What We Can Learn About Apologetics from Its Founder

By Mark W. Graham

How Justin Martyr Invented Christian Apologetics 

In 153, a Christian convert named Justin made his way to the office of the imperial secretary in Rome and hand delivered a petition addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, his sons, the “Sacred Senate,” and the whole Roman people.  

In it, Justin energetically rebutted a series of accusations that had been circulating about Christians. Using traditional Roman petition language and format, Justin also boldly presented the gospel throughout the work.  

We know this piece today as Justin Martyr’s First Apology.  

It was the first ever work of Christian apology, and this moment marks the birth of Christian apologetics. 

By the middle of the second century, the Romans were not simply criticizing those who identified as Christians but were beginning to level serious accusations against them. Among these were atheism (for rejecting known gods) and various types of sexual debauchery (for imagined goings-on at their secret gatherings and “love feasts”).  

Justin sought to defend not only himself but all Christians from the circulating accusations. Paradoxically, he did so by a real innovative achievement of his own: the Christian apology.  

The Argument of Justin’s First Apology 

In his petition Justin appealed to the reason and justice for which Romans prided themselves. He also responded directly to all the popular accusations against Christians. He began by dismissing the charge of atheism at some length. He also argued that true Christians were not sexually deviant but counterculturally chaste, citing Christ’s teaching about lust and adultery in explicit detail.  

But Justin added a new dimension to a regular procedure of legal and administrative appeals: a powerful presentation of the gospel in terms that Romans would recognize and, he hoped, appreciate. Justin wanted Romans to see the very deep history of the Christian faith as it was laid out through all of Scripture—no innovation or novelty here! Jesus and Christianity clearly fulfilled the old Hebrew prophecies. Christianity was not newfangled, and thus Romans should not dismiss it as such. 

Justin concluded his piece by explaining Christian worship practices, one of the earliest such descriptions available. He argued that rituals in worship were anything but contrived or “meaningless”; what’s more, they helped produce truly virtuous citizens. Christians gathered on Sundays for extensive reading of the Scriptures—both ancient prophets and more recent apostles. They heard expositions on how to apply the Scriptures to their lives. They celebrated the Eucharist. They took up mercy offerings. A “president” led their gatherings. Contra the lurid accusations circulating about them, Christians gathered in decency, something the Romans should have appreciated. 

Godly Living Over Winning Arguments 

Modern Christian apologists and philosophers sometimes have missed Justin’s crucial point: Defending the faith is not really about careful rhetorical training and practice to win arguments. Nor is it a call to any species of heady elitism or rarefied intellectualism.  

The point of his apology was not the classical education, the polished defense, the clever turn of phrase, or the triumphant argument but rather true and godly wisdom lived out in front of the world. Justin was merely using the accepted means of his day to state his case directly; he was simply trying to talk to the authorities and citizens around him who had imbibed all those slanderously inaccurate portrayals of his fellow Christians. 

Justin’s argument was fairly straightforward: Christians are not crazy or criminally deviant or creatively innovative. Rather, following true Reason, “We imitate the excellences which reside in [God], temperance, and justice, and philanthropy,” and all the other virtues associated with him.¹ That particular calling—to live reasonable, just, and self-effacing lives in front of our neighbors and associates—is the most powerful defense of all for the Christian faith, at least according to the Father of Apologetics. 

(1) Justin Martyr, First Apology 10. 

This article has been adapted from Mark W. Graham’s book 30 Key Moments in the History of Christianity: Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World, published by Baker Books. In it, he tells the story of the church’s first millennium across three continents and fills the gap that many Christians miss between the New Testament and the Reformation.  

Mark W. Graham is chair of the history department at Grove City College, where he has taught numerous classes on the premodern world for more than two decades. Graham has been an elder in his local Presbyterian church for over a decade and serves on several committees in his presbytery.