Saturday, April 8, 2023

Justin Martyr (extra credit)

Justin Martyr's First Apology is an excellent example of the arguments Christian writers used to win over the hearts and minds of the people of the Roman empire.  Skim through this work at the link here. Do you see here anything that seems to you especially likely to win support for Christianity, or at least to convince the philosophically-minded emperor to by sympathetic to Christians?

4 comments:

  1. While skimming through the paragraphs, only one thing caught my eye that could be seen as having support for Christianity was when he brought up Christians being questioned. "For as some who have been taught by the Master, Christ, not to deny Him, give encouragement to others when they are put to the question". Seeing this would give some people some courage to help their friends when they were getting questioned by others.

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  2. I think that there's a lot here, that could win a person over to their cause. Some verses that stood out while I was skimming through were, in Chapter 5. "you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment" Especially the line that says, you do not examine the charges made against us. Doesn't that ever happen to you? Let's say you're searching for something like your wallet, and you search the entire house out of panic. But you never take a moment to slow down, and you finally realize it was in your back pocket. That's what's happening with the Romans and the Christians. The Romans are so preoccupied with saving the Christians, that they don't stop and look at why the Christians were brought in the first place. This would probably be a wakeup call to at least some people in the Roman Empire.
    -Walker Larson

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  3. Instead of winning the people of the Roman empire over with positive words, perhaps giving them a dose of fear might do the trick: "And more than all other men are we your helpers and allies in promoting peace, seeing that we hold this view, that it is alike impossible for the wicked, the covetous, the conspirator, and for the virtuous, to escape the notice of God, and that each man goes to everlasting punishment or salvation according to the value of his actions."

    Like a lot of salvation stories you hear, sometimes the only way to get someone to really start thinking about their eternity is to mention that they will end up in eternal punishment if they don't figure themselves out. So, this very well could have worked on the people of the Roman empire, too. A bit of a wake-up call, yes?
    -Lauren Bland

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  4. When Skimming over a header caught my eye was the Moral Teachings of Christians. This section walks you quickly through the doctrine of the Christian faith and what they believe in. He says, the core belief is love, and the other is tolerance. This type of breakdown would be useful to people unfamiliar with Christianity and it's like a little leaflet for what your faith is.
    -Walker Larson

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