What is the purpose of apologetics?
From Wikipedia:
Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, lit. 'speaking in defense') is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called Christian apologists.
So I ask again, what is the purpose? I understand what the purpose of apologetics might have been in the early 2nd century, when the message of Christ had not fully proliferated the planet, and when the New Covenant was not yet fully understood by so many who were still adherents of the Old Covenant. But what is the purpose now, in the year 2024? Is there any doubt that the information is now available to all, and has been for a very, very long time? Who are we trying to convince when we seek conflict and debate over the topic of “true salvation” or true theology?
I recently submitted my article; “Why I converted to Orthodoxy”, emphasizing that it was written in response to inquiries about my spiritual journey, and not meant as an invitation for debate.
I want to be very clear, this post is not meant to be an apologetic. I have no interest in “convincing” anyone to become Orthodox, nor do I have any interest in conducting an apologetics debate with Roman Catholics who disagree with my choice. I have spent almost 20 years researching this decision, I fully understand the theology behind my choice and I am convicted in my decision to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. I also don’t believe that our salvation is or should be anyone else’s concern. I leave the “saving” of souls to the door-to-door evangelicals, or those found standing on street corner soap boxes, screaming bible versus into a megaphone for passers-bye. As an Orthodox Christian (and even as a former Roman Catholic) I have always been taught to focus on what’s on my plate and not look at my neighbor’s.
The result of that article was a rather pleasant reception, and a few comments from my mainly Orthodox and Catholic following. Everyone was respectful of the fact that I was not seeking an apologetics battle. From my Orthodox friends, it was mostly an “Amen” and from my Catholic friends it was mostly “thanks for the explanation, we disagree on a few things, but happy to be siblings in Christ…” (obviously I’m paraphrasing). There was even a response from one Protestant friend who mentioned that he had researched both Catholicism and Orthodoxy at one point, but due to certain circumstances, neither was a great fit at this time. One of my Orthodox readers who has been a faithful member of the Church for over 20 years even offered some reasons why my view of Orthodoxy might be a romanticized one. Fair enough! I am just happy to know that there are so many wonderful folks to worship Christ with on this platform, from all three faiths, who understand that we are all capable of focusing on that which we have in common rather than that which sets us apart.
The fact of the matter is that there’s a wealth of foundational Christianity that we can all be focusing on in our lives before we even get close to the vicinity of the neighborhood where Theology and Doctrine live. That probably sounds very Protestant to some of my readers, but it is the truth. I don’t care how it comes off, it’s absolutely a fact. The “flavor” of our faith seems to be so important to so many Christians these days, that they completely lose sight of the forest for the trees. They lose the most basic message of Christ’s teaching, and while I cherish my Church and the Sacred Tradition we enjoy, I also don’t believe any of those finer theological details are the primary aspects of that teaching.
This morning I discovered the following Substack, written by a gentleman named Christ John Otto, and a quote from him that I thought summed things up nicely:
We are living in a time when most of the Christians I meet can tell me all about reformed theology, the Latin mass and their dislike of the Novus Ordo, how progressive Christianity is going to bring about justice, why Celtic Christianity can help us embrace the earth, or how a myriad of other little fixations are important. Almost no one I meet knows the basics. They don't know that they are made in the image of God, that God became a man, and that the mystery of the faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again is everything. They do not know that they can experience the power of the Holy Spirit to free them from sin, and enable them to live a life that reflects the kingdom. And most important of all, they don't know that if you are an artist for the Kingdom, you are called to be different.
What a poignant observation! So I ask the question again; what is the purpose of apologetics? Why are so many people, on Substack as well as many other social media platforms, so hell bent on getting into a debate over the “truth” of Christian faith? What does it matter to them? Perhaps a better question is; “who are they trying to convince?”
Certainly not me. I have to believe the opinion and the salvation of a complete stranger is not the driving force behind one’s unceasing desire to debate these matters. Often times these modern day philosophers will cite the “betterment of all mankind” as their motivation for pursuing an internet battle over theology. I submit the following comment section from my notes. This sample arose from a quote by Saint Isaac the Syrian on "the topic of “remission of sins”:
It’s worth noting that Saint Isaac the Syrian wasn’t discussing the total salvation of our souls here, he was discussing the Sacrament of Confession, but it wasn’t worth explaining to my prospective adversary at the time, lest I end up in said apologetics debate with said stranger. Eventually, after explaining that I wasn’t seeking, and had no interest in an apologetics skirmish, said stranger offered the token “betterment of mankind” excuse:
“I intended only to ensure no one blindly read the quote and was therefore encouraged to trust their contrition in place of the Word and faithfulness of Christ. Simply a begger telling others where to find bread.”
Yes, “a lowly sinner, of which I am the first, simply doing God’s work on this stranger’s Substack of less than 200 subscribers”... Sounds legit. We wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally lose their salvation while reading my quotes from the Desert Fathers…
This was one example of the rare apologist in the wild who is willing to bring the debate to the Stack of another. More times than not, these well meaning saviors of mankind will simply “Restack” an article or note with a comment in an attempt to move the debate to their own page. That’s a pride issue too. Because deep down in the recesses of their conflict seeking hearts they know that a person will always have the option of pointing out that if they disagree with the content on a person’s page, he or she can simply ignore the note or post and keep moving. Their hope rather, is that the OP will respond to them on their turf. That the OP will see the restack in his or her notification tab and then fly to them for the battle they seek.
My favorite technique however is the “fabricated showdown”. This is where an apologetics battle seeker doesn’t have a current opponent, so he or she will present an arbitrary and fictional discussion point, as if it originated in a real and genuine conversation, and then respond to the non existent assertion in an imaginary debate with his or her self, in the hopes that others will see it and join in. Then he or she will have an opportunity to do real battle with a live opponent…
I rarely, if ever, take the bait on these types of provocations, whether they manifest on my own page or that of others. I highly recommend my readers avoid them as well. Any time spent arguing the finer points of doctrine and theology with strangers is time lost on so many other worthwhile spiritual endeavors.
At my core however, I do yearn to understand what drives these people to live under the constant umbrella of conflict regarding faith and salvation. When I contrast this apparent desire to conduct battle over the teachings of Christianity with my own proclivity to avoid it, I am left bewildered by the motivation to do so. It runs counter to the very fiber of my being. It is most certainly counterintuitive to the teachings of Christ. It runs against the grain of virtually everything we are told in the New Testament. So why are they this way?
Perhaps another telling detail of this puzzle is that those who seek these battles are typically very centered on passages from the Old Testament. These would-be Scripture warriors seem to much prefer the “fire and brimstone” of Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy. At the very least, if they deign to cite a New Testament passage, it will almost always be Scripture from The Book of Revelation. I suppose this is the most effective means of defending their less than peace-loving approach to apologetics. If it can be framed as "battling evil” or “defending doctrine” it can be justified and excused, and after all, Jesus was not always a peaceful guy right? He also "overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves”…
Some of my readers may remember an article I posted a couple weeks ago on the topic of the “Orthobros” and their constant need to stand in judgement and condemnation of everyone who isn’t them. In that article I discussed Jay Dyer, Michael Lofton and Peter Heers, among others. I included several prominent figures in the online Catholic and Orthodox apologetics communities. I ended up unpublishing that article at the start of Great Lent. It was actually my most successful post to date, with the highest number of views and the lowest open read rate, but I deemed it to be my least charitable work, and I didn’t want it floating around the web. I stopped short of deleting it, because, well who knows... Perhaps I will need it again someday, at least for the purposes of research on the topic, but in the mean time I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of there being a piece of writing out there that was so critical of people who, while imperfect, were at least trying to follow the teachings of Christ. That article was my most successful article until this past week when I published my piece on why I converted to Orthodoxy. I think it’s telling that those two posts are the ones that drew the largest crowds.
In closing, I would simply implore anyone reading this who professes to seek the grace and love of Christ, regardless of their brand of Christianity, to avoid these battles at all costs. Avoid the people who seek these battles. Certainly don’t stop loving them. Always pray for them. If you encounter them, be as gentle and as compassionate as you can in response to them, and savor the opportunity to live in God’s grace in your dealings with them. But also run from the conflict they are seeking as far and as fast as you can. There is nothing to gain from engaging with them in the battle they seek. Furthermore, if you find yourself pursuing these types of conflicts, ask yourself; what is the purpose of apologetics? Who am I trying to convince? Why am I this way?