Routledge, 1993, 2003), p. 203.〕 The Christian apologists of the early Church did not reject Greek philosophy, but attempted to show the positive value of Christianity in dynamic relation to the Greek rationalist tradition.〔Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies,'' p. 6.〕 Christianity, however, privileged divine revelation above human reason and apologetic literature often maintains a tension between the two.〔Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, Simon Price and Christopher Rowland, introduction to ''Apologetics in the Roman Empire : Pagans, Jews, and Christians'' (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2002), pp. 10–11.〕 In the 2nd century, apologetics was both a defense and an explanation of Christianity,〔Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies,'' p. 8.〕 addressed to those who had attacked it, but also to those yet to form an opinion, such as emperors and other authority figures, or potential converts.〔Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies,'' p. 14.〕 The earliest martyr narrative has the spokesman for the persecuted present a defense in the apologetic mode: Christianity was a rational religion that worshipped only God as "the supreme ruler of the cosmos", and although Christians were law-abiding citizens willing to honor the emperor, their belief in a single divinity prevented them from taking the loyalty oaths that acknowledged the emperor's ''Genius'' or divine aspect.〔Maureen A. Tillby, "North Africa", in ''Cambridge History of Christianity: Origins to Constantine'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), vol. 1, p. 388, citing the ''Martyrum Scillitanorum Acta''.〕 The apologetic historiography in the ''Acts of the Apostles'' presented Christianity as a religious movement at home within the Roman Empire and no threat to it, and was a model for the first major historian of the Church, Eusebius.〔Margaret M. Mitchell, "Gentile Christianity," p. 107, and "Emergence of the Written Record" p. 193, in ''Cambridge History of Christianity'', vol. 1.〕 Apologetics might also be directed toward insiders, helping Christians already within the community explain their beliefs and justify their position.〔 Origen's apologetic ''Contra Celsum'', for instance, took on the arguments of a critic who had been dead for decades, but was intended to address vacillating Christians who might lack immediate answers to the kinds of questions he had raised. Apologetic literature was thus an important medium for the formation of early Christian identity.〔Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies,'' p. 14 ''et passim''.〕 In addition to Origen and Tertullian, early Christian apologists include Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus. Augustine of Hippo was a significant apologist of the Patristic era. Some scholars regard apologetics as a distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies of argumentation. Others view it primarily as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and purpose.〔Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies,'' pp. 19–20.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christian apologetics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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