The wife of a friend tells the story of being at the wedding reception of a non-Catholic friend. During small talk, someone asked her, “And what does your husband do?” “He works for a Catholic apologetics organization,” she replied. There was a brief silence. “Well, he must keep busy,” said one of the other guests, a doctor, with a smile he thought was disarming. “The Catholic Church certainly has a lot to apologize for.”
“Apologetics” doesn’t meaning apologizing for our faith. The word is taken from the Greek word apologia, itself derived from apo-, meaning “from,” and lego, meaning “I speak.” Apologists “speak from” or defend a particular position.
Some Catholics and other Christians are uncomfortable with apologetics. They consider it contrary to the spirit of ecumenism and adopt a “go along to get along” attitude. Shouldn’t we just live and let live?
This discomfort results from a misunderstanding of ecumenism. Ecumenism isn’t a policy of intellectual appeasement, nor does it demand that we overlook real differences. Most of us would agree that repressing disagreement isn’t healthy in our personal relationships. Neither is it healthy in our relationships with other faiths. Recognizing and addressing disagreement is a necessary precursor to understanding.
Ecumenism is about sharing our religion and respecting other individuals even when they don’t hold the same faith. Ecumenism promotes understanding, tolerance, and cooperation among religions in general and Christians in particular. Ecumenism isn’t about ignoring the chasms that separate us or pretending differences don’t exist.
But apologetics can help bridge those chasms. Often the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism aren’t as vast as they appear. Many criticisms of Catholicism are based on misinformation or, in some cases, disinformation.
So, yes, the Church is calling us to unite with fellow Christians whenever possible. But she is also calling us to evangelize as well. This requires prayerful preparation, study, and mature faith. We can’t help others understand our faith if we ourselves don’t understand it. Unless we are able to discuss our faith rationally, we will be severely limited in our ability to share that faith with others, be they fellow Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, or agnostics.
In addition, unprepared Catholics are susceptible to the arguments of well-meaning Protestant evangelists or even New Agers. In the United States, ex-Catholics account for a large percentage of many Fundamentalist congregations, while the number of Catholic converts from Fundamentalism is small by comparison. Why the disparity?
It’s because Fundamentalists in this country recognize that many Catholics are uninformed about their faith and are therefore ripe for the picking. Fundamentalists are generally much more familiar with Scripture than their Catholic counterparts. They are trained to deconstruct the faith of casual or wavering Catholics. Their knowledge of the Bible may appear impressive at first to the casual listener, but a little probing usually reveals that their g.asp of Scripture lacks depth and their understanding of biblical themes won’t withstand even a cursory challenge.
The problem is that Catholics on average know even less about Scripture than our Fundamentalist brethren. Catholics need to know that their faith more than any other is grounded in Scripture. With a little training and the application of common sense, Catholics can not only hold their own against Protestant evangelists, they may be able to raise questions in the sincere Protestant’s mind about the tenets of his own religion.
This brings up one of the often-overlooked benefits of apologetics. The value of apologetics is not restricted to evangelizing the unchurched or even defending our faith. The study of apologetics deepens and enriches our personal faith in Christ and the Catholic Church as the depository of God’s truth.
Cradle Catholics are prone to accept dogma, doctrines, and Tradition not because we understand them but out of habit ingrained in us as children. We vaguely recall discussing the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth in our catechism classes, but the precise, literal meaning of the terms is lost in the past. We became familiar with the phrases, and, since we were raised in the faith, we accepted the Church’s teaching at face value.
This is entirely natural. It is the way children learn, Fundamentalist children included. But at some point we must appropriate our faith intellectually, and this is what many Catholics in the current generation have failed to do. But if we don’t understand our faith, how can we live it, let alone share it with others in need? If we starve our souls through neglect and sin, we may find that our strength is lacking when, as is inevitable, the time comes to face the dark night of the soul.
Like the body, the soul needs to be nourished and exercised lest we become weak. We need to feed our soul with prayer, the sacraments, worship, and scriptural study. We need to exercise our souls with devotion and penance.
The study of apologetics helps us become informed and conversant about our faith. We become familiar with Scripture, history, theology, and philosophy. We grow to understand our Catholic roots, and our culture comes alive. As we gain knowledge, our doubts and reservations are replaced by a confident understanding. Our devotion becomes grounded in both knowledge and faith. The depth of our examinations will occasionally challenge us, but the process will also strengthen us.
Another criticism of apologetics is that it emphasizes rationality at the expense of faith led by the Spirit. It is true that apologetics, like social activism, can lead to an overemphasis of the mind if it is not tempered with prayer. It is also true that, without a strong prayer life, apologists can become moral legalists. An overemphasis on intellectual comprehension leads to a barren spiritual life. Universities are home to many agnostic or atheistic theology and Scripture professors. Faith in Christ Jesus cannot be achieved without the gift of grace.
The contrary is also true. Faith based solely on subjective religious experience can lead to unconstrained emotionalism and eventually even heresy. Practitioners of this approach are prone to confusing emotional experiences with divine inspiration, and their faith becomes ever more subjective.
The key is to balance apologetic study with prayer and the sacraments. Reason and faith need not conflict—indeed, cannot, according to Aquinas: “The truth that the human reason is naturally endowed to know cannot be opposed to the truth of the Christian faith” (Summa Contra Gentiles I:7). Rational inquiry reinforces our faith rather than weakens it.
Some rebellious souls are adverse to apologetics because they know the truth that the Church defends conflicts with the worldly values and ideas that they have adopted. They lack the courage or the intellectual honesty to examine their modern cultural and political assumptions against their faith. In short, it is more important to them that they be politically correct than doctrinally correct. This is as true of conservatives as of liberals, of traditionalists as of progressives.
It isn’t unusual to hear cultural Catholics make statements that are, well—heretical. That’s a strong word, but what other adjective is accurate when a “Catholic” disavows the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the infallibility of the pope and the Magisterium on matters of faith and morals, or the truth of original sin? As Catholics, we mustn’t forsake our pursuit of God’s truth nor compromise our faith for the sake of inclusiveness, ecumenism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, feminism, or any other “ism” or political polemic.
But the breadth and depth of apologetics can be overwhelming. Raising our families and working to put food on the table leaves us little spare time, but most of us can, if we want, find an hour or two a week to refresh ourselves on the teachings of the Church. It might mean turning off the television one night a week or planning to read for 20 minutes before bed. Look at the time expended as faith insurance—or, better yet, eternal life insurance.
Where should you start? Start with your own questions and difficulties. Of course you have questions. Of course you have difficulties. If you aren’t questioning some.aspect of your faith, chances are you aren’t thinking about your faith. But since you are reading this page, you are obviously thinking about your beliefs.
So what are your concerns? What unanswered questions do you have about your faith? What are the gray areas that trouble you? Face your questions head-on, and you’ll grow stronger for the effort.
A final word, one of caution, can be prefaced by the New Testament’s great clarion call to apologists: “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Ptr. 3:15). Too often, this verse is quoted without the rest of the sentence: “Yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (3:15–16).
Apologetics and evangelism must be practiced with love and sensitivity. An aggressive approach is counterproductive and can easily drive souls away from Christ and his Church. We need to produce good fruits. Pray before sharing, pray before studying, and pray for God’s will. Then give God the glory.
“When, therefore, since we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek among others the truth which is easily obtained from the Church. For the apostles, like a rich man in a bank, deposited with her most copiously everything which pertains to the truth; and everyone who wishes draws from her the drink of life” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 213).