Original Apologetics
Original Apologetics

Summary/Abstract: It can be said that apologetics was superseded in and around the Second Vatican Council: the word, or any version of it, was not included in any of the sixteen documents. However, apologetics by the 20th century had become significantly different from the wide and general apologetics of the first century and a half of Christianity, and for the scriptural calls for it. This original apologetics, or Petrine apologetics, was replaced by a very specific approach which can be called Justinian apologetics. It was the latter that Vatican II more or less rejected, and 11 of the conciliar documents have either clear calls or content that seek a return to Petrine, that is, original apologetics. This is a call to be prepared, that is, through appropriate education, to respond to others who question or challenge Christianity, and to do so in an appropriate Christian manner, which in turn is a form of educating: removing obstacles to belief by explaining.

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